TOLEDO, Ohio — Throughout the pandemic, more and more people have sought treatment and medication for anxiety and depression. Some psychiatrists are using genetics to personalize their prescriptions.
"It's been a really long journey for me, personally," said Anna Crumrine, 32. "I was diagnosed with anxiety in early adulthood, around 19-20 years old."
Crumrine tried different medications to treat her anxiety for more than a decade but with each prescription drug came worse symptoms.
"My side effects were extremely increased anxiety (and) suicidal thoughts. I would have the feeling of not being in my own body," Crumrine said.
The pandemic didn't help mental health patients like Crumrine.
"My health anxiety really increased. I would get really uncomfortable being around people. I had a hard time doing my job. I worked in a restaurant. I was nervous about myself or my child being around anybody. The uncertainty of the pandemic and the illness. So it was a really hard scary time for me."
Crumrine went to her psychiatrist looking for a solution.
"I was at the point where I didn't want to try any more medications. I said, 'I'm done. I feel so much worse taking medication, and it's not helping me,'" she said.
Crumrine took a genetic test from a company based in Mason, Ohio, called GeneSight to figure out which medications worked best for her specifically.
Gene drug testing or pharmacogenetics have increased in use over the past decade, which is branch of pharmacology that focuses on the effect of genetic factors on reactions to drugs. According to the Mayo Clinic, there are some limitations to pharmacogenetics. There aren't tests for all medications, and sometimes you may need more than one.
Right now, it's used to find better ways of using drugs to manage things like heart disease, cancer, asthma, and depression and anxiety.
Psychiatrist Dr. Nan Nelson uses gene testing with all of her patients.
“At the first meeting, I talk about that I would like to know what their body does, not what another 1,000 people do, because I've been thoroughly trained and you know, looking at symptoms and saying, well, that's what you treat it with. But if their body can't respond to that, how is that helpful to go down that process? And people describe themselves as guinea pigs and that's not comfortable," Nelson said.
Gene testing shows certain medications as green, yellow or red for a patient based on their body's ability to metabolize the drug. Green means good whereas if one is red.
"So, I tell people it's kind of like going to a stoplight. A green light doesn't mean that there isn't snow. It doesn't mean that there was no police officer. It doesn't mean that there isn't somebody standing in the sidewalk. But your expectation when you have a green light is that you can get through it. A yellow light means you either step on the brakes or you step on the gas, but you use caution and then red means you use extreme caution because if you're going into an intersection, you can be T-boned and that's not helpful," said Nelson.
Crumrine's GeneSight results explained why she had such a hard time finding treatment.
“There were only two in my good to moderate interaction, whereas all of the other medications, they were red," she said.
One of those two medications worked, and now she’s encouraging everyone who struggles with their mental health not to give up on finding treatment.
"I feel amazing. Now, since taking the gene site test, getting on a medication regimen that works for me, I have been doing really well. I started going back to school. I've been doing really well at work. I received a huge promotion so I'm just really excited about the next steps in life for myself," she said.