Delray Beach Psychiatry offers genetic testing through a company called Genesight. Genetic testing analyzes a patient’s DNA with only a cheek swab with a Qtip and gives psychiatrists here at the practice information to help them select medicines that are more likely to have a positive outcome. The GeneSight test provides your psychiatrist with crucial information about which medications may require dose adjustments (up or down), have an increased risk of side effects or may not even work altogether based on your genetic makeup. Some clinical studies show that only 50% of people respond to the first medication trial. This test is for the other 50% and quite often is covered by insurance.
Finding the right medication can be challenging and result in long periods of trial and error, side effects or continued symptoms with little to no relief. The Genesight test analyzes how an individual’s genetic variations affect his or her response to every available medication on the market today and does so with an easy to interpret report. This report is quite extensive and upon return visit is reviewed with the patient and dissected. The report quite often tells a story on why medicines haven’t been working, or whole classes of medicines that may not be optimal. The patient leaves with the report to keep in their records forever after a treatment decision is made.
The GeneSight test analyzes how your genes may affect your outcomes with medications that treat depression, anxiety, Bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, ADHD, and other mental health conditions. The test will reveal if a medicine will more likely need to be increased, decreased, be less likely to work or have an increased risk of side effects dependent upon your DNA profile. The test will also include if one is able to synthesize most of the neurotransmitters (serotonin for example) in your body or are their certain synthetic pathways that need to be corrected. This is a wonderful tool to utilize in those who have had side effects or not responded to medications as one would expect. It eliminates “guesswork” and will put science as an aid to better ones mental health.
When healthcare providers use the GeneSight test to guide treatment decisions, patients are more likely to achieve remission versus treatment as usual. The clinical validity, clinical utility, and economic utility of the GeneSight Psychotropic test have been evaluated in multiple published, peer-reviewed clinical trials.