Pharmacogenetic Testing in Russell, KY
Pharmacogenetic Testing in Russell, KY: How Deep Waters Counseling Services Is Personalizing Mental Health Care
Troy Evans (above), former special teams captain for the New Orleans Saints and founder of Industry Lab, with a Deep Waters Counseling Services team member during PGx testing training at the Russell, KY office.
Deep Waters Counseling Services, LLC, a mental health provider based in Russell, Kentucky, now offers pharmacogenetic testing (PGx testing) to clients throughout the region. This addition gives our counseling service a powerful new tool for guiding medication prescribing decisions for clients living with depression, anxiety, and serious mental illness.
The idea came to us through an unexpected connection. Troy Evans, a former NFL player who served as special teams captain for the New Orleans Saints during their 2009 Super Bowl-winning season, now leads Industry Lab, a medical laboratory testing company based in the Cincinnati area. Evans visited our office to train our clinical team on DNA sample collection and PGx test ordering, and the response from our staff was immediate: this is a resource our clients need.
What Is Pharmacogenetic Testing?
Pharmacogenetics, also called pharmacogenomics, is the study of how a person's genes affect the way their body responds to specific medications. According to the National Library of Medicine's MedlinePlus, genetic variations can determine whether a medication produces a strong response, a weak response, or unwanted side effects in a particular patient. A simple blood, saliva, or cheek swab sample is all that's needed to run the test.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration maintains a Table of Pharmacogenetic Associations, which catalogs gene-drug interactions the agency has evaluated as having sufficient scientific evidence to suggest that certain patients metabolize specific drugs differently based on their genetic makeup. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention notes that this information is increasingly being used to guide safer, more effective prescribing across many areas of medicine, including psychiatry.
Why PGx Testing Matters for Mental Health Care
For decades, prescribers treating depression, anxiety, and serious mental illness have relied on a trial-and-error process to find the right medication. A client might try one antidepressant for six to eight weeks, see little improvement or intolerable side effects, and then have to start over with another option. This process can take months, during which a client's symptoms often continue to interfere with daily life.
Mental illness is common in our region and across the country. The National Institute of Mental Health, using data from the 2022 National Survey on Drug Use and Health, reports that an estimated 23.1% of U.S. adults experienced any mental illness in the past year. Kentucky's most recent Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) data show that serious mental illness and major depressive episodes remain significant public health concerns nationally, underscoring the need for efficient, evidence-based approaches to treatment.
PGx testing allows a prescriber to see, before writing a prescription, which medications a client's body is likely to metabolize normally, too quickly, or too slowly, and which medications carry a higher risk of side effects for that individual. Rather than guessing and adjusting after the fact, our clients' prescribers can use genetic information to help narrow the field of options from the start.
How Deep Waters Counseling Services Uses PGx Testing
As a mental health provider, Deep Waters Counseling Services is committed to treating the whole person, not just a diagnosis. Pharmacogenetic testing fits directly into that holistic approach:
A simple, non-invasive sample (cheek swab or saliva) is collected in our Russell, KY office.
The sample is processed by a certified laboratory partner to analyze genes known to affect drug metabolism.
Results are shared with the client's prescriber to help inform medication choices for depression, anxiety, and other mental health conditions.
Ongoing counseling continues alongside medication management, so clients receive coordinated, whole-person care.
It's worth noting, as the FDA points out, that not every medication has an established pharmacogenetic association, and testing is one factor among several a prescriber will weigh, alongside personal and family medical history, lifestyle, and other medications a client may be taking. PGx testing is a tool for informed decision-making, not a replacement for clinical judgment or ongoing care.
A Modern Approach to an Old Problem
Troy Evans's visit to our office was a reminder that innovation in mental health care can come from unexpected places. His transition from professional football to medical laboratory leadership at Industry Lab reflects the same kind of purposeful reinvention we hope to offer our clients: a smarter, more targeted path toward feeling better.
By combining pharmacogenetic testing with compassionate counseling, Deep Waters Counseling Services, LLC is working to reduce the months of trial and error that so often accompany psychiatric medication management, and to help clients throughout Russell, Kentucky, and the surrounding region get on a path toward stability sooner.
Schedule a Consultation
If you or a loved one are struggling with depression, anxiety, or a serious mental illness and want to learn whether pharmacogenetic testing could help guide your treatment, contact Deep Waters Counseling Services, LLC in Russell, KY, to schedule a consultation with our team.
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