Thinking About Prescribing

Our remedies are only as good as the way in which we dispense them. That is the central premise of Thinking About Prescribing. In this new, thought-provoking volume, more than two dozen experts make the case for an ongoing alliance between pharmacotherapists, young patients, and their families. Chapters tackle issues ranging from the psychodynamics of medication use in youth with serious mental illness, adapting evidence-based motivation and therapy techniques to enhance adherence, cultivating the synergistic role of primary care providers and psychotherapists, engaging in psychoeducation with patients, to prescribing via telemedicine. Readers will pick up the foundational knowledge they need to develop a partnership with patients that is based on trust and candid communication--rather than on just the cold facts about psychotropic medications. Chapters feature key takeaways that distill the most salient points, helping readers to reference--and retain--the information easily.

Prescribing Mental Health Medication is a text for practitioners who treat mental disorders with medication. It explains the entire process of medication assessment, management and follow up for general medical practitioners, mental health practitioners, students, residents, prescribing nurses and others perfecting this skill. Already used by providers and training institutions throughout the world, the newly revised second edition is completely updated and focuses on the following key issues: How to determine if medication is needed Proper dosing and how to start and stop medication When to change medication Dealing with difficult patients Specific mental health symptoms and appropriate medication Special populations including pregnant women, substance abusers, children and adolescents, and the elderly Monitoring medication with blood levels Management of medication side effects and avoidance of medication risk The misuse of medication Prescription of generic preparations Prescriptions via the Internet, telemedicine, and electronic medical records Organizing a prescriptive office and record-keeping Completely updated, this text includes information on all psychotropic medications in use in the United States and the United Kingdom. It incorporates clinical tips, sample dialogues for talking about medications to patients, and information specifically relevant in primary care settings.

What if, rather than being dispensers of medication, mental health clinicians and primary care clinicians treating mental disorders were collaborators with patients in the prescribing relationship? To prescribe more effectively and to achieve health equity, Warren Kinghorn and Abraham Nussbaum argue, it's necessary--and in Prescribing Together, they offer a roadmap for making it a reality. In these pages, readers will find practical introductions to key concepts, from cultural formation and structural competency to collaborative deprescribing, and profiles, enlivened by personal anecdotes, of a diverse group of accomplished clinicians that offer evidence-based strategies for building strong alliances in the context of 13 mental disorder categories, including generalized anxiety disorder, major depressive disorder, borderline personality disorder, and neurocognitive disorders. By focusing on how, rather than what, to prescribe, this book makes room for patients' lived experiences and interpersonal and social contexts, returning to them a sense of agency and empowering them to set meaningful goals and to be active participants in their own flourishing.

This unique handbook provides a primary care perspective on how to get the best use of medicines. Combining a patient, system and drug-centred approach to optimising prescribing for common conditions, it provides the busy GP with a systematic way of thinking about medication-related problems and addresses clinical pharmacology and consulting skills. It uses a case-based approach to prompt reflection on drug and non-drug management of common conditions seen in primary care.

Physician-historian Jeremy A. Greene examines the mechanisms by which drugs and chronic disease categories define one another within medical research, clinical practice, and pharmaceutical marketing, and he explores how this interaction has profoundly altered the experience, politics, ethics, and economy of health in late-twentieth-century America.

The revised 13th edition of the essential reference for the prescribing of drugs for patients with mental health disorders The revised and updated 13th edition of The Maudsley Prescribing Guidelines in Psychiatry provides up-to-date information, expert guidance on prescribing practice in mental health, including drug choice, treatment of adverse effects and how to augment or switch medications. The text covers a wide range of topics including pharmacological interventions for schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, depression and anxiety, and many other less common conditions. There is advice on prescribing in children and adolescents, in substance misuse and in special patient groups. This world-renowned guide has been written in concise terms by an expert team of psychiatrists and specialist pharmacists. The Guidelines help with complex prescribing problems and include information on prescribing psychotropic medications outside their licensed indications as well as potential interactions with other medications and substances such as alcohol, tobacco and caffeine. In addition, each of the book’s 165 sections features a full reference list so that evidence on which guidance is based can be readily accessed. This important text: Is the world’s leading clinical resource for evidence-based prescribing in day-to-day clinical practice and for formulating prescribing policy Includes referenced information on topics such as transferring from one medication to another, prescribing psychotropic medications during pregnancy or breastfeeding, and treating patients with comorbid physical conditions, including impaired renal or hepatic function. Presents guidance on complex clinical problems that may not be encountered routinely Written for psychiatrists, neuropharmacologists, pharmacists and clinical psychologists as well as nurses and medical trainees, The Maudsley Prescribing Guidelines in Psychiatry are the established reference source for ensuring the safe and effective use of medications for patients presenting with mental health problems.

"Prescribing Mental Health Medication is a text for nursing and medical practitioners who are learning how to diagnose and treat mental disorders with medication. Skills-based, it focuses on the following key issues: how to start and stop medication, how to dose, when to change medication, dealing with particular kinds of patients, specific illnesses and their medication, special populations and conditions, the management of side effects, practical issues such as monitoring medication with blood levels, administrative issues such as record-keeping."--Publisher's description.

The New Prescriber is a comprehensive, accessible textbook that provides essential coverage of the three core components for prescribing: the client/patient, the evidence, and the pharmacology. Divided into three sections, this text first looks at the consultation with the patient, and outlines legal, professional and ethical frameworks which guide medical and non-medical prescribing. The second section is devoted to evidence-based practice, highlighting key skills essential to all clinicians. This section encourages the student to identify why evidence-based practice should underpin prescribing decisions. The third and final section is concerned with pharmacology. The student is introduced to basic concepts of pharmacodynamics and pharmacokinetics, adverse drug reactions and variability of response. The importance of these pharmacological principles is highlighted throughout the subsequent discussion of drug groups affecting major body systems. Key features: Pulls together all key elements of prescribing using an integrated approach ‘Stop and Think' boxes and practice application activities provided throughout, enabling the reader to link theory to practice Key terms and glossary provided This text is invaluable for all nursing, health and medical students taking courses in prescribing and pharmacology.

In this stirring and beautifully written wake-up call, psychiatrist Daniel Carlat writes with bracing honesty about how psychiatry has so largely forsaken the practice of talk therapy for the seductive—and more lucrative—practice of simply prescribing drugs, with a host of deeply troubling consequences. Psychiatrist Daniel Carlat has noticed a pattern plaguing his profession. Psychiatrists have settled for treating symptoms rather than causes, embracing the apparent medical rigor of DSM diagnoses and prescription in place of learning the more challenging craft of therapeutic counseling, gaining only limited understanding of their patients’ lives. Talk therapy takes time, whereas the fifteen-minute "med check" allows for more patients and more insurance company reimbursement. Yet, DSM diagnoses, he shows, are premised on a good deal less science than we would think. Writing from an insider’s perspective, with refreshing forthrightness about his own daily struggles as a practitioner, Dr. Carlat shares a wealth of stories from his own practice and those of others that demonstrate the glaring shortcomings of the standard fifteen-minute patient visit. He also reveals the dangers of rampant diagnoses of bipolar disorder, ADHD, and other "popular" psychiatric disorders, and exposes the risks of the cocktails of medications so many patients are put on. Especially disturbing are the terrible consequences of overprescription of drugs to children of ever younger ages. Taking us on a tour of the world of pharmaceutical marketing, he also reveals the inner workings of collusion between psychiatrists and drug companies. Concluding with a road map for exactly how the profession should be reformed, Unhinged is vital reading for all those in treatment or considering it, as well as a stirring call to action for the large community of psychiatrists themselves. As physicians and drug companies continue to work together in disquieting and harmful ways, and as diagnoses—and misdiagnoses—of mental disorders skyrocket, it’s essential that Dr. Carlat’s bold call for reform is heeded.