Discovering the new science that’s supporting professionals in providing safer, more personalized treatment
Mental health problems can feel quite unpredictable — one family member struggles, while others are seemingly unaffected. However, behind these trends, there is an emerging field that is changing how clinicians view and care for their patients as it relates specifically to the condition of mental health – psychiatric genetics. Together, the expansion of the use of telehealth is reshaping the future of mental health.
What Is Psychiatric Genetics?
Psychiatric genetics is the study of how our genes may play a role in causing or influencing mental health. For example, diagnoses such as depression, anxiety, bipolar disorder and schizophrenia often go from generation to generation, indicating our biological inheritance may put someone in the trajectory of again and again developing a mental health diagnosis, acting like a vulnerability.
But, genetics is not fate.
Genetics interacts with all of our life experience, stress, trauma, environment and even what supportive relationships we have or don’t have. Two siblings who may share the same family history will often have very different outcomes. Life’s environmental experiences often play a particularly powerful role in mental health.
This unique combination of biology and experience accounts for the individualized experience of mental health, and the individualization of treatment.
Why This Matters in Clinical Practice
For mental health professionals, learning about genetics adds another layer of understanding when evaluating a patient’s needs.
- Advance Awareness, Monitor More Closely
Just because a patient has a significant family history of a disorder does not mean that patient will go on to develop that disorder; however, it may support clinicians to be more vigilant regarding early symptoms, resulting in quicker treatment that is often associated with better prognosis.
- Decreasing Stigma and Shame
Often patients will come to believe they are the ones at fault for their symptoms. Understanding this genetic information has the potential to help individuals understand that:
- Mental illness is not a personal failure
- It is shaped by both biology and environment
- Risk is not certainty — change is absolutely possible
This understanding can be very relieving, as it can assuage a shameful experience, which can enhance a willingness to seek help.
- Provide More Personalized, Supportive Mental Health Care
The importance of genetic awareness would allow clinicians to tailor their education, prevention, and treatment according to what disclosable genetic history is available resulting in care that is more attuned to the patient, their biological make up and related factors, and potentially weaponized against their experiences for the future.
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The Rise of Telehealth in Mental Health Care
Telehealth has established itself as a significant presence in clinical practice. For many patients, a mental health professional can feel less intimidating and more accessible when met online rather than in person.
Telehealth offers an advantage for individuals who:
- Live at a distance from clinics
- Have mobility or transportation issues
- Prefer privacy or comfort of being at home
- Have busy schedules
- Need regular check-ins or assistance
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Telehealth can be even more useful when combined with knowledge of genetic risk where telehealth creates an opportunity for earlier assessment, more frequent monitoring, and earlier support when symptoms arise.
Prescribing Controlled Substances via Telehealth: Safety is Key
Some psychiatric medications used to treat ADHD or certain anxiety disorders are recognized as controlled substances because they can be misused. Therapy that includes prescribing these medications using telehealth is determined by the clinician using safety protocols.
This involves:
- Conducting appropriate assessment
- Regularly monitoring the client
- Educating clients about risk
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Responsible prescribing is vital in establishing trust, and ensuring the safety of the client.
Where Genetics Meets Telehealth
The greatest paradigm shift in mental health care happens as these two disciplines — genetics literally informing telehealth practice (e.g., tele-psychological genetic health assessment and treatment) — are both synergistic.
Clinicians are now able to:
- Detect risk earlier
- Provide education efficiently
- Deliver seamless on-demand support from anywhere
- Adjust treatment plans informed by empirically grounded psychosocial genetic knowledge
- Minimize risk when utilizing controlled substances
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When genetics and telehealth are combined, this provides care that is more proactive, personalized, and responsively delivered than care delivered through traditional mental health service delivery methods.
- Evaluation whether medication is appropriate and necessary
- Good documentation of care to protect the client and the provider.
- Andreassen, O. A., Thompson, W. K., Schork, A. J., Kendler, K. S., O’Donovan, M. C., & Wray, N. R. (2023). New insights from the last decade of research in psychiatric genetics and their possible clinical applications. World Psychiatry, 22(3), 342–357. https://doi.org/10.1002/wps.21034
- Besterman, A., Smith, L. J., Patel, R., & Johnson, S. L. (2024). Psychiatric genetics in clinical practice: Essential concepts and applications. American Journal of Psychiatry, 181(4), 295–310. https://doi.org/10.1176/appi.ajp.20240295
- Bradley, S. (2024, July). Should the DEA allow providers to prescribe controlled substances via telehealth? Bradley Insights. https://www.bradley.com/insights/publications/2024/07/should-the-dea-allow-providers-to-prescribe-controlled-substances-via-telehealth-means
- JAMA Health Forum. (2025). Telemedicine special registrations for controlled substances. JAMA Health Forum, 6(1), e233211. https://doi.org/10.1001/jamahealthforum.2023.3211
- Pinzón-Espinosa, J., Collier, D. A., & Lawson, K. (2022). Barriers to genetic testing in clinical psychiatry and ways forward. Translational Psychiatry, 12, 22. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41398-022-02203-6
- U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. (2024). Prescribing controlled substances via telehealth. Telehealth.HHS.gov. https://telehealth.hhs.gov/providers/telehealth-policy/prescribing-controlled-substances-via-telehealth
Conclusion: The Future is Empowering for Patients
Psychiatric genetics is a field that has established that mental health is determined by biology, as well as lived life experiences. Telehealth is a field that has democratized, or made access to, expert mental health care more ubiquitous. In the end, both areas are efficacious; combined they signify the future for a patient/client focus of mental health practice that is both empathetic and also grounded in knowledgeable understanding of needs. If you would like to learn more about utilizing genetics and telehealth for better mental health care, or if you’re a professional wondering about incorporating these resources into your practice, please reach out or look around for more posts about modern psychiatric care.
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