References
A–Z of prescribing for children
Abstract
This series focuses on aspects of prescribing for neonates, children and young people, from A–Z. Aspects of pharmacokinetics will be considered, alongside legal considerations, consent and medications in schools
Pharmacogenomics looks at how a person's genetic make-up can affect how a body responds to medications and focuses on combining knowledge on pharmacology, pharmacokinetics and genetics. The genetics aspect centres on genes and their specific functions – known as genomics.
Every prescriber knows that there are usually some risks in prescribing medications, but some patients may not feel the full benefit of the drug or suffer different adverse drug reactions (ADRs) compared to other people (Parry and Hawcutt, 2020). Cytochrome P450 enzymes (CYPs) often have an impact on metabolism in different drugs: these enzymes are coded by genes – and these can vary in the general population (Royal Pharmaceutical Society (RPS), 2022). Having ‘normal’ or ‘abnormal’ enzymes can potentially affect how a drug could be metabolised. An individual's genetic make-up will not change over time, but the expression of that information can actually change from the neonatal period through to adolescence (Bashore and Trinkman, 2015).
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