Survey Reveals 90 Percent Support for Genetic Testing to Personalize Medication Use - Video

Pharmacogenomics an individual's genetic response to medications is an increasingly important strand of personalised healthcare but little is known about the public's views on it.

New research shows almost 90% of people in England would agree to genetic testing to get the most effective medication and reduce the risk of side effects.

How a person responds to medication is sometimes influenced by their genetic makeup. Some medications do not work as well for people with certain genetic variations, and in other cases can lead to serious side effects. To gauge the public's attitudes on pharmacogenetics, a research team, led by Dr Emma Magavern at Queen Mary University of London in collaboration with the National Centre for Social Research (NatCen), surveyed a representative sample of UK adults.

The key findings from the survey stated that only half of participants knew that variations in DNA can predict either efficacy or side effects from a medication, people who were prescribed medication were almost twice as likely to want a PGx test and most people (59%) reported experiencing either no benefit or a side effect from a medication.

Dr Emma Magavern, NIHR Clinical Academic Lecturer in Queen Mary’s Centre for Clinical Pharmacology and Precision Medicine who led the study, said: “This survey shows that many people in the UK feel that they have taken medication which has not been good for them, and most understand that people can respond differently to the same medication. There is widespread public support for personalising prescribing with genetic information and including this within NHS clinical care nationally, in partnership with patients and highlighting the key role of patient agency.”

Ref: Emma F Magavern, A United Kingdom Nationally Representative Survey of Public Attitudes Towards Pharmacogenomics: QJM