Ultimately, the PRS should include actionable information for some individuals, even while many individually associated variants remain to be discovered. This may aid clinicians in the surety of diagnosis, guide implementation of preventative strategies, flag individuals who are at greatest risk of suicide, or enable predictions of long-term prognosis or treatment response 39– 41 ( Figure 2). Clinical diagnostics requires high precision (or positive predictive value), where the proportion of individuals who are predicted to be cases (and who truly are cases) is very high. However, the implementation of PRS in clinical practice may also help identify low-risk groups or even treatment-resistant individuals for whom alternative treatment methods—including social and psychological management—may be most beneficial 42. Furthermore, PRS may guide patient discussions with genetic counselors to better understand relationships between genetic and environmental risk factors, providing psychotherapeutic benefits and promoting patient empowerment 43, and has the potential to reduce stigma and feelings of self-blame in those with established illness, aiding emotional recovery.
