KING OF PRUSSIA, Pa., Oct. 2, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Genomind, a personalized medicine company focused on improving mental healthcare through genetic testing, is adding a new, distinctive tool to complement and enhance its Genecept Assay®. The Genomind Drug Interaction Guide™ (G-DIG) is a patient-specific tool designed to assist clinicians in checking gene-drug, drug-drug and cumulative gene-drug-environment interactions when prescribing medications. It’s unveiling the new service during Mental Illness Awareness Week, a national effort to educate people about conditions that affect 1 out of 5 Americans.
The Genomind Drug Interaction Guide (G-DIG) enables clinicians to better predict safety and efficacy before they prescribe, by allowing them to:
• Choose from among the most commonly prescribed psychotropic and non-psychotropic medications to see how certain drugs might interact with the patient’s individual pharmacokinetic profile (gene-drug interactions).
• Evaluate how drugs that the patient is already taking or that are being considered may interact with each other (drug-drug interactions).
• Incorporate the important environmental factors of tobacco smoking and coffee consumption into personalized treatment decisions (gene-drug-environment interactions). This ability is exclusive to G-DIG.
Assessing gene-drug, drug-drug and gene-drug-environment interactions can be labor-intensive and yield an overwhelming amount of information. Not with G-DIG. Clinicians can now simply log into the Genomind Clinician Portal to access G-DIG for each of their patients who have been tested with Genecept. G-DIG is a complimentary tool for clinicians using the Genecept Assay. For more information about G-DIG, please visit: www.genomind.com/genomind-drug-interaction-guide/
Sharon R. Katz, MSN FPMH-APRN, a Psychiatric Nurse Practitioner of Abington, Pa., says, “Pharmacogenetics should not only be about the interactions of medications with body but also about interactions between drugs. With psychiatric prescribing, polypharmacy is common. G-DIG enables the Genecept Assay to be an even more complete tool, addressing both gene and drug interactions. It illustrates for the prescriber and the patient the efficacious use of medications, including their potential interactions. It can help to decrease side effects and aid in adding other medications to balance side effects, therefore decreasing noncompliance and patient hospitalization.”
Michael Koffler, Genomind’s CEO and President, says, “G-DIG is an important advancement that will help clinicians predict and reduce interactions before they prescribe. Knowing how genes, drugs and environmental factors might interact is important to patient safety. G-DIG allows clinicians to efficiently consider different therapies against a patient’s unique pharmacokinetic genotype. We are proud to show our continued commitment to quality mental healthcare by building G-DIG and offering it to our clinicians who use Genecept.”
The Genecept Assay is already in use by clinicians in all 50 states; it now covers more than 20 drug classes, 122 medications approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, 18 clinically validated genes and 97 percent of medications used to treat depression, anxiety, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, attention-deficit disorder and autism. It also offers comprehensive coverage of pain medications.
About Genomind
Genomind is a personalized medicine company bringing innovation to mental healthcare through genetic testing. Genomind is comprised of pioneering researchers and thought leaders in psychiatry and neurology and specializes in pharmacogenetic laboratory testing for psychiatry. Genomind is committed to partnering with clinicians to improve their patients’ lives. Learn more at www.genomind.com.
About the Genecept Assay®
The Genecept Assay is a genetic test designed to help clinicians optimize treatment decisions for their patients with mental illness. It identifies patient-specific genetic markers that indicate which treatments are likely to work as intended, have no effect or cause adverse effects. It is an easily administered cheek swab test that analyzes key genes that have been selected based on hundreds of studies showing that variations in these genes can inform treatment decisions. The Assay is used to guide treatment for a range of psychiatric conditions, including depression, anxiety, obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), bipolar disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), autism, schizophrenia, chronic pain and substance abuse, and has been shown in peer-reviewed published studies to improve patient outcomes and reduce overall medical costs. Each Assay provides clinicians with an easy-to-read patient report and a complimentary psychopharmacogenomic consultation. Learn more at www.genomind.com.
MEDIA CONTACTS:
Kristina Habermann
Vice President, Marketing and Corporate Communications
Genomind
267-326-2166
khabermann@genomind.com
Adam Shapiro
ASPR
202-427-3603
Adam.Shapiro@ASPR.bz
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