How your Parents can Help your Treatment

(read time: 1 min)

If you can talk with any of your biological parents or grandparents about what psych meds worked or didn’t work for them, it could save you a lot of trial and error. The more details—exact prescriptions, combinations, doses—the better. Your genes are a blend of theirs, making this one of the few relatively objective pieces of the mental health puzzle. Bring this information to your prescriber.  

Getting these details from family members can be tricky, if not impossible. Treatment outcomes are influenced by more than just genetics, but if you can have that conversation, it could be a real cheat code. This approach can also work with physical health meds and even behavioral strategies.

 It works in reverse with your offspring as well. While I don’t recommend discussing this with minors, observing their reactions to treatments can be informative for your own care. Even if you disagree with your family about everything else, your brains are likely to respond in similar ways to medications.