PSYCHIATRIC GENETIC TESTING
Dr Az Hakeem is able to offer psychiatric genetic testing in collaboration with MYOGENES who via Pharmacogenomics is able to predict your unique biological tolerability to all psychiatric medications including the full range of antidepressants, antipsychotics, anxiety medications and mood stabilisers.
This unique test has only recently become available in The UK and involves taking a non-invasive smear of saliva from your mouth, which is then sent off to the lab where MYOGENES perform psychogenomic testing. The results take less than two weeks and as part of the testing Dr Az Hakeem will liaise with MYOGENES to discuss the unique set of results which have been obtained prior to discussing the results with you.
After the analysis with MYOGENES and discussion with the laboratory, Dr Hakeem will then meet with you to go through the results. The testing allows a patient to have a reliable predictor as to which particular medications are more or less likely to be tolerated prior to starting them due to your own particular set of unique genetics. This saves time of trial and error, especially in those individuals who have struggled to tolerate medications in the past.
At present the genetic testing is not funded by private health insurance companies and is for self-funding patients only. Please contact Dr Hakeem’s EA if you would like to be tested for this.
The information provided by MYOGENES states:
“Pharmacogenomics is a powerful tool that uses a person’s genetic make up to predict their response to treatment, and therefore determine which medication (and which dose) is the optimal choice. The Genecept Assay is a non-invasive, saliva-based test that analyses 18 key genes which significantly affect response to a wider array of psychiatric medications. Each Assay includes a comprehensive patient report.
Studies have shown clinically measurable improvement in up to 91% of patients previously labelled as treatment-resistant, with significant reduction in medication side-effects, enhanced quality of life and decreased healthcare costs. Thus Genecept is an affective approach that guides clinicians totreatment to the individual, to achieve improved dose and outcomes in a shorter timeframe”.