Article first published online: 7 AUG 2014
DOI: 10.1002/2327-6924.12154
©2014 American Association of Nurse Practitioners
Issue
Article first published online: 7 AUG 2014
DOI: 10.1002/2327-6924.12154
©2014 American Association of Nurse Practitioners
Issue
Journal of the American Association of Nurse Practitioners
Abstract
Purpose
To evaluate if pharmacogenetic testing (PT) holds value for pain-management practitioners by identifying the potential applications of pharmacogenetic research as well as applications in practice.
Data sources
A review of the literature was conducted utilizing the databases EBSCOhost, Biomedical Reference Collection, CINAHL, Health Business: Full Text, Health Source: Nursing/Academic Edition, and MEDLINE with the keywords, personalized medicine, cytochrome P450, and phamacogenetics.
Conclusions
Chronic-pain patients present some of the most challenging patients to manage medically. Often paired with persistent, life-altering pain, they might also have oncologic and psychological comorbidities that can further complicate their management. One-step in-office PT is now widely available to optimize management of complicated patients and affectively remove the “trial-and-error” process of medication therapy.
Implications for practice
Practitioners must be familiar with the genetic determinants that affect a patient's response to medications in order to decrease preventable morbidity and mortality associated with drug–drug and patient–drug interactions, and to provide cost-effective care through avoidance of inappropriate medications. Improved pain managements will impove patient outcomes and satisfaction.
