Pharmacology

Therapeutic pharmacological monitoring enables dosage individualization, and is therefore an important tool for ensuring safety and therapeutic efficacy for our patients, which is all the more essential in the case of a narrow therapeutic index. Prescription of these medical tests is therefore indicated in cases of suspected therapeutic ineffectiveness, adverse effects, risk of pharmacokinetic disruption (pathophysiological conditions, drug interactions, high inter-individual variability) or suspected non-compliance with treatment.

Pharmacological tests are regularly carried out using automated systems associated with kits produced by industrial suppliers, which offer a good level of sensitivity and specificity. This is true for the most widely prescribed treatments, some of which have been available for many years, meaning that the pharmacological therapeutic monitoring is based on the highest level of medical evidence, developed over time.

Pharmacogenetics, a cutting-edge discipline in medical biology, studies how genetic variations influence the response to treatments. It makes it possible to personalise therapies by adjusting dosages or by choosing specific drugs according to the patient's genetic profile. This approach favours more effective medicine and limits sides effects and therapeutic wandering, which is particularly marked in psychiatry, for example.
A first panel of pharmacogenetic analyses has recently been developed at the Cerba laboratory to study the impact of certain genetic polymorphisms on the response to treatment and the pharmacokinetic profile of antidepressants. 

Our expert biologists have genetics accreditation to carry out these pharmacogenetic tests.