According to a study conducted by the National Institute of Mental Health or the NIMH, a distinguished constituent of the National Institutes of Health in the recent days it has come to the fore that the presence of a variation in a gene called GRIK4 makes the specific people affected with the disease of depression more likely to respond to the medication called citalopram (Celexa) than those people who remain without variation. It has been found as a part of the investigative study, that at the time when people had both this variation and one in a different gene that were exhibited so as to have a similarly small effect in an earlier study, they were 23 percent more likely to respond to citalopram than the very people without variation.

On the other hand the result of this study point towards a key issue in the gamut of the mental health research, in ascertaining the differences in the responses of people to various forms of   antidepressant medications that were supposed to be depending partly on differences in their genes. It has also been perceived that some patients do respond to the application of the first antidepressant, but this is not the case with many others. In general several weeks are needed for each medication to make use of its full effects and in addition the condition of the depression of patients may have a steady decline while the search for medication that helps go on for an indefinite period. But in that respect the genetic studies has the possibility of leading to a better understanding of the perfect treatment that may work for each patient at best.  

It is to be noted that the key researchers in the study included Dr. Francis J. McMahon, MD, Silvia Paddock, Ph.D., of NIMH, and other associates. Moreover there were also the scientists from the National Human Genome Research Institute, the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, Mount Sinai School of Medicine, and University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center. As a part of the process the researchers went through a meticulous study of the DNA being provided by the patients concerned in earlier participating in a recently completed NIMH clinical trial, the Sequenced Treatment Alternatives to Relieve Depression (STAR*D) study. Through the trial it was exhibited that the depressed patents whom the first medication fails to benefit normally have a fair chance to be helped by the others.

Speaking on the occasion Dr. Thomas R. Insel, MD and Director of NIMH said, "We're moving steadily closer to being able to personalize treatments based on patients' genetic variations. This is a crucial need for the millions of Americans who suffer from depression." "New techniques have led to advances that would have been inconceivable a few years ago and are making individualized treatment an achievable goal," he added.