03/27/2026
🧬 Let's talk GENETICS!! 🧬
At Front Porch Psychiatry, we believe mental health care should be as personalized as possible. One of the tools we use to help guide treatment decisions is Tempus genetic testing, which offers a more advanced and comprehensive approach compared to traditional pharmacogenetic tests like GeneSight.
Most people have heard of GeneSight, which focuses primarily on how your body metabolizes psychiatric medications, essentially how your liver enzymes (like CYP450) break medications down. While that information can be helpful, it only tells part of the story.
Tempus testing goes several steps further.
Tempus analyzes a broader set of genetic markers that help us understand not just how you metabolize medications, but also how your brain may biologically respond to them. It evaluates pharmacokinetic genes (metabolism) and pharmacodynamic genes (how medications interact with receptors and brain pathways). This provides a more complete picture when choosing medications for conditions like depression, anxiety, ADHD, and mood disorders.
Another advantage is that Tempus continuously integrates new research and clinical data, which helps keep recommendations aligned with the most current science in psychiatric genetics.
What does this mean for you as a patient?
✔ More personalized medication selection
✔ Potentially fewer trial-and-error medication changes
✔ Better understanding of why you experience certain feelings, behaviors and symptoms
Genetic testing doesn’t replace clinical judgment or therapy, but it can be an incredibly valuable decision-support tool when creating a treatment plan.
If you’ve struggled with medications that didn’t seem to work or caused difficult side effects, genetic testing may help guide us toward better options.
Your mental health journey deserves a personalized approach. 💙
