Impact of CYP2D6 genotype on amitriptyline efficacy for the treatment of diabetic peripheral neuropathy: a pilot study

Therapy with low-dose amitriptyline is commonly used to treat painful diabetic peripheral neuropathy. There is a knowledge gap, however, regarding the role of variable CYP2D6-mediated drug metabolism and side effects (SEs). We aimed to generate pilot data to demonstrate that SEs are more frequent in patients with variant CYP2D6 alleles. To that end, 31 randomly recruited participants were treated with low-dose amitriptyline for painful diabetic peripheral neuropathy and their CYP2D6 gene sequenced. Patients with predicted normal or ultra-rapid metabolizer phenotypes presented with less SEs compared with individuals with decreased CYP2D6 activity. Hence, CYP2D6 genotype contributes to treatment outcome and may be useful for guiding drug therapy. Future investigations in a larger patient population are planned to support these preliminary findings.