Prescription drugs: Are they really that prevalent?

[WhyNot]

@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.