I’ve been reading a lot of articles this week on pharmacogenomics and personalized medicine.  As someone who has unsuccessfully tried way too many medications, this is really interesting to me.  It’s no secret that individuals often have to try several psychotropic medications to find one that works for them.  It’s part of the psych experience fun.

The “Is this going to work for me?  Which of the hundred side effects am I going to experience?” mystery reminds me of this food seasoning that my uncle has, called “magic dust.”  The “magic” is that it tastes completely different depending on what you use it on (chicken, fish, etc).  It’s become the family joke that we use magic dust on everything.  My mom could bake cookies and we’ll ask if she used magic dust in them.

Lately I’ve felt like psych meds are like magic dust — the are used for everything and work differently for everyone.  Sprinkle a psychotropic on individuals with different diagnoses and you get different results.

Let’s take Lamictal, for example:
Seizures — I’m on this med for seizures.  It does NOT help my headaches (in fact, I think it makes them worse) and it makes me tired.  It also does nothing for my depression… in fact, I think it makes that worse, too.  It’s feeling very un-magic to me right now.
Bipolar —  Friend #1 was on Lamictal for bipolar disorder.  She did think it helped with mood stabilization, but she couldn’t sleep while she was on it and had blurred vision.  I wish I could exchange my fatigue for her insomnia right about now.
Depression — Friend #2 was on Lamictal for depression.  She experienced a hundred side effects (including the notorious rash) and loathes the drug.
Migraines — Another off-label use for Lamictal is migraine prophylaxis.  How unfair is that?  I guess that magic is lost on me, too.

And, don’t even get me started on Wellbutrin.  Depression?  Smoking?  Weight loss?  ADHD?  Is there anything (okay, besides seizures) that for which psychiatrists can’t use Wellbutrin?

While real magic dust makes everything taste good, this psych dust often just gives everyone different side effects. The promise of pharmacogenomics is actually the opposite of magic dust.  It’s personalized dust.  I know, I’m overusing the dust analogy… but that’s what I want: personalized dust.

Now, when it comes to cooking… well, that’s a different story.  I kind of wish you could even put it in cookies.