Pharmacogenetics is the study of how a person's genetic makeup
affects the metabolism of medications. Pharmacogenetic testing (PGT)
detects variations in the genes and their associated enzymes. Cytochrome
P450 (CYP) is a superfamily of 57 enzymes, which are responsible for
75% of drug metabolism. CYP enzymes may deactivate a medication or turn a
medication into its active form.
Certain Labs provide testing services on five cytochrome P450 genes: CYP2D6, CYP2C9, CYP2C19, CYP3A4, and CYP3A5. Based on the test results, drug metabolism of an individual can be categorized as extensive metabolizer (EM), poor metabolizer (PM), intermediate metabolizer (IM), and ultra-rapid metabolizer (UM) for each gene. Extensive metabolizers have normal drug metabolism. Poor and intermediate metabolizers have slower than average metabolism; while ultra-rapid metabolizers have faster than average metabolism.
Pharmacogenetics testing helps physicians find more personalized, effective, and safer medicine by understanding the patient's ability to metabolize medications, reducing adverse effects, avoiding drug interactions, and time-consuming drug trials. Pharmacogenetics testing can be particularly useful in chronic pain management. Knowing a patient's genotypes prior to subscribing pain medicine can help minimize debilitating side effects and addictions to narcotic medications. Pharmacogenetics testing can mean the difference between a treatment failure and a successful outcome.
Doctors can expect to:
Some simple screening questions will provide a practitioner with enough information to make a "suspicious" or "probable" diagnosis of Genetic Metabolic Defect. Questions such as:
What is your reaction to alcohol when
Certain Labs provide testing services on five cytochrome P450 genes: CYP2D6, CYP2C9, CYP2C19, CYP3A4, and CYP3A5. Based on the test results, drug metabolism of an individual can be categorized as extensive metabolizer (EM), poor metabolizer (PM), intermediate metabolizer (IM), and ultra-rapid metabolizer (UM) for each gene. Extensive metabolizers have normal drug metabolism. Poor and intermediate metabolizers have slower than average metabolism; while ultra-rapid metabolizers have faster than average metabolism.
Pharmacogenetics testing helps physicians find more personalized, effective, and safer medicine by understanding the patient's ability to metabolize medications, reducing adverse effects, avoiding drug interactions, and time-consuming drug trials. Pharmacogenetics testing can be particularly useful in chronic pain management. Knowing a patient's genotypes prior to subscribing pain medicine can help minimize debilitating side effects and addictions to narcotic medications. Pharmacogenetics testing can mean the difference between a treatment failure and a successful outcome.
Doctors can expect to:
- Identify patients carrying a genetic polymorphism that causes increased or decreased CYP450 enzyme activity
- Identify individuals with higher risk of adverse drug reactions and overdose
- Choose more effective medications at safer dosages
- Minimize drug interactions
- Avoid time-consuming sequential and ineffective drug trials
- Optimize pain management
- Help explain unexpected urine drug tests
- Higher-than-standard dosage requirements to achieve the desired results
- Severe adverse drug reactions
- Unexpected/unexplained response to medications
- Experienced multiple unsuccessful drug trials
- Multiple drug types prescribed
- Health issues in multiple organ systems
Some simple screening questions will provide a practitioner with enough information to make a "suspicious" or "probable" diagnosis of Genetic Metabolic Defect. Questions such as:
What is your reaction to alcohol when
- What is your reaction to alcohol when drinking the first time?
- If you had surgery or dental work, did you need extra anesthesia or pain medication?
- Have you taken hydrocodone/oxycodone/codeine/tramadol/ methadone?
- How did you feel after taking hydrocodone/oxycodone/codeine/ tramadol/methadone?
- Did you get pain relief from it?
- Did you need higher than usual dosage?
- Do you have close relatives who are allergic to medications?
- What reaction did you/your relatives get?
