Mental Health Awareness Month

In the past few decades, society has made progress in reducing the stigma around mental health—moving to more open discussions of mental health struggles and treatments.

This Mental Health Awareness Month, we're talking about mental health medications. They’re often prescribed to help manage debilitating symptoms including depression, anxiety, ADHD, and bipolar disorder—which can all be caused by brain chemical imbalances.

Did you know that DNA can play a role in predicting how a person will respond to medications for these conditions?

Nearly 99% of people have a change in their DNA that affects how they respond to at least one medication. That’s because your body processes them using instructions contained in your DNA. If your body’s instructions are different from the average person, certain medications might not work as expected.

A type of DNA testing called pharmacogenomics (or PGx for short) identifies if your body breaks down specific medications faster or slower than average. That helps doctors know which medications—and at what dose—are more likely to benefit you. Benefits include:

• Reduced trial-and-error: In the past, prescribing mental health medications often meant trying one for a few months before deciding if it helped. If it didn’t, you would move on to a second (or third or fourth) medication. PGx can help identify medications that are more likely to work for you from the start.

• Improves effectiveness: PGx can help make medications more effective by identifying the best dose for you.

• Reduces side effects: PGx can uncover which medications are likely to cause significant side effects for you.

Interested in PGx? Learn more about how it works and the possible result types.

Reference:

1. McInnes G, Lavertu A, Sangkuhl K, Klein TE, Whirl-Carrillo M, Altman RB. Pharmacogenetics at Scale: An Analysis of the UK Biobank. Clin Pharmacol Ther. 2021;109(6):1528-1537. doi:10.1002/cpt.2122.