A 12-week randomized pilot trial in 60 Veterans with depression and psychiatric polypharmacy found that 30% had an actionable antidepressant gene-drug interaction, but immediate access to pharmacogenomic results did not clearly change prescribing or Patient Health Questionnaire-9 depression scores compared with delayed access.1 Research Highlights Actionable PGx results were common: 18 of 60 Veterans, or …
The endogenous opioid system has been a candidate target for novel anxiety treatments, but a 2026 placebo-controlled crossover fMRI study in 38 healthy volunteers ran opposite the hypothesis: instead of increasing threat-related distress and amygdala reactivity, 50 mg oral naltrexone reduced subjective distress during cognitive reappraisal (p = 0.044, d = 0.57) and shifted ventromedial …
Intranasal esketamine — FDA-approved for treatment-resistant depression in 2019 — failed cost-effectiveness benchmarks against four cheaper third-line options in a 2026 Hong Kong modeling study, with incremental cost-effectiveness ratios (ICERs) of US$134,127 to US$312,750 per quality-adjusted life-year (QALY) at a US$50,000/QALY willingness-to-pay (WTP) threshold.1 Combination antidepressant therapy was the most cost-effective strategy modeled. Research Highlights …
A 2026 methylome-wide association study by Shen et al. found 48 CpG methylation sites tied to the quadratic CYP2C19 metabolizer-status term in 18,396 Generation Scotland participants, with 19 sites showing non-linear patterns and targeted replication in 1,238 older adults.1 That supports CYP2C19 as real biology beneath SSRI pharmacogenomics, but it does not prove universal antidepressant …
A 2026 study of 958 adults entering Japanese multidisciplinary pain centers found that 17.1% screened positive for ADHD, rising to 27.4% among patients whose average pain was NRS 9-10; ASD screening was 4.4% overall and did not show the same pain-intensity signal.1 Research Highlights ADHD screening was elevated in tertiary pain care: 164 of 958 …
A 2026 PPMI analysis found that Parkinson’s patients with positive CSF α-synuclein seed amplification assay results kept gaining levodopa benefit over follow-up, while SAA-negative patients showed faster ON-medication motor progression than SAA-positive patients: 0.87 vs. 3.47 MDS-UPDRS Part III points/year in 183 matched SAA-positive and 40 SAA-negative patients.1 Research Highlights ON-state progression split sharply: SAA-positive …
Mukai et al.’s 499-person Phase 2b schizophrenia trial tested whether higher, sustained PDE10A inhibition could turn MK-8189 into a non-D2 antipsychotic; it did not. At week 6, MK-8189 missed the PANSS total endpoint at 16 mg (−2.8 points vs. placebo; 95% CI −8.3 to 2.6; P = 0.241) and 24 mg (−0.7 points; 95% CI …