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Genetic Testing

By Saissy Kendig posted 09-16-2016 05:44 PM

  

Hi APNA community,

My name is Saissy and I am in my last year of the Family Psychiatric nurse practitioner program. I'm creating this thread to reach out in discussion with my fellow behavioral health nurses, nurse practitioners, psychologists, psychiatrist, and anyone that is interested in commenting. Through one of my clinical rotations I had an opportunity to sit in on a vendor that was advertising GeneSight genetic testing. Of course, they provided food and made it sound like it was the easiest procedure to use on patients and that everyone should be utilizing this tool. For me it sounded convincing, till I started to hear other nurse practitioners and psychiatrist talk about it. They stated that it can be expensive, that even though some insurance can pay for it they still have to go through hoops to get the insurance companies to pay for it and to obtain the results, and even though the results may state a certain medication works better than others, that it doesn’t mean the medications that are not effective or in the red zone may not still work but simply may just need to be either increased or decreased. I don't have the experience nor really enough knowledge on this matter to know if pharmacogenteics could be beneficial or not?  My preceptor at the time provided me with an Evidenced based article written by Dr. Daniel Carlat whom is a well respected psychiatrist, in which I felt he put this whole fascination about GeneSight genetic testing back down to reality and into perspective. He basically concluded that there is little reliable evidence that pharmacogenetic testing works. I’ve provided a link to this article and would love to hear everyone’s feedback on this matter or what experiences they may have had with GeneSight genetic testing? Any input would be greatly appreciated. Thank you for your time.

Here is the link to Dr. Carlat’s article on genetic testing.

http://thecarlatreport.com/free_articles/genesight-genetic-test-review-evidence-free-article

Reference:

Carlat, D. (2016). The GeneSight Genetic Test: A Review of the Evidence. The Carlat Report Psychiatry. Obtained September 8, 2016http://thecarlatreport.com/free_articles/genesight-genetic-test-review-evidence-free-article

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12-02-2016 08:52 AM

Hi Sassy, good luck to you as you pursue your new career! I do plan on using genetic testing in the future, but it's on the back burner. I would like to see what other genetic testing companies have to offer (which medications, what the costs are) before signing up for the first company that woos our attention.