Omics : a journal of integrative biology
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Mental disorders represent a major public health burden worldwide. This is likely to rise in the next decade, with the highest increases predicted to occur in low- and middle-income countries. Current psychotropic medication treatment guidelines focus on uniform approaches to the treatment of heterogeneous disorders and achieve only partial therapeutic success. ⋯ Multipronged approaches such as multi-omics (genomics, proteomics, metabolomics) analyses and systems diagnostics together with high-throughput sequencing and genotyping technologies hold promise for identifying precise and targeted treatments in mental disorders. To date, however, the vast majority of pharmacogenomics work has been undertaken in high-income countries on a relatively small proportion of the global population, and many other challenges face the field. Opportunities and challenges for establishing a global roadmap for precision medicine in psychiatry are discussed in this article.