Personalized Treatment of Alcohol Dependence

Henry R. Kranzler & James R. McKay
Traditionally, diagnostic tests and medical treatments have been developed and evaluated using group data, a “one-size fits all” approach that leaves little room for individual variation [1]. Personalized medicine, which uses individual features to diagnose and treat disease, is of growing interest, having produced notable successes in oncology and cardiology [2•, 3]. To date, there have been fewer advances in the personalized diagnosis and treatment of addictive disorders.

However, ongoing developments in genetics and pharmacogenetics and in the use of adaptive trial designs offer great potential to extend
these advances to the treatment of addiction, including alcohol dependence, the focus of this review [4–6]. fulltext-2.pdf