Nashville, TN (PRWEB) February 29, 2012

Centerstone, the nation's largest provider of community-based behavioral healthcare, and Genomind, a company focused on neuropsychiatric personalized medicine, today announced that they have begun a pilot study examining the use of a proprietary genetic test in assisting clinicians with treatment selections for patients with major depressive disorder. The test, the Genecept Assay, analyzes 20 genetic variants in 10 different genes that can provide information regarding how a patient will respond to antidepressant medications.

For decades, psychiatrists have looked for clues in the clinical symptomatology of depressed patients to help us select the antidepressant that is most likely to be effective, said Karen Rhea, MD, Chief Medical Officer for Centerstone. But matching an individual to one of the many antidepressants available based on symptoms alone can be difficult. In fact, research has shown that many of the antidepressants on the market work on only about half of the people who try them. Recently discovered genetic links to drug response holds great potential in helping us to better match individuals to the right antidepressants for them. Centerstone is so excited to partner with Genomind on this study and to be at the cutting-edge interface between psychiatry and personalized medicine.

The Centerstone and Genomind study will involve 200 outpatient adults in Tennessee who have depression. Half of the participants will have their treatment guided by the Genecept Assay, and half will receive treatment as usual. The study will compare improvement in depressive symptoms among both groups over a 6-month period as well as examine secondary endpoints including changes in clinician behavior and decreases in treatment costs. For further information about other studies involving the Genecept Assay, see ClinicalTrials.gov (http://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/results?term=page-1).

We are pleased to partner with Centerstone, a leader who shares our vision of bringing the best of science to patients suffering from mental illness, said Ronald I. Dozoretz, MD, Chairman and Co-Founder, Genomind. Studies and data collection are essential to helping the mental health profession transform scientific discovery into clinical practice with the patient in mind.

The Genecept Assay is simple and saliva-based. The treating clinician receives an analytic report within several days and can also take advantage of psychopharmacology expertise from Genomind.

David Ayer, Ph.D., Director of Clinical Research for Centerstone Research Institute, will serve as the principal investigator of the Tennessee pilot study. Recruitment for the study is underway.

About Genomind: Genomind is a company specializing in neuropsychiatric personalized medicine and was formed to facilitate the adoption of personalized medicine into psychiatry by providing genetic information for clinicians to better understand the patient. Genomind was founded by Ronald I. Dozoretz, MD, a psychiatrist who has devoted his career to improving mental health and bringing innovations in science, delivery, and access to mental health patients. Jay Lombard, DO, a neurologist, is co-founder of Genomind and is a critically acclaimed author and nationally recognized thought leader in neuropsychiatry practice and research. Learn more at http://www.genomind.com.

About Centerstone: Centerstone, a not-for-profit organization, is the nation's largest provider of community-based behavioral healthcare. It provides a full range of mental health, addiction and related educational services to more than 75,000 individuals of all ages each year. The organization has nearly 130 facilities and 220 partnership locations throughout Indiana and Tennessee. It also operates the Centerstone Foundation, the Centerstone Research Institute (CRI), which is improving mental healthcare through innovative research and information technology, and Advantage Behavioral Health, a behavioral health administrative management organization. For more information about Centerstone, please visit http://www.centerstone.org.

###

Read the original post:
Centerstone And Genomind Begin New Study On Genetic Test For Patients With Major Depressive Disorder

Comments are closed.