How genetics can help patients with mental illness

The treatment of patients with many psychiatric illnesses is quite lengthy, which is due (among other aspects) to the fact that the effect of many drugs on these illnesses takes up to 6 weeks or even later, and there is never a guarantee that the medication will have the expected effect. It is not uncommon in psychiatric care to have to try several different types of medication before finding the most optimal one.

Drugs are usually broken down in our body by several enzymes that are produced by different genes. The respective genes then contain information on how many enzymes will be produced and also whether the enzyme produced is functional or non-functional. And through this, the genes fundamentally influence what will happen to the drug in our body. Increased or decreased activity of drug-degrading enzymes is not a rare phenomenon.

With the PharmaGen®  test, it is possible to find out which drug is most suitable for the patient or help choose the right dosage. If drug breakdown is genetically reduced, the drug will be removed from the body more slowly, the blood level will rise and, once a certain threshold is crossed, side effects will begin to occur.

For more details, see our GENOPEDIA, including a practical example of a specific analysis and the resulting recommendations for the treating physician.