Genetic Testing

If you have struggled with medication, your genes may be a contributing factor. With the GeneSight test, your genetic makeup can provide clinicians with insight into how you may metabolize or respond to certain medications commonly prescribed to treat depression, anxiety, ADHD and other psychiatric conditions. 

In the medical community, experts refer to this as “personalized” or “precision” medicine. Providers use pharmacogenomics to customize health care decisions and treat each person directly.

Many areas of medicine are turning to pharmacogenetics for help in determining the best medications for every patient, it is especially popular in mental health. 

Fewer than 50% of individuals with depression respond to their first antidepressant medication, while only about 37.5% achieve full remission. It may often take months of trial and error to find the right treatment for depression.

During this waiting period, patients can suffer serious side effects from an antidepressant that is not working for them such as nausea, fatigue, insomnia, and loss of sexual desire, in addition to the debilitating effects of depression.

Millions of people experience unwanted side effects from their medications every year. Pharmacogenomics can help determine if a drug will work for you, or if it could cause severe side effects, before your provider even prescribes it.

Your genes also affect how safe and effective a particular drug could be for you. Genes are often the reason the same medicine at the same dose affects people in very different ways. Genes may also be the reason some people have bad side effects to the medicine, while others have none.

Step 1: The GeneSight test is a simple cheek swab taken in your provider’s office OR can be ordered and sent by your provider to be taken in the convenience of your home.

Step 2: The sample is sent to the GeneSight lab for analysis. After they receive your sample, they send results to your provider typically within about 2 days. 

Step 3: Your provider can review your results on the next visit. The results may be used by your healthcare provider to inform your mental health medication treatment.