Most people carry genetic variants that raise drug reaction risk, health records show
A team analyzed electronic health records and genetic data from 226,053 individuals in the Geisinger MyCode cohort to evaluate pharmacogenomic risk for adverse drug reactions across 58 high-risk gene-drug associations spanning 11 genes. Nearly all participants (211,920 individuals, or 93.7 percent) carried at least one actionable pharmacogenomic phenotype. Among them, 44.4 percent (100,402 individuals) carried a risk phenotype and were prescribed a corresponding medication. The researchers found that as individuals accumulated more medication exposures, adverse drug reaction incidence increased (Pearson correlation 0.50, P less than 0.001). Pharmacogenomic risk compounded this pattern, adding to the overall adverse drug reaction burden in the population.
A portion of the population's adverse drug reaction burden could possibly have been prevented through pharmacogenomic-guided therapy, according to the findings.
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