Psychopharmacology, in clinical terms, means using medications in treating mental disorders. This method of treatment requires continuous monitoring of the patient. For each individual patient physician needs to stay update on:
- Protein binding (how available the medication is to the body)
- Half-life (how long the medication stays in the body)
- Polymorphic genes (genes which vary widely from person to person)
- Drug-to-drug interactions (how medications affect one another)
At Northwest psychiatry when a patient is prescribed medication, they are put under continuous monitoring, to avoid misuse of drugs. Simply letting patients to buy medications off the counter is not just careless but also reduces benefits derived from it.
Counselors working with the patient are constantly connected with patients, pro-actively engage patients and are available anytime. The extremely intrusive approach helps in understanding how well the drug is performing, and keep watching for any abnormalities.
Managing medicine is in no way a simple process, extreme caution is required while measuring medication efficacy, switching medication if desired results are not reached, and telling patient to quit if the therapy is no longer needed.
