Mental Health and Medication Essay

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Total Length: 1437 words ( 5 double-spaced pages)

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Introduction

Patient displays symptoms of acute schizophrenia that requires use of anxiolytics, antidepressants, mood stabilizers, and antipsychotics, specifically neuroleptics. Use of two or more neuroleptics in combination with the other medications can lead to health problems like obesity, diabetes mellitus, renal diseases, hyponatremia, and thyroid disorders among other diseases (Correll, Detraux, De Lepeleire, & De Hert, 2015). The central issue regarding use of four different medication types is often progressive decline of quality of life for those taking it. This plan of care is aimed at promoting improved quality of life and perhaps treatment alternatives and medication choices that will reduce likelihood of symptoms, but still maintain high efficacy.

Rationales for Specific Prescription Medications

Use of the four medication types: anxiolytics, antidepressants, mood stabilizers, and antipsychotics for schizophrenia has become a common treatment modality. It is not rare to see patients prescribed all at the same time. That is because schizophrenia affected how an individual thinks, feels, and acts. Often people with schizophrenia have hallucinations. They can be auditory or visual, and may prevent the individual from seeing the world in a normal way. Aside from the hallucinations, those with schizophrenia can experience delusions, jumbled speaking or thinking, strange posture and other random and odd movements (Fernández, 2016). The medications help a patient deal with these symptoms so they can function normally in society.

Delusions and hallucinations experienced by those with schizophrenia require use of antipsychotics. This class of medication works on the dopamine and serotonin chemicals in the brain (Fernández, 2016). However, often this class of medication does not work well and there is no first-line antipsychotic drug suitable for everyone (Burcu et al., 2017). Such a treatment modality may not be the best treatment option, but can be the only option for those experiencing strong hallucinations. Drugs like Seroquel have been used with side effects to achieve around 20% reduction in psychotic symptoms and potential for development of diabetes and other chronic health problems (Burcu et al., 2017).

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Although drugs like Clozapine has seen effectiveness in long-term studies (Lee, Kim, Lee, & Kwon, 2018).

Antidepressants are another common treatment modality that causes side effects like weight gain, obesity, and thyroid issues. However, they have demonstrated to be useful in treating negative symptoms. “More often, trials on somewhat persistent negative…

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…measure any potential signs of malnutrition and hormone imbalance. If patient fails to maintain a healthy weight and appears to have malnutrition, corrective actions will be taken like change in medication and patient education, along with referral to physical therapy. Physical therapy has shown to be an effective treatment modality that helps reduce psychological distress and state anxiety (Vera-Garcia, Mayoral-Cleries, Vancampfort, Stubbs, & Cuesta-Vargas, 2015). Additionally, strength and aerobic exercises can further improve health-related quality of life. If the patient cannot do this on her own, a physical therapist will be able to help her adhere to the protocol.

Conclusion

In conclusion, steps can be taken into improve the quality of life for patients like the one described here. Schizophrenia often becomes a complex order to treat due to the use of multiple medications and the serious side effects that may come with them like obesity and diabetes. The plan of care aims to reduce use of medications that increase the likelihood of symptoms and adopt sound self-care methods to properly cope with any metabolic issues that can arise. Although mental illness is a daunting task to improve, solutions do arise from the….....

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