Centre for Aging + Brain Health Innovation (CABHI) study finds that Pillcheck helped identify medications that were not effective or posed a high risk of side effects for long-term care residents. The revised medication plans significantly improved the management of depression and chronic pain and reduced the risk of...
Precision medicine, using pharmacogenomic testing, can streamline the process of finding the right treatment for each patient’s depression and result in better outcomes. Pharmacogenomics, also called pharmacogenetics or PGx, facilitates a personalized prescribing approach that utilizes a person’s genetic information to inform medication selection and dosing decisions. While some...
Bupropion (Wellbutrin) is a “second generation” antidepressant that differs from SSRIs. Bupropion acts as a norepinephrine–dopamine reuptake inhibitor and has a much lower involvement of the serotonin pathway. Therefore, bupropion is frequently used for people who did not respond to or could not tolerate SSRIs. In addition to depression...
If you’ve seen the movie Wall Street, you’ll remember the part when Charlie Sheen confronts the gregarious Wall Street money machine Gordon Gekko (Michael Douglas). Douglas glares at Sheen and says, “OK, pal, tell me something I don’t already know!” Timeless. Let’s talk about pharmacogenetic (PGx) testing, a form...
A recent study found that nearly 75% of employees in underrepresented groups — women, racial and ethnic minorities, and LGBTQ employees — do not feel they've personally benefited from their companies' diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs. As many executives re-examined their organizations' diversity and inclusion initiatives, they discovered a reinvention...
Promoting diversity, equity and inclusion, once considered a worthy goal, now has become imperative to employee experience and organizational success. More than half of employers say DEI would be a high priority for them this year. The following is a guest blog post from CloudAdvisors, Canada's Employee Benefits Marketplace,...
How does the Pillcheck pharmacogenetic program make health benefit plans more inclusive, reflecting our true biological diversity? Includes interviews with experts in human genetics and John Papastergiou, a published expert in pharmacogenetics in the pharmacy setting, explaining why doctors might inadvertently ignore our biological diversity. Features results from a...
Untreated depression can affect all facets of life. It can ruin relationships at work and home, disrupt sleep, increase the chance of risky behaviours such as drug or alcohol addiction, make it difficult to overcome physical illnesses. Appropriate treatment, however, can help most people with depression. Most people do best with depression...
Pharmacogenetics uses a patient's genetic profile to accurately predict a drug's efficacy, guide dosage and improve the safety of treatments. Depending on your genetic makeup, some medications may work faster or slower, or produce more or fewer side effects. The scientific field of pharmacogenetics, the link between your unique...
People with arthritis take medications to manage pain and stem disease progression. However, long-term use of these drugs poses risks of severe complications including tuberculosis, increased risk of leukemia, heart disease and bleeding. Here we describe how the science of pharmacogenetics can help to improve the safety of treatment...
