Alcohol and Mental Health | Essay

Running head: ALCOHOL AND MENTAL HEALTH
Alcohol and Mental Health
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ALCOHOL AND MENTAL HEALTH1
Prescribing psychotropic drugs like sedatives, antidepressants and antipsychotics is
considerable. These are generally prescribed by the General practitioners. These drugs are
basically used for helping an individual to control his or her behaviour that can hurt
themselves or others. However, according to many researchers, these psychotropic drugs
cannot be used as therapeutic treatment in mental health services. According to
MuirCochrane and Grace (2017), “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”. This essay shall elaborate on discussing critically about the controversy
surrounding the usage of psychotropic medications for controlling behaviours and managing
symptoms for people who experience mental illness. It shall further identify the aspects of
registered nurses who administer psychotropic medication to the users who poses notable risk
of harm to self as well as others in the promotion of recovery-oriented practice.
Background of Psychotropic drugs
Psychotropic drugs are any types of drugs or medicines that are capable of influencing
the emotions, behaviour, thoughts and mind of human beings. According to Flore et al.
(2019), it is an umbrella term used for a range of different types of drugs including the
prescribed ones. It is of no doubt that mental health and wellbeing affects the daily lives of
human beings. Psychotropic drugs play an important role to help people deal with their lives
and keep things well. According to studies, there are five main classes of psychotropic drugs
and they are- 1) stimulants, 2) antidepressants, 3) antipsychotics, 4) mood stabilizers and 5)
anti-anxiety agents. General Practitioners generally prescribe these drugs for the treatment of
depression, sleep disorders, anxiety, bipolar disorders and schizophrenia (Berry-Bibee et al.,
2015). The type of medication that a doctor prescribes to the patients depends on the specific
and individual symptoms.

ALCOHOL AND MENTAL HEALTH2
Extensive Usage of Psychotropic Drugs
However, it is to mention that over usage of sedation or psychotropic drugs as a
chemical restraint is not supported within the mental health services. Psychiatric specialists
might prescribe psychotropic drugs for individuals with intellectual disabilities for alleviating
a comorbid mental issue or any kind of challenging behaviours such as property destruction,
aggressive tendencies, self-harm habits etc. (Nybakken, Strandas & Bondas, 2018).
Challenging situations like such can give the health care providers difficulties in delivering
effective mental care service. As opined by Shah and Levenson (2018), often, with or without
the presence of multiple psychiatric disorders or issues, the over usage of sedative drugs
could take place and the misuse of is called as “chemical restraint”. In some cases, it can be
justified but in the field of mental health services, it is not supported and this is the case
across the entire Australian states and territories. It could be a part of treatment plan for
managing certain signs and symptoms of mental illness within patients but cannot be
considered as a therapeutic treatment.
Greenblatt, Harmatz and Shader (2018) in their findings have revealed that there are
many cases where a huge number of intellectually impaired patients are managed and
controlled with psychotropic drugs by means of increasing their actual proportion. Often it is
seen that doctors prescribe patients with psychotropic drugs who have no record of any kind
of serious or severe mental disorder but only have a record of demonstrating violent or
challenging behaviours like aggression and property destruction. In other cases, the chances
of making use of other types of anti-psychotic drugs are quite high. For example, according
to Hassiotis et al. (2018), “in the patients with many mental issues like dementia, autism and
intellectual disability indicate departing of practice from the evidence-based clinical
protocols”. These types of prescriptions open the doors for unwanted and unimportant
prescriptions, which might come with health related issues and burden to the healthcare.

ALCOHOL AND MENTAL HEALTH3
The side effects of psychotropic drugs
Like any other drugs, psychotropic drugs too come with a wide range of side effects.
It is to note that different patients showcase different treatment responses and in the same
way, they also feel different side effects to different psychiatric drugs. Hassiotis et al. (2018)
too have claimed that there is no single dosage or recipe that works on every individual.
However, according to Ford et al. (2017), usage of psychotropic drugs can cause systematic
and individual consequences. Some of the very common side effects of psychotropic drugs
include tremor, restlessness, dry mouth, vision problem, muscle spasms etc. (Berry-Bibee et
al., 2015) The long term side effects comprise of the tardive dyskinesia or TD. TD can be
defined as “a disorder characterized by involuntary movements most often affecting the
mouth, lips and tongue, and sometimes the trunk or other parts of the body such as arms and
legs” (Citrome, 2018). It is to mention that taking psychotropic drugs for long time can
increase the risk of chronic effects. With the same, managing the side effects caused by
psychotropic drugs poorly by the patients and the doctors could hinder the process of
effective treatment and disturb their life quality that further result in many deleterious health
outcomes among the patients. According to the study of Correia (2015), more than 80percent
of the Australian population who are on the psychotropic drugs face side effects. With the
same, every one-third lives face moderate to severe impairments as a form of side effect from
psychotropic drugs. He further revealed that “over 60% of people on antipsychotic drugs
reported side effects such as difficulty recalling and losing concentration on things, lethargy
or sleepiness, weight gain, besides agitation” (Correia, 2015). In the same way, the patients
who practiced poly-pharmacy said that they experienced more side effects compared to the
ones who were on a single antipsychotic medicine.
It is also to note that the severity of side effects do not differ with difference in age.
Children and adolescents too face similar side effects like adults for taking psychotropic