Drug Effectiveness (Pharmacogenetic) Test

WHAT DOES THE DRUG EFFECTIVENESS TEST REVEAL?

Drug effectiveness

Which drug active substances are suitable for the patient, are effective, and do not cause side effects.

Body metabolism

How the patient's body absorbs different drugs.

Drug dosing

What is the most effective drug dose for treating the patient.

Drug compatibility

How to combine the drugs the patient is taking with each other.

WHO IS IT FOR?

For patients taking or intending to take psychotropic, cardiological, pain-relieving, or other drugs.

This is a test for personalized patient treatment, where medications are selected individually based on the patient's DNA, i.e., the information encoded in their genes.

The information provided in the test report is intended only for the doctor, who can select and prescribe medications and further treatment based on the data received. Once the drug effectiveness test is performed, it does not need to be repeated, and if necessary, various psychotropic, cardiological, pain-relieving, and other drugs can be selected from the same test.

WHY IS IT USEFUL?

Every person has their individual genetic code, due to which patients with the same diagnosis are affected differently by the same drugs.

MENTAL ILLNESSES AND PSYCHOTROPIC DRUG SELECTION

• Often, psychotropic drugs are prescribed in a complex manner - several combinations, and people with mental illnesses also suffer from other comorbid conditions, taking additional medications. Predicting how all the drugs will interact is very complex.
• It is very important to use appropriate psychotropic drugs from the very beginning of treatment because inappropriate drugs or incorrect doses can cause irreversible processes in the body, making treatment less effective as the disease progresses.
• In 40-70% of cases, drug treatment with psychotropic drugs is ineffective, and as many as 7% of patients experience severe side effects from the treatment*. Also, because doctors prescribe psychotropic drugs to the patient on a 'trial-and-error' basis: one drug is prescribed after another until a medication that positively affects the patient's condition is found, but this can take a very long time, or the medication may not be found at all.

HEART AND VASCULAR DISEASES AND CARDIOLOGICAL DRUG SELECTION

• According to the World Health Organization (WHO), about 18 million people die worldwide each year from heart and vascular diseases. In Lithuania, on average, heart and vascular diseases claim about 24,000 lives annually - more than 50% of all deaths in our country.
• In terms of morbidity and mortality rates from heart and vascular diseases, Lithuania belongs to a high-risk zone. In Lithuania, as in many high-risk countries, atherosclerosis and its resulting cardiovascular diseases have reached an epidemic scale that is difficult to manage.
• The test is recommended for effective prescription of blood and hematopoiesis-affecting cardiological drugs (warfarin, clopidogrel, etc.).
• According to the State Medicines Control Agency, in 2014, the consumption of the antithrombotic drug warfarin (7.5 mg) was 9,590 DDD/1000/day (the number of defined daily doses per 1,000 inhabitants per day). This number is growing every year.
• Cardiologists or family doctors often notice that when prescribing one of the most commonly used cardiological drugs globally and in Lithuania - clopidogrel, which should reduce platelet aggregation, about a third of patients do not achieve the desired therapeutic effect**, and an inappropriate dose of this drug can even lead to a patient's death.

The test is necessary for selecting appropriate cardiological drugs and their dosage and creating an individual patient treatment plan: for the prevention and treatment of vein thrombosis, pulmonary embolism; for the treatment of heart valve diseases; for the control of complications associated with atrial fibrillation or heart valve replacement; for treatment after myocardial infarction; for the prevention of thromboembolic complications, etc.

The test is performed by taking a sample from cheek swabs

Execution time: 3-5 weeks.