As a healthcare professional, wouldn’t you want to know if the medications you are giving your patients are giving them therapy?
As our healthcare industry continues to evolve, so does the practice of prescribing medications. Gone are the days of “trial and error” or guessing if a medication will work. With elderly patients, sometimes they don’t have the luxury to wait.
Clinical depression in the elderly is common. Late-life depression affects about 6 million Americans age 65 and older. Physical conditions like stroke, hypertension, atrial fibrillation, diabetes, cancer, dementia, and chronic pain further increase the risk of depression.
According to psych central.com, a common treatment for clinical depression is a type of medication called an antidepressant. Antidepressants come in a variety of forms, but all of them work by impacting certain neurochemicals in your brain, such as serotonin and norepinephrine. Antidepressants are most commonly prescribed by a psychiatrist, but may also be prescribed by a family physician or general practitioner to treat depression.
The most commonly prescribed modern antidepressants include SSRIs — such as Prozac, Lexapro, Celexa and Paxil — and SNRIs — such as Pristiq, Cumbalta and Effexor. Although the claim is made that some people may be able to start to feel less depressed within 2 weeks of taking one of these kinds of antidepressants, most people won’t start experiencing the full positive effects of the medication until 6 to 8 weeks after beginning it.
As a physician, what if you knew scientifically which medications your patients have the ability to metabolize – if they are a poor or ultra-rapid metabolizer of those medications – or if they are on multiple medications that interact giving them no therapy. That tool is available and now it is affordable for elderly patients with Medicare B, it’s called pharmacogenetic testing.
Pharamcogenetic Testing:
The PGx Medical test results provide clinicians with valuable patient-specific information to make better therapeutic treatment decisions. Medications may be assessed in the following areas of clinical care: depression, anxiety, psychosis, hypertension, hyperlipidemia, arrhythmia, anti-coagulation, thrombophilia, ADHD, pain (including musculoskeletal, arthritis, migraine and neuropathic), bipolar and seizure.
With the PGx program you will receive a customized patient report which includes personalized result interpretations and actionable treatment recommendations.
The PGx Medical team works alongside healthcare professionals each step of the way. For more information on this medication management program, contact:
PGx Medical
Individualized Care – Personalized Medicine
info@pgxmed.com
405-509-5112