# Prescription drugs:  Are they really that prevalent?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prescription-drugs-are-they-really-that-prevalent/609464>\
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion\
**Created:** [January 14, 2012, 2:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prescription-drugs-are-they-really-that-prevalent/609464 "2012-01-14T02:13:06Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 7

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**Author:** ![WhyNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c77e96/32.png) [@WhyNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WhyNot)\
**Post date:** [January 19, 2012, 3:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prescription-drugs-are-they-really-that-prevalent/609464/121 "2012-01-19T03:49:12Z")

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> [@Waenara](#):
>
> This is also my concern. There are some conditions where a genetic cause is obvious and straightforward (e.g. cystic fibrosis, where one specific gene has a defect), but there is no one gene or even a couple genes that can be reliably used to diagnose depression.
> 
> Genome association studies can show if particular patterns of genes _tend_ to be _associated_ with a particular condition, but their specificity and sensitivity is not always very good. People have depression without having those genes, and many people with those genes will never develop depression. Also, I think that while the idea of gene therapy holds a lot of promise for the future, the timeframe for actually developing that treatment is generally optimistically over-hyped. I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s decades at least before there are effective gene therapies for conditions that aren’t just straightforward genetic defects (like cystic fibrosis).

I think for me it would have been most useful in trying to decide if my son had Depression, or he was just a teenager. The behaviors look awfully similar sometimes, and given how much we don’t know about the safety and long terms effects of psychoactive medication in developing brains, I was far from comfortable with the “diagnosis through medication” method with him. If I had a DNA scan which showed a strong probability that he’d develop Depression at some point, I’d have had fewer reservations about offering him medication as a treatment option.

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