Pitfalls of Genetic Testing

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