Studies examine genetic determinan...(underlying ADHD and whether these initia...)

Another study, also led by Dr. Faraone, is the first genome-wide study of response to methylphenidate in ADHD children. Dr. Faraone and his colleagues, examined genetic markers across the entire human genome to search for genes that may someday be used to predict which children respond most favorably to the stimulant medications used to treat ADHD. It demonstrated that, although there are likely to be genetic factors that are associated with stimulant efficacy in children with ADHD, there are no single genes with a very large impact on treatment response.

"Previous efforts at understanding the role of candidate genes in the response to pharmacotherapy have been inconclusive," says Eric Mick, the study's first author. "There is a great need for larger more rigorous studies of genetic predictors of treatment response."

Research was conducted, in part, through the Genetics Analysis Information Network (GAIN), a public-private partnership between the National Institutes of Health and the private sector with the goal of promoting genome mapping for various complex diseases.

Recent advances in these technologies have facilitated the cost-effective genotyping of hundreds of thousands of DNA markers. Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) hold great promise for identifying genetic variants for disease. GWAS have already been successful in identifying variants associated with many complex diseases including obesity, age-related macular degeneration, Type I and Type II diabetes, Crohn's disease and prostate cancer.

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