Can This Test Save You From Addiction?

In Georgia, a doctor is offering a test he says can genetically determine if patients are at risk for addiction.  As reported by FOX 5, Dr. Damon Kimes is a pain and addiction specialist at Roswell Pain Specialist. He says the test is a genetic profile that indicates whether a person is likely to become addicted to opioids.

“People often do not know what their genetics hold,” Dr. Kimes tell Fox 5. “What we will be able to do is look at opioid at risk index, we are going to be able to look at specific medications and how your body metabolizes or breaks down those medications.”

As reported by The Center for Disease Control and Prevention, 45 percent of people who use heroin were also addicted to prescription painkillers—for many that is how the addiction initially began. With Kimes’ test, results from the genetic profile are available three to 7 days after the test and yield whether a patient’s risk of addiction is low, moderate or high.

If a doctor sees the patient is highly at risk to become addicted to opioids, they can prescribe a non-opioid painkiller, which eliminates the risk for the patient and still allows them to not suffer through their pain or recovery.

The results for these tests is 90 percent accurate and is currently covered by insurance.