Genome-wide association study of treatment response to venlafaxine XR in generalized anxiety disorder

We conducted the first genome-wide association study (GWAS) in Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD) to identify potential predictors of venlafaxine XR treatment outcome. Ninety-eight European American patients participated in a venlafaxine XR clinical trial for GAD, with Hamilton Anxiety Scale (HAM-A) response/remission at 24 weeks as the primary outcome measure. All participants were genotyped with the Illumina PsychChip, and 266,820 common single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) were analyzed. Although no SNPs reached genome-wide significance, 8 SNPs were marginally associated with treatment response/remission and HAM-A reduction at week 12 and 24 (p<0.00001). Several identified genes may indicate markers crossing neuropsychiatric diagnostic categories.