Jarod was 56 years old and super anxious. He'd been a nervous kid, a stressed out teen, and was nearly incapacitated by his anxiety as he moved through adulthood.

He'd worked with multiple different psychiatrists, and I was consulted because he just wasn't getting any better.

How much longer can I go on like this? he wondered.

Before we'd met, Jarod paid $400 out of pocket for pharmacogenetic testing.

THIS will have the answers!

Except...

It didn't.

Jarod was devastated when his results came back "within normal limits".

But I wasn't upset at all!

Even though the results didn't give him a clear answer for why he wasn't getting better, now I knew that if we could find a medication he tolerated, there was a good chance he would get a positive effect because his liver was metabolizing medications as expected!

We just had to change tactics.

Today I'm talking about pharmacogenetic testing and whether you should (or shouldn't) get or recommend it!

The video is 7 minutes but it's worth a watch for anyone who's wondering if this is just the test to give you the answers you've been searching for. At least when we're talking about certain psych medications.

Here’s a quick list of important points to know:

• Pharmacogenetic testing focuses on how your liver metabolizes meds, not whether they’ll work
• Enzymes like CYP2D6 and CYP2C19 determine if you’re a slow or fast metabolizer
• Testing can help in tough cases: multiple failed med trials, weird side effects, or complex med regimens
• It’s not a magic answer but can be a helpful piece of the puzzle
• Most tests are around $300–$400, sometimes covered by insurance
• Testing is usually a one-time cheek swab, ordered by a clinician

Jarod was bummed that he paid for this fancy test and got "nothing" out of it.

Instead, I felt like it pointed us in definitive direction! We could revisit other meds he'd tried very briefly and given up on because he didn't get relief fast enough, or felt the side effects were too strong.

We set up some timeframes for testing meds and created a response + side effect tracker.

AND he agreed not to Google everything negative that was online about whatever med he was trying.

We were slow, deliberate, and methodical. If he'd been anxious for 50+ years, taking a few extra weeks to slowly titrate a medication was a small price to pay.

It was not a magical transformation.

But his subjective anxiety and GAD 7 score both decreased by about a third within the first 6 weeks on the next medication trial and that's not nothing!

I can't say if you should test or not Reader, but it's another cool tool that's available for the right person!

Cheers to healthy brains,

Dr. B
Jessica Beachkofsky, MD
Your friendly, online psychiatrist!

P.S. Here's your pharmacogenetic testing video!​