It can be challenging to know if a new psychiatric medication is working, which is where medication management comes into play. With medication management, we take care of your prescription and monitor and evaluate its effectiveness.
At Axis Integrated Mental Health, we understand that not all people feel comfortable taking medication for mental health. The idea of taking a pill that will alter and impact your mood, behaviors, emotions, and thoughts can be uncomfortable.
Some people stress about how psychiatric medication will impact their personality and well-being. Others worry about the potentially addictive nature of the psychiatric medication.
If you are worried about taking and managing your psychiatric medications on your own, we can help. Psychiatric medication management is more than popping pills and hoping for the best. It is about working with an integrated mental health team that will evaluate the effectiveness of your medication over time, manage or eliminate any side effects and ensure that you have the latest information about treating your specific condition.
A medical background is necessary to prescribe and manage medication. Many medical providers can offer medication management, including psychiatrists, physician’s assistants, and nurse practitioners.
Medication can be an effective part of the treatment plan for many mental health illnesses, such as
Three primary categories of medications are often prescribed for mental health conditions, including antidepressants, mood stabilizers, and antipsychotics.
Antidepressants are used to help relieve symptoms of depression and can also be used to treat generalized and social anxiety disorders, obsessive-compulsive disorders, and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
The best antidepressant for you will be the one that works best for your symptoms and needs. Sometimes, combining different types of antidepressants may work better than just one medication.
Your healthcare provider will consider a variety of factors to determine what antidepressant is most likely to work for you. They will assess if you have other health conditions, if you are taking other medications and how they may interact with potential antidepressants. They will consider your specific symptoms and if you have relatives who a particular drug has worked for in the past to treat depression.
While antidepressant medications may not be able to cure depression fully, they can be effective in controlling your symptoms.
Mood stabilizers are used to treat a variety of mood disorders, including depression and bipolar disorder. Mood stabilizers are designed to balance the neurochemicals in the brain.
Specifically, mood stabilizers help to control widely swinging moods from too high (mania) to too low (depression). Mood stabilizers are psychiatric medications. They are used to help treat and prevent bipolar mania. Certain mood stabilizers can treat depression when used together with other depression medications.
Antipsychotic medication, also known as neuroleptics, is a specific class of medication used to treat various psychiatric disorders, including bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, and major depressive disorder.
Some antipsychotics are also licensed to treat other health problems.
Messages are carried inside your brain by various chemicals. One chemical that carries messages in your brain is called dopamine.
High levels of dopamine may cause your brain to function differently and may be the cause of psychosis. Antipsychotics work to block the effects of dopamine on your brain. The result is a reduction of psychotic symptoms for many patients.
Certain antidepressants work better for certain people, and it can take time to find the right medications to treat your mental health condition, such as anxiety or depression.
With medication management services, you can inform us immediately if a medication doesn’t seem to be working. We inform you about how long it should take for the medication to start working and how it should make you feel.
If you notice troubling side effects with a new medication, let us know immediately. We try switching your prescription or trying a different treatment route, such as Ketamine infusions or TMS treatment.
If you are treating your mental health condition with medication, the team at Axis Integrated Mental Health can help you manage your medication.
We can provide you with support for tracking the effectiveness of your medication and can intervene if a medication isn’t working for you.
To learn more about how Axis Integrated Mental Health can assist with medication management to treat your mental health condition, call us at (720) 400-7025 or fill out our contact us form today.
