Have you heard horror stories about trouble with finding the right mental health medication? Do concerns around this issue make you hesitant to try medication management for your mental health?
Don’t let fears around having to try multiple medications prevent you from benefiting from medication management for mental health conditions like depression, anxiety, or ADD/ADHD. All of these mental health conditions can improve with the right medication and dosage, relieving intrusive or distressing symptoms and improving your overall quality of life.
With pharmacogenetic testing (PGx), you don’t have to rely on trial and error to put together the best medication management plan for you. The team at Greater Lowell Psychiatric Associates of North Chelmsford, Massachusetts, led by Dr. Ronald P. Winfield, offers this type of testing, easing your path to effective mental health treatment.
How does pharmacogenetic testing benefit you, and what does the test measure? Here’s what you need to know about how PGx works.
We know that individual people respond differently to medications like antidepressants, antianxiety medications, and mood stabilizers. That can cause problems for individuals who want to manage mental health symptoms with medication.
Without the benefit of PGx testing, you have to try medications to determine if they work well enough for you without overly troubling side effects. You may need to try multiple medications before finding the right treatment plan, costing you time and often interfering with your mental health.
Pharmacogenomics looks at your genetic information to learn more about how you’re likely to respond to common medications. PGx testing gives the team at Greater Lowell Psychiatric Associates indications about the medications and dosages most likely to work well for you. This saves you time, money, and stress.
In PGx testing, we identify your metabolic phenotype. Different people’s bodies metabolize medications at different speeds. Knowing more about your metabolic phenotype tells us more about the right dosage for you.
For example, If your genetic testing indicates that you’re likely to metabolize medication very rapidly, you may benefit more from higher doses of antidepressant or antianxiety medications, with a lower risk of side effects than someone with slower drug-related metabolization.
Greater Lowell Psychiatric Associates uses IDgenetix® for comprehensive, fully personalized genetic testing. This type of test checks more related factors around your likely response to mental health medications than any other PGx test on the market.
We also rely on a paired state-of-the-art bioinformatics platform from Castle Bioscience to complete your testing and produce your report.
PGx testing is quick and easy. You only need one brief appointment for sample collection, and then it's time to look at your results.
After your PGx test, you receive an actionable report about likely interactions between your unique metabolism and various medications, as well as likely interactions between multiple medications in your system. Together with information about your lifestyle, the report provides guidance for your personalized medication management plan.
Studies show that PGx increases your chances of responding well to medication and even achieving full remission from your mental health condition. With pharmacogenetic testing, you can reduce the amount of trial and error in your mental health treatment and find the right solution for you on the first try.
To learn more about how you could benefit from IDgenetix, as well as information about cost and insurance coverage, contact Greater Lowell Psychiatric Associates today. Schedule your initial consultation appointment online or over the phone now.
