Medicines cure infectious diseases, prevent problems from chronic diseases, and alleviate pain and suffering for millions of Americans every day. But medicines can also cause harm.
Adverse drug events cause over 700,000 emergency department visits each year. Nearly 120,000 patients each year need to be hospitalized for further treatment after emergency visits for adverse drug events. As more and more people take more medicines, the risk of adverse events may increase.
As people age, they typically take more medicines. Older adults (65 years or older) are twice as likely as others to come to emergency departments for adverse drug events (over 177,000 emergency visits each year) and nearly seven times more likely to be hospitalized after an emergency visit.
Anti-psychotics are frequently prescribed when people have dementia. For some, a light dose may just be the right thing, but one medication doesn’t suit all elder issues.
One of the largest segments of the older population treated with antipsychotics is dementia patients with psychosis. One half of patients with dementia have comorbid psychosis. There are over 4 million people with Alzheimer disease in the United States today, and that number is expected to increase to 15 million in another 20 years. Just imagine one half of them having psychosis.
Wouldn’t it be helpful to know if the medications you are giving your patients are effective? How do you know if their body metabolizes the medications or if there are adverse drug reactions with the combinations of medications?
Pharmacogenetic testing is a type of genetic test that assesses a patient’s risk of adverse response or likelihood to respond to a given drug, informing drug selection and dosing. It is personalizing medicine for each patient.
If you would like more information regarding our Metabolic Validation Program through pharmacogenetic testing, contact:
PGx Medical
Empowerment at the Source of Treatment
info@pgxmed.com
405-509-5112
Individualized Care – Personalized Medicine
Reference: cdcgov.com, Medscape.com