Pharmacogenetics of Lethal Opioid Overdose: Review of Current Evidence and Preliminary Results from a Pilot Study

There has been a worldwide substantial increase in accidental opioid-overdose deaths. The aim of this review, along with preliminary results from our pilot study, is to highlight the use of pharmacogenetics as a tool to predict causes of accidental opioid-overdose death. For this review, a systematic literature search of PubMed® between the time period of January 2000 to March 2023 was carried out. We included study cohorts, case–controls, or case reports that investigated the frequency of genetic variants in opioid-related post-mortem samples and the association between these variants and opioid plasma concentrations. A total of 18 studies were included in our systematic review. The systematic review provides evidence of the use of CYP2D6, and to a lower extent, CYP2B6 and CYP3A4/5 genotyping in identifying unexpectedly high or low opioid and metabolite blood concentrations from post-mortem samples. Our own pilot study provides support for an enrichment of the CYP2B6*4-allele in our methadone-overdose sample (n = 41) compared to the anticipated frequency in the general population. The results from our systematic review and the pilot study highlight the potential of pharmacogenetics in determining vulnerability to overdose of opioids

sj-docx-1-cpa-10.1177_07067437231203433 - Supplemental material for Influence of <i>CYP2C19</i>, <i>CYP2D6</i>, and <i>ABCB1</i> Gene Variants and Serum Levels of Escitalopram and Aripiprazole on Treatment-Emergent Sexual Dysfunction: A Canadian Biomarker Integration Network in Depression 1 (CAN-BIND 1) Study

Supplemental material, sj-docx-1-cpa-10.1177_07067437231203433 for Influence of CYP2C19, CYP2D6, and ABCB1 Gene Variants and Serum Levels of Escitalopram and Aripiprazole on Treatment-Emergent Sexual Dysfunction: A Canadian Biomarker Integration Network in Depression 1 (CAN-BIND 1) Study by Farhana Islam, Leen Magarbeh, Samar S. M. Elsheikh, Stefan Kloiber, Caroline W. Espinola and Venkat Bhat, Benicio N. Frey, Roumen Milev, Claudio N. Soares, Sagar V. Parikh, Franca Placenza, Stefanie Hassel, Valerie H. Taylor, Francesco Leri, Pierre Blier, Rudolf Uher, Faranak Farzan, Raymond W. Lam, Gustavo Turecki, Jane A. Foster, Susan Rotzinger, Sidney H. Kennedy, Daniel J. Müller in The Canadian Journal of Psychiatry</p