Question

The use of sedative medications to control behaviours is controversial and has been described as being highly coercive and having significant effects on a person (MuirCochrane & Grace, 2017). In this essay you are required to critically discuss:

• the controversy of the use of psychotropic medications to control behaviours and manage symptoms for people who experience mental illness.

• Identify the challenging aspects for registered nurses who administer psychotropic medication to the consumer who poses significant risk of harm to self and/or others, in promoting recovery-oriented practice.

Your essay must utilise a range of national and international contemporary literature, to create an argument that identifies the complexities of this issue.

Answer 1

Psychotropic drugs are prescribed to treat a variety of mental health issues when those issues cause significant impairment to healthy functioning. Psychotropic drugs typically work by changing or balancing the amount of important chemicals in the brain called neurotransmitters.

A psychotropic describes any drug that affects behavior, mood, thoughts, or perception. It’s an umbrella term for a lot of different drugs, including prescription drugs and commonly misused drugs.

**Fast facts about psychotropic drugs

1.Psychotropics are a broad category of drugs that treat many different conditions.

2.They work by adjusting levels of brain chemicals, or neurotransmitters, like dopamine, gamma aminobutyric acid (GABA), norepinephrine, and serotonin.

**There are five major classes of legal psychotropic medications:

1.anti-anxiety agents

2.antidepressants

3.antipsychotics

4.mood stabilizers

5.stimulants

3.Some can cause very serious side effects and have special monitoring requirements by healthcare providers.

Some conditions psychotropics treat include:

*anxiety

*depression

*schizophrenia

*bipolar disorder

*sleep disorders

The number of children in the US taking prescription drugs for emotional and behavioral disturbances is growing dramatically.

This growth in the use of psychotropic drugs in pediatric populations has given rise to multiple controversies, ranging from concerns over off-label use and long-term safety to debates about the societal value and cultural meaning of pharmacological treatment of childhood behavioral and emotional disorders.

approximately one in five children and adolescents experience the signs and symptoms of a recognized (DSM-IV) disorder during the course of a year, of whom about 5% experience "extreme functional impairment".Some more recent studies support this finding, arguing that a majority of disorders begin before 14 years of age with a significant portion already manifest in preschoolers.

Recent trends in psychotropic medication use from large population-based studies show substantial growth in pediatric and adolescent use of antidepressants and stimulants.

The numbers of children under 19 years of age who are taking one or more behavioral drugs rose over 20% with spending on medications to treat attention deficit disorder rising 183%, antidepressants rising 27%, and medications to treat autism and conduct disorders rising more than 60% in that period.Other studies support these findings regarding the upward trend in the use of psychotropic medications in children . This trend has given rise to multiple controversies, ranging from concerns over off-label use and long-term safety to debates about the societal value and cultural meaning of pharmacological treatment of childhood behavioral and emotional disturbances.

The most common issues faced in psychiatric nursing practice were that “mental health care users deny mental illness” and the challenges associated with exposure to patients’ unpredictable behaviour. Of significance was that nurses were also exposed to increased levels of aggression and violence. Psychiatric nurses reported experiencing feelings of anger and frustration, as well as high levels of burnout.there are many challenging aspects for nurses,

1. Patients deny mental illness.

2. Exposure to patients’ unpredictable behaviour.

3. Increased levels of aggression and violence.

4. Patients refuse medication.

5. Inadequate facilities .

6. Lack of support and workplace dissatisfaction.

7. Stress or emotional exhaustion.

8. Staff shortage adds to emotional exhaustion and job satisfaction .

9. Feelings of anger and frustration.

10. Burnout and frustration.

11. Negative patient perception.

Management of patients with mental disorders is inadequate in the majority of low and middle income countries. The main treatment modality for patients with severe mental disorders in these countries is mainly pharmacological approach. Patients face many challenges in meeting medication needs.

The registered nurse must know about attitudes of patients towards psychotropic medication, availability of psychotropic medications, financial concerns towards psychotropic medications.

The availability and affordability of psychotropic medications to patients are big problems.