Managing patient on antipsychotic medication Essay

Managing patient on antipsychotic medication - Essay Example Since that decade more than twenty of the antipsychotic agents have been introduced in United States. The antipsychotics used during the 1980s are collectively called conventional antipsychotics and the drugs that were introduced in the 1990s are called the atypical antipsychotics. Antipsychotics, unfortunately, have the tendency to be misused if the practitioner has sound knowledge about the psychopharmacological aspects of the drugs. Elderly patients are also at an increased risk of developing drug-induced motor or movement disorders as compared to the younger population (Saltz, Robinson, & Woerner, 2004). It is crucial to understand the pharmacological aspects of the antipsychotic drugs as improper management can lead to adverse drug reactions, drug-drug interactions, drug resistances and poor patient compliance. The second generation antipsychotics (SGA) are different from the first generation antipsychotics (FGA) because they also block the serotonin receptors. SGAs also have lesser extrapyrimidal symptoms as compared to the FGAs, however, SGAs ae associated with an increased risk of obesity, hyperglycemia and hyperlipidemia. According to studies only two SGAs cloazipine and olanzipine has been proved to be more effective than the FGAs. Antipsychotics are approved by the FDA for use in schizophrenia as well as some other psychiatric conditions and non-psychiatric disorders. They are also indicated in the treatment of bipolar disorders, autism, generalized anxiety disrder, major depressive disorder, perioperative nausea, preoperative restlessness, severe behavorial probles, severe nausea and vomiting, and refractory tourette syndrome and for the management of neuropsychiatric symptoms of dementia (Moore, DeJoseph, & Simmons, 2014). Both SGAs and FGAs are associated with risk factors and it is important to carry out a detailed assessment of the patient