Psychotropic Medication Decision Making

Psychotropic Medication and Diminishing Returns
Psychotropic Medication and Diminishing Returns

Psychotropic Medication and Diminishing Returns

Given the volume of e-mails I receive weekly, it is increasingly apparent to me that far too little information regarding the length of use of certain psychotropic medication classes is being transmitted from the prescriber to the patient. Length of use is important because inevitably, medication bites back. And when I say drugs bite back, I’m not referring to initial side effects – which are part and parcel of every medication ever to make it to market, to some extent. [...]

joe2015-09-15T19:38:01+00:00

Drug Interactions

If you’re seeing patients taking psychotropic medications, or if you’re taking psychotropics yourself, it’s worth having a working knowledge of what happens when drugs enter the system and what their effects are on other drugs and even foodstuffs that are also consumed. Interactions occur when the actions of one drug (the precipitant drug) affects the activity of another (the object drug) when both are administered together. Actions can be synergistic (when the object drug’s activity is increased) or antagonistic (when [...]

joe2014-10-21T14:14:25+00:00

Psychotropic Medication Decision Making: Toss the Algorithms and Decision Trees Aside

At every Psychopharmacology seminar I present, the following occurs: an attendee approaches me with a question regarding drug selection. I’m provided a small measure of the client’s history and the attendee’s assessment of the client’s condition. Invariably, the next question is what medication I would recommend. The expectation is for me to help after a two or three minute conversation guided by rudimentary information at best. […]

joe2012-03-12T23:51:10+00:00