Pitfalls of Genetic Testing

Genes have become the preferred way to explain all types of ill health and unwanted behavior, but some of the attributions seem fairly clear-cut, but many are being embraced uncritically and oversold.

Abstract

...Physicians are soon likely to confront extremely awkward\nsituations. Worried patients, encouraged by overly optimistic claims by\nresearchers, biotechnology companies, and the media, may want to have genetic\ntests performed whose validity has not been established. At the same time,\nphysicians may legitimately feel at sea about the meaning, reliability, and\npredictiveness of the tests. For the foreseeable future, perhaps the best they\ncan do is to alert patients about the underlying uncertainty associated with\nthe tests themselves and their actual prognostic value, and to point out that\nusually no practical consequences can be drawn from the information gained,\nhowever the test comes out. In the meantime, the test results can have\ndisastrous implications for the psychological well-being, family\nrelationships, and employability and insurability of those tested....