Opioid addiction: Testing for genetic risk factors
Berninzoni, Lillia
Berninzoni, Lillia
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Abstract
In 2020, opioid addiction took the lives of 84,000 Americans. There are several factors that could influence individual risk for dependency, including genetics. The Genetic Addiction Risk Score (GARS) test examines predisposition to addiction based on the presence of specific genetic variants. The study at hand uses GARS in 121 opioid dependent participants to evaluate their genetic predisposition to addiction. They found that 96% of participants carried at least four risk alleles, while 73% of participants carried at least seven risk alleles. These results suggest that GARS could be a useful tool in predicting opioid dependency. The authors suggest that it could be used as a diagnostic test upon entryway into pain clinics to identify at risk patients.
Description
Undergraduate
Date
2025-05-29