Personalized assessment and treatment of depression

• We review recent developments in the personalization of depression assessment and treatment.
• Current findings in pharmacogenetics and therapygenetics are described.
• We detail state-of-the-art statistical methods for identifying subpopulations.
• Other novel methods for patient categorization are presented.

The drive to personalize the delivery of psychosocial and pharmacologic treatments is embodied in Gordon Paul's (1967) famous question, ‘What treatment, by whom, is most effective for this individual with that specific problem, and under which set of circumstances?’ Traditionally, researchers have examined ‘what works for whom’ via post hoc moderator analyses. However, these efforts have been largely unsuccessful, suffering from poor replication and statistical bias due a lack of random assignment. Recent advances in genetic and biological technologies and statistical methods have facilitated an explosion of research on the personalization of treatment for psychological disorders. The present review examines recent developments in the personalization of depression treatment.