Some medications work great for some, and have zero or adverse reactions for others. We want to know which medications work best for our clients. In order to get the best medications prescribed, Utah Trauma & Addiction Centers uses gene testing or “pharmacogenetics“. Gene testing helps our doctors to understand what the best medications are for our clients by looking at our clients genome. These genetic tests look for any differences in genes to determine which medication will give our client the best results.
Gene testing helps our doctors to not only determine which medication will work best, but also how much medication or dosage should be prescribed. Gene testing will also help prevent serious side effects from medications.
Usually a small sample of saliva is sent to a lab for processing. The laboratory will look for changes (also called variants) that might effect our clients response to medications. That report is then generated and sent to our doctors.