Psychotropic Summaries

I started doing the monthly psychotropic summaries last night and it dawned tome that we were catering a lot of resident's who are on psychotropic meds. I mean we are turning like a psychiatric ward when in fact we are not licensed to be one. I wonder if we were planning to put up a behavioral unit? Highly unlikely I guess but it seems that we were leaning to be a mental rehab unit. Haist.

It also hightened my attention that everytime people get admitted, especially the adults and the elderly people, there's always an accompanying doctor's orders for inability to sleep, anxiety, and depression aside from the mental health disorder that they have. No wonder why the behavior flares up because of the severe side effects of the psychotropic drugs in the body.

Americans are pampered people and by just a small complaints of this and that tey will go to the doctor and ask for a prescription. They are not known to be stoical or calm people especially when they are stressed. It is just easy for them to pop some medicines without even knowing the consequences of their actions not knowing it will lead them to destruction.

Imagine popping a simple drug like Tylenol. People doesn't know that if they overdose with Tylenol they will have toxicity and that their liver will be highly damage because the drug is being metabolized in the liver. According to the book the body can only metabolized 3,000 mg of Tylenol or Acetaminophen (in Generic) a day and of it goes beyond that it is a lethal or toxic level and the body will react to the toxins especially the liver where it is being metabolized.

As I am doing my review of the psychotropic drugs I can imagine these people taking the medication. Some of them had severe signs and symptoms of tardive dyskinesia, akinesia, motor disturbances, attention deficits, etc. It is a pity because of the doctor's getting use to prescribing it to the residents.

Psychotropic drugs includes most antipsychotics, antianxieties, antidepressants, hypnotics, and anticonvulsants which also lowers down a person's reactivity thus calming them. These medications can cause a lot of permanent harm rather than curing the resident. But it is a win-lose situation and the odds are tough. On the contrary, it can help people minimize their disorder but it is still not worth the risk.

I am almost finished with my summaries but I still can imagine how hard it is working in psychiatric units dealing with people who are not there. Mostly some of them are catatonic because of the severe effects of the drug in the nervous system. Despite of this I am still wondering how these behaviors responds to the drugs specific to that disorder. It is so amazing how this drugs works wonders initially then destroys the person eventually. It's just a puzzle to me despite I know how it affects a person once it is taken.

It was a smooth transition checking all of this summaries and I am glad it is almost finished. I have been doing it every month for almost five years bnow, since I started in this place yet I am still confused as to how some of the drugs function. I guess I still have to keep doing it so that I will know more about the drugs.

Every day is always a learning process and I never cease learning all the time. My job always have a lot of opportunities to offer and sometimes I tend to neglect the importance of this opportunities in my life. Anyways, I have to go now and see you again on my next blog. Take care and God bles!