Psychiatric Medications: Information Pharmacy Technicians Should Know

Over decades of research, psychiatric medications have continued to evolve. There are hundreds of different medications for psychiatric conditions that doctors prescribe today. These medications are classified into five categories, which include: antidepressants, stimulants, antipsychotics, antianxiety agents, and mood stabilizers. Every drug affects the brain differently, and is specifically geared to treat the problems patients experience. An understanding of each of these categories is helpful when trying to discern between the different prescription categories.



Each of these five categories treats different psychiatric disorders. Antidepressants treat psychiatric disorders that can include eating disorders, depression, anxiety, dysthymia, and borderline personalities disorder. The stimulants can be helpful for people who have hyperactivity or attention deficit disorders, can suppress the appetite, and can help people who have narcolepsy. Medications classified as antipsychotic can treat schizophrenia, mania, and psychosis. Mood stabilizers do just as they sound, which is to treat severe mood swings. Schizoaffective and bipolar disorders are among the conditions treated with these medications. Anti-anxiety medications, also known as anxiolytics, treat anxiety disorders; doctors also prescribe them for people who are under a severe amount of stress, or for conditions such as smoking addiction, whereby they may help people quit smoking.



With antidepressants, doctors prescribe these to treat conditions like anxiety and clinical depression. These medications work by decreasing the amount of serotonin or norepinephrine released to the brain, or they control the metabolism of it. These prevent depression by disallowing the drop of neurotransmitters to normal levels. It can take up to three to five weeks for most people to notice if these medications are working, or if there's any improvement. Many people, however, notice that changes begin to occur within three days, or 72 hours. Brand names of these types of antidepressants include Lexapro, Celexa, Marplan, Cymbalta, Zoloft, and Prozac.



Patients suffering from psychosis are often prescribed medications that are called antipsychotics. These types of medications are often used with disorders like schizophrenia, but doctors also use them as mood stabilizers for people with bipolar disorder that has no psychosis symptoms present. Antipsychotic medications are also called neuroleptic drugs. These are strong tranquilizers, and can only be prescribed by licensed physicians. The prescription itself must also be verified. Some of the more common brand names of these drugs include Haldol, Thorazine, Risperdal, Zyprexa, Abilify, Mellaril, and Navane, as well as Trilafon.



Mood stabilizers do just that, stabilize or control the mood. Doctors may prescribe this medication if someone is experiencing mania. While these are often used as mood stabilizers, lithium carbonate is usually tried first. Different drugs with lithium carbonate include Tegretol, Depakote, Lamictal, Carbolith and Valproate. In 1949, lithium carbonate was discovered as beneficial in controlling mania. Lithium carbonate continues to be the first resort for those with mania, because other antipsychotics may be too much for some patients. People with mood disorders may have manic swings and be bipolar, swinging from happy to sad quickly. Lithium carbonate can help stabilize someone's mood so that he or she feels more normal and can function. Most mood stabilizers are also anticonvulsants, but lithium is not.



More than any of the drug on the market, stimulants take the lead in prescriptions. They control the central nervous system, by stimulating it. They treat things like attention deficit disorder, found in both children and adults. However, stimulants have potentially addictive properties and can be detrimental to certain patients, particularly those who have a history of drug abuse. If these people are prescribed stimulants, they have to be monitored closely to make sure they don't abuse these prescriptions. Most often, people with a history of drug abuse should usually be given different options besides the stimulants if at all possible. With stimulants, should addiction occur, the drug cannot simply be stopped but instead must be withdrawn slowly so as to avoid severe withdrawal symptoms. Some of these stimulant drugs include Adderall, Desoxyn, Dexedrine, Focalin, Ritalin, and Concerta. Caffeine is another stimulant, although it is not generally used as a prescription drug and instead is found in foods and over-the-counter preparations.



Anxiety disorders are also common, with many drugs on the market today available to treat patients with anxiety. The first drugs that were available were barbiturates. These were used as antianxiety agents and hypnotics. Benzodiazepines have become favored since then, as medicine has progressed. As with stimulants, antianxiety drugs are also potentially addictive. People's dependence on them has only increased as more doctors prescribe them. If someone is extremely stressed or anxious, such that it impairs daily function, these drugs can help significantly. Doctors now may prescribe these medications if people are trying to quit smoking because although insurance will cover medications for anxiety disorders, it often doesn't cover smoking cessation programs. Doctors now some prescribe these medications if people are under a lot of pressure and experiencing extreme stress. Some of these medications are extremely addictive, such as Valium. Others include Librium, Ativan, Ambien, and Mogadon, as well as Xanax.



Psychiatric medications are prescriptions that can only be dispensed by licensed physicians. Most often, prescription should be verified as valid before pharmacists fill them. Many states in the United States do require this. Clinical psychologists, too, can often dispense prescriptions for these medications, depending on the state.



There are a variety of different psychiatric medications on the market today, and they fall under different categories; these categories include antidepressants, stimulants, mood stabilizers, antipsychotic, and antianxiety agents. If one is a pharmacists, it's important to keep in mind which drugs are addictive, what they are used to treat, and whether or not safer alternatives can be offered. Make sure the prescription proffered by the patient is valid, especially if a patient has a history of drug abuse.