Genetic Testing for Medications
Genetic testing for mental health enables medical professionals to discover how the body will absorb certain types of medication. Genetic testing can help identify the best medication to prescribe for different patients.
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Genetic Testing for Psychiatric Medication
Genetic testing is a simple and straightforward procedure. At Advanced Psychiatry Associates, we use a simple instrument to take a DNA sample from the inside your cheek.
The results give us the information we need to prescribe a list of medications that’ll help you or your loved one recover their mental health and start living a more fulfilling life.
Benefits of Genetic Testing for Mental Health Prescriptions
Genetic testing is a major breakthrough in the field of mental health treatment. It allows physicians to discover the best type of medication and dosages for treating various ailments like depression, autism, anxiety, bipolar disorder, substance abuse, schizophrenia, and obsessive-compulsive disorder.
Here are some of the key benefits of genetic testing.
- It eliminates guesswork. Genetic testing provides facts that help physicians prescribe the right medicine the first time
- It helps reduce treatment costs. By avoiding guesswork, patients spend less on medication because they won’t waste money on medicines that won’t work
- It improves patient outcomes. When treatment is guided by genetic testing, patients demonstrate a measurable improvement in treatment response, with minimal side effects
Genetic Testing for Medication Effectiveness
Genetic tests can help patients with mental illness find the most effective medicines with fewer side effects. Many mental illnesses like attention deficit hyperactive disorder (ADHD) are complex in nature. Finding the most suitable combination of medicines and the correct doses can be very challenging.
Genetics can reveal how your body will metabolize certain types of medicines. If a drug doesn’t get broken down and absorbed fast enough, it can cause side effects. Similarly, if it goes through your body too fast, it won’t work effectively.
Fortunately, the modern DNA testing is providing doctors and patients with new insights into the type of medication and the dosages that offer the best outcomes. Gene-based testing also rules out the need for guesswork and eliminates the frustration and high cost that comes with prescriptions based on trial and error. Since the test examines how the medication will be broken down in your body, it can be used to choose the drugs that will be most effective for you.
A gene-based test can show your level of tolerance for a particular drug. For example, Adderall causes nausea in some people. Genetic testing may show how your body will respond to it and if your doctor will be able to cut down its side effects by reducing your dosage.