Abstract
The goal of pharmacogenetic research is to obtain knowledge leading towards individualisation of therapy and also to gather information that could help in predicting responses to a treatment and tolerance to it. Pharmacogenetic testing is at its most advanced in the field of biotransformation of drugs, where it has been known for some time, which polymorphisms can mean higher or lower plasmatic levels of the active agent.
However, in many cases the situation is ambiguous and the relationship between polymorphisms and the overall response to treatment is not fully proven. Polymorphisms of the target spots for psychoactive drugs are generally less explored than polymorphisms influencing the kinetics of psychoactive drugs.
Despite that, there are promising candidates among the genes and their polymorphisms that give at least some hope that pharmacogenetic testing has its place in individualising therapeutic approaches and predicting responses to therapy in psychiatry. This article wants to give the readers some idea about these "promising" polymorphisms (in terms of predictive ability) in the fields of treatment of psychoses, depression, cognitive impairments, bipolar disorder and alcohol addiction.