INTRODUCTION: Pharmacogenomic testing in psychiatry is an emerging area with potential clinical application of guiding medication choice and dosing. Interest has been fanned by commercial pharmacogenomic providers who have commonly marketed combinatorial panels that are direct-to-consumer. However, this has not been adopted widely due to a combination of barriers that include a varying evidence base, clinician and patient familiarity and acceptance, uncertainty about cost-effectiveness, and regulatory requirements. This review aims to examine recent updates in this field and provide a contextualised summary and recom-mendations for Asian populations in order to guide healthcare professionals in psychiatric practice. METHOD: A review of recent literature about current evidence and guidelines surrounding pharmacoge-nomics in psychiatric practice was carried out with particular attention paid to literature evaluating Asian populations. The Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development and Evaluation Evidence to Decision framework was applied. Consensus meetings comprising workgroup psychiatrists from the public and private sectors were held prior to arriving at the key recommendations. RESULTS: Pharmacogenomic testing should be mainly limited to drug-gene pairs with established clinical evidence, such as antidepressants and CYP2C19/ CYP2D6. Direct-to-consumer pharmacogenomic panels that assay multiple genes and analyse them via proprietary algorithms, are not presently recommended in Singapore's psychiatric setting due to inconclusive evidence on clinical outcomes. CONCLUSION Pharmacogenomic testing in psychiatry is not recommended as standard clinical practice. Exceptions may include concerns about drug concentrations or potential severe adverse drug reactions. Studies investigating newly identified drug-gene associations, and clinical effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of utilising pharmacogenomic testing in psychiatry is encouraged.
Humans ; Psychiatry/methods* ; Pharmacogenetics ; Cytochrome P-450 CYP2C19/genetics* ; Asian People/genetics* ; Pharmacogenomic Testing/methods* ; Antidepressive Agents/therapeutic use* ; Cytochrome P-450 CYP2D6/genetics* ; Practice Guidelines as Topic ; Singapore ; Mental Disorders/genetics* ; Psychotropic Drugs/therapeutic use*

Aims: Rice tungro disease is one of the most damaging and destructive diseases of rice in South and Southeast Asia. The disease is caused by the co-infection of two viruses, the Rice tungro bacilliform virus (RTBV) and Rice tungro spherical virus (RTSV). The symptoms and severity of the disease depend on these two viral agents, if rice is coinfected by both viruses, it will show the typical severe symptoms of yellow-orange leaf discoloration, plant stunting and reduced in yield. On the other hand, if rice is infected only with RTBV, it shows milder symptoms and in contrast, rice plants will show no symptoms if they are infected only with RTSV. The disease had been detected in Malaysia since the 1930s. However, the first incursion of the disease was only reported in Sarawak in 2012. Since the disease was not seen in the Sarawak until recently, very little information on local virus isolate is available. This study was conducted to obtain and record the nucleotide sequence of partial coat protein gene of two primary isolates of RTBV collected from Bario, Sarawak in 2012 and 2013. Methodology and results: Based on the phylogenetic analysis, the isolates cluster with the Southeast Asia group with sequence identity at nucleotide and amino acid level of 91.1 to 95.1% and 98.6 to 99.5% respectively. Conclusion, significance and impact of study This study provide the first genetic information on RTBV isolates from Sarawak. This data is important for future reference of the virus variants and diversity for epidemiological and diagnosis purposes.