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Medications Used for Mental Health Illness

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Understanding Pharmacology in Nursing Practice

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Abstract

Treatment focused on mental ill health includes a range of medication generally categorised as antipsychotic medications, antidepressants and anxiolytics. The differentiation does not describe the complete variance of mental health illness, but it does provide a framework from where an understanding of the biological circuitry of reward, motivation and stress as a target for drug manipulation can be gained.

A full understanding of how and why mental health disorders occur is not yet achieved, indeed it appears the same clinical symptom may be caused by multiple mechanisms. This means that manifestation of a particular symptom may have a different aetiology in different people.

In this chapter, action potential and synapse function are discussed and applied to therapeutic drugs that impact on the central nervous system. Taking this process further, this chapter examines particular pathways in the brain associated with mental health illness and how interfering with nerve communication in these pathways may modulate a person’s mental health.

As initially suggested the three mental health conditions to be addressed in this chapter are schizophrenia, depression and anxiety. Drugs identified and discussed for these conditions may also be prescribed for other illnesses such as bipolar disorder.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Florence Nightingale Faculty of Nursing, Midwifery & Palliative Care, King’s College London, London, UK

    Ehsan Khan

Authors
  1. Ehsan Khan
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Ehsan Khan .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. (Retired) Florence Nightingale Faculty of Nursing, Midwifery & Palliative Care, King’s College London, London, UK

    Pauline Hood

  2. Florence Nightingale Faculty of Nursing, Midwifery & Palliative Care, King’s College London, London, UK

    Ehsan Khan

Appendices

Multiple Choice Questions

  1. 1.

    Inhibition of dopaminergic nerves by antipsychotic medication medications commonly results in which symptom:

    1. (a)

      Chest pain

    2. (b)

      Parkinsonian symptoms

    3. (c)

      Itching

    4. (d)

      Hyperglycemia

  2. 2.

    Electrocardiograms (ECGS) are now required for the majority of patients being treated with antipsychotic medications. This is undertaken to identify a variant of which abnormal heart rhythm:

    1. (a)

      Atrial tachycardia

    2. (b)

      Ventricular tachycardia

    3. (c)

      AV Block

    4. (d)

      Atrial fibrillation

  3. 3.

    Dopaminergic-mediated prolactin secretion leading to lactation used to be an adverse effect commonly associated with typical antipsychotic medications:

    1. (a)

      True

    2. (b)

      False

  4. 4.

    Serotonin re-uptake inhibitors may cause which problematic adverse effect:

    1. (a)

      Bradycardia

    2. (b)

      Weight gain

    3. (c)

      Chest pain

    4. (d)

      Bronchospasm

  5. 5.

    Drugs that interact with cytochrome P450 3A4 (CYP3A4), commonly increase the risk of drug interactions. Identify the CYP that is of importance in antidepressant drug metabolism:

    1. (a)

      CYP2E1

    2. (b)

      CYP2B6

    3. (c)

      CYP2D6

    4. (d)

      CYP1A2

  6. 6.

    Benzodiazepines act on which form of nerve receptor:

    1. (a)

      Glutamatergic

    2. (b)

      Cholinergic

    3. (c)

      Adrenergic

    4. (d)

      GABAergic

  7. 7.

    Use of benzodiazepines is associated with which problem:

    1. (a)

      Insomnia

    2. (b)

      Diarrhoea

    3. (c)

      Withdrawal symptoms

    4. (d)

      Tardive dyskinesia

  8. 8.

    Which ethnicity population has difficulty metabolising benzodiazepines, resulting in the risk of elevated drug levels:

    1. (a)

      Asian

    2. (b)

      Black

    3. (c)

      Polynesian

    4. (d)

      White

Answers

  1. 1.

    b

  2. 2.

    b

  3. 3.

    a

  4. 4.

    b

  5. 5.

    c

  6. 6.

    d

  7. 7.

    c

  8. 8.

    a

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Khan, E. (2020). Medications Used for Mental Health Illness. In: Hood, P., Khan, E. (eds) Understanding Pharmacology in Nursing Practice . Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-32004-1_13

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-32004-1_13

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-030-32003-4

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-32004-1

  • eBook Packages: MedicineMedicine (R0)

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