Pharmacogenomics is the inheritance of how an individual responds to medication. Recent advances in technology, enables the rapid examination of genes involved in drug metabolism which can identify genetic changes that predict if the drug is metabolised too slowly or too fast. This is used to predict if a patient is prone to adverse drug events or alternatively lack of drug action. It may lead to suggestions to alter the drug dosage or to choose alternative medication.
A collaborative report has been generated to provide drug specific recommendations. They have developed a multiple gene test, DNAdose, to account for the fact that many patients are on multiple drugs and the fact that many drugs use multiple pathways. Important drugs in general practice for which this test is useful include antidepressants, antipsychotics, clopidogrel, warfarin, proton pump inhibitors and analgesics.
A/Prof Leslie Sheffield
Supported by Healthscope Pathology
*Workshops with multiple codes are run multiple times throughout the conference. You only need to attend one of these sessions.