Drug Metabolism
Drug metabolism refers to how quickly certain medicines are processed by your body. How quickly you process these drugs can affect whether a medicine will work for you, or whether you may feel side-effects.
Your body uses enzymes to metabolize your medicines. If one of your enzymes is slower than the others, this will mean that some medicines might not work well for you. But importantly, this does NOT mean that ALL medicines will not work for you. Different medicines are processed by different enzymes.
Doctors use 5 different categories to describe how fast your enzymes work. These speeds are called your “metabolizer status”. Doctors can use your metabolizer status to identify the best therapy for you.
The 5 different types of metabolizer status are described below.
- A person who is a “Poor Metabolizer” for a medicine will process that medicine very slowly. The medicine might not work if it is processed slowly, or it could put them at risk for side-effects.
- A person who is an “Intermediate Metabolizer” for a medicine will process that drug slowly, but not as slowly as a poor metabolizer. This means that the normal amount (or dosage) of certain medicines may not work for them, or may cause side-effects.
- A “Normal Metabolizer” for a medicine usually benefits from the normal amount (or dosage) of the medicine. This means the metabolizer status does not put them at increased risk for side-effects.
- A person who is a “Rapid Metabolizer” or “Ultrarapid Metabolizer” for a medicine can process the medicine very quickly. A medicine might not work if it is processed very quickly, or it could put the person at risk for side-effects.
Your metabolizer status depends on the enzymes that are processing your specific medicine(s). Since everyone’s body has multiple enzymes that process medicines, it is possible to have multiple metabolizer status. You may be a rapid metabolizer for one drug, and a normal metabolizer for a different drug.
Your genes can determine in part how fast your enzymes can metabolize a specific medicine and how you may respond to a particular drug. Your genes are unique, and this means that your enzymes may work differently from other people.
The PREDICT test measures several genes that affect how many medicines are processed. Once the test is done, you will receive a PREDICT report that contains your metabolizer status for different medicines. This information will help you and your doctor identify a treatment plan that works best for you.