Putting a DNA Test Specter to Rest

"Even in an underserved population at high risk for adverse psychological reactions, subjects responded positively to personalized genetic results."

That's the conclusion for a study published in Genetics in Medicine which refutes one of the objections often raised to DNA testing.  A study of 82 participants, 64% African-American, from a vulnerable population with higher-than-normal risk for depression, about half unemployed with no health insurance, found 95% appreciated genetic results, and receiving these results was not associated with changes in symptoms of depression or anxiety. Furthermore, after return of genetic results, smoking cessation attempts increased.

Could it be the risk from surprises about ancestry results could be worse than those from health?

An abstract of the study is at www.nature.com/gim/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/gim2014110a.html and there's a popular summary at www.futurity.org/genetic-testing-results-790942/