How does a prescriber decide what to try? Multiple aspects are considered, such as the age of the patient, the symptoms they are dealing with, other medications they are on and other health conditions they have. However, deciding what medication to start with also often involves use of what the prescriber is personally comfortable with based on their experience with other patients.
As you have probably seen, a medication that works great for a friend may not work so well for you. Many antidepressants, antipsychotics and antianxiety medications have guidelines for prescribing when you know a person’s underlying genetics.
Having a pharmacogenomic test performed can give your doctor useful insight into how your genetics should factor into their prescribing recommendations. Having a PGx test means you are likely to deal with less trial and error…try a med for 3 months, it doesn’t work, try another for 3 months and so on.
I know individuals who have literally cried when they received their PGx report, and it validated why so many meds had not worked. And then they were able to go to their doctor and move to one that had a much greater chance of success.
If you have dealt with mental health issues and medication failure or side effects, a PGx test may be the best investment you make!