Welcome to GeneIDs

Genetic testing for diagnostics, prevention, and personalized treatment of common mental disorders 

 Personalized Medicine for Psychiatric Disorders and Addictions

In the United States alone there are 18 million alcoholics, 28 million children of alcoholics, 6 million cocaine addicts, 14.9 million people who abuse other substances, 25 million people addicted to nicotine, 54 million people who are at least 20 percent overweight, 3.5 million school-age children with attention-deficit disorder or Tourette syndrome, and about 448,000 compulsive gamblers. Depression affects about 10 percent of the U.S. population at some point in life.

These common psychiatric disorders and addictions and more shown in the Table below fall into general category of mental disorders. All of these disorders have the same origin: they result from abnormal functioning of different brain neurotransmitter systems, including serotonin (molecule of happiness), dopamine(molecule of reward), norepinephrine (excitory neurotransmitter), glutamate (excitory neurotransmitter), GABA (inhibitory, sedation neurotransmitter), etc. In turn the disruptions in brain neurotransmitter systems are caused by genetic modifications (genetic polymorphisms) in genes that control neurotransmission pathways. That is why genetics is the main factor determining development of mental disorders: psychiatric disorders and addictions are hereditary and run in families.

Self-medicating with alcohol and drugs compensates for disruptions in neurotransmitter pathways, and, while alleviating the symptoms of anxiety, depression, and other common psychiatric disorders, leads to chronic addiction. 

The problem with treatment of mental disorders arises from the fact that same symptoms of the same psychiatric condition in different people may be caused by different alterations in any of the numerous genes controlling a variety of neurotransmission pathways. Currently available antidepressants compensate for alterations in specific steps of specific neurotransmission pathway. Therefore each medication can be beneficial for only a fraction of patients, and will not work, or produce adverse side effect in others. For example, while some patients respond well to Prozac and similar drugs, others develop agitation, hostility and suicidal behavior as a result of taking such drug. If the drug is not working for a patient, it means that the drug does not match patient’s genotype.

Genetic testing allows to determine the causative disruption of neurotransmission in each patient with mental disorder, and thus to match “right patient” to “right drug". Selecting right drug for each individual patient is called personalized medicine.

GeneIDs currently tests for five genetic polymorphisms altering neurotransmission of dopamine, serotonin, and GABA.

 Contact:

(510) 879-7130

info@geneids.com 

IMPORTANT: GeneIDs does not provide medical advice or medical treatment and is not responsible for your treatment outcomes. We are a genetic testing facility only.

See your health care provider to determine your treatment solution based on genetic profile. 

  Copyright 2007 GeneIDs, Inc.