Culture and psychopharmacology

The literature shows evidence of progress in research focusing on the delin eation of the biological mechanisms responsible for cross-ethnic variations in psychotropic metabolism and effects. This article starts with a brief s ummary of some of the new developments in pharmacogenetics, focusing on the ir relevance in the practice of psychopharmacology. This is followed by a d iscussion on gene-environment interactions and their implication in the cul tural context. In addition, clinicians should begin to develop a good grasp on the meaning of the variations of the genes that encode therapeutic targ ets of psychotropics (i.e., neurotransmitter transporters and receptors). F inally, the importance of culture and ethnicity in influencing patients' ps ychopharmacologic response is also discussed.