Bachelor of Nursing - Sedative Medication

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Running Head: BACHELOR OF NURSING
BACHELOR OF NURSING
Topic 1: 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.

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Table of Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................3
Controversial analysis of the use of psychotropic medications to control behaviours and
manage symptoms for mental illness.........................................................................................4
Identification of challenging aspects for nurses who administer psychotropic medication to
the consumer who poses significant risk of harm to self and others..........................................6
Conclusion..................................................................................................................................7
References..................................................................................................................................9
Introduction
Sedative Medication is a controversial concern because of its irrelevant and insignificant
effects on human body. Sedatives could be stated as a slow poison by many but it is proved to
be an effective medicine and has helped many people in gaining back a normal mental
position (Help, 2020). The use and consumption of sedatives is the most critical part of its
usage and this decides on the productivity of its result to be negative or positive. Sedative
medications has been a major part of mental medication and this has helped in gaining some
positive results but there are many cases where the patient was observed to be dependent on
the sedatives and his dependency was for life long. Sedatives are stated as drugs and this
reveals the sensitivity it holds when one gets dependent on it. Sedatives are known to be
controlled substances which conveys that its production and sales all are regulated in a strict
manner (Sedatives, 2020). The addictive nature of it has made it a controlled substance and it
could cause people to be dependent on it beyond control. Sedative works through modifying
some of the nerves communications within the central nervous system. This relaxes the body

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and slows down the brains activity. The slowing down of brain and reduction in the working
of brain capacity on a continuous basis, impacts the health both mentally and physically.
Sedatives makes the neurotransmitter called gamma-aminobutyric acid work overtime.
GABA is responsible for slowing down your brain. By upping its level of activity in the CNS,
sedatives allow GABA to produce a much stronger effect on your brain activity. The
acknowledgement of sedatives along with the psychotropic medicines, reveals the minor
difference between the two sensitive drugs (Ramanda, 2017). Sedative impacts the brain
while psychotropic medicines impacts the behaviour, emotions and psychology of the patient.
The impact of the two medicines are quite similar and both are considered to be a crucial
medicine for mental illness along with an effective one. The identification of psychtropic
medications and the controvercies it has over time along with sedative medicines would be
done, followed by the challenges that registered nurses witness in giving the concerned drugs
to the respective patients. The positive and the negatives of its usage would be acknowledged
along with the challenges that is faced by the nursing industry of mental patients.
Controversial analysis of the use of psychotropic medications to control behaviours and
manage symptoms for mental illness
According to Claridge et al. (2018) the World Health Organisation revealed an estimated data
which states that about 25% of the population is expected to experience mental illness at
some point of time. The most common and generally witnessed mental illness are depression
and anxiety which could exist in human irrespective of age gender, caste, ethnicity,
background, etc. There has been no specific result through research as what causes the mental
illness or mental health impairment. Environmental and genetic factors are often the
combination which predispose a person to a specific problem. For some other causes, the
traumatic events and serious injuries are the cause of psychological issues or disorders. It has
been stated by Cavanagh & Smith (2018), that psychotropic drugs are not sufficient to

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overcome mental illness and the health care takers has been caring a view that the people use
psychotropic as a supplement to therapy and not as a replacement for it. The psychotropic
therapy needs to be supported by the social aspect too in order to gain productive and fruitful
results. This aspect is challenged by Davies & Mulsant (2018), that if the therapy requires
additional and outer social therapy than what the benefit of taking up the psychotropic
therapy. Family, friends, lifestyle, structured therapy, and many other social protocols needs
to be followed for making the concerned therapy effective and fruitful, this suggests that the
psychotropic therapy do not have the capability of transforming or treating the mental issue.
An additional view of Ahn & Vassileva (2016), sedative medications along with the
psychotropic medication carries a significant and productive capability to treat and person
effectively and productively. The two medications that is sedative and psychotropic both
works through transforming the thought process of the patient but the process and the style of
treatment is completely different. Sedative medicines slows down the brain capacity to
command and this reduces the actions and thinking ability of the patient. It is used mainly in
some crucial situations where the patient is not in control or requires peace of mind for time
being (Spivak et al. 2018). On the other hand, psychotropic medication provides the patient
with a simple thought process which needs to be built on through social support and external
forces. In psychotropic medication, the dependency on medicine is a mental aspect of the
patient while in the sedative medication, the dependency is based on physical requirement.
The two medications are completely different.
On the contrary, it has been opined by Ralevski et al. (2017), that the psychotropic
medications are not effective and it is more of a psychological factor than medicinal. There
has been a case where the patients have revealed that the psychotropic medicines have been
ineffective. There has been many doctors who carry a view that psychotropic medicines are
effective just like the physical illness medicines are. The biological medicines enhances the

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capability of patient to fight against the disease whereas the psychotropic medicines provides
the patient to fight against his own mind and thoughts. Some of the thinkers and
psychologists have stated that DiNapoli et al. (2016), every human are created in a different
way and accepting yourself the way you are is the best remedy for living a happy life. Each
human being have the right to live the way he wants and accept his mental position but their
actions should not harm anyone. Psychotropic medication is a controversial concern ad it
needs to be justified through the views and results that has been gained in the past. The
treatment is for variety of mental issues which has been resulting in the disability of
functioning in an appropriate manner. The medicine works through changing the amount of
significant chemicals in the brain known as neurotransmitters. The positive results are gained
when the neurotransmitters like serotonin, dopamine and norepinephrine are changed in their
proportions in the brain. Mental illness is one of the concerns which could impact the society
in a harmful way and this adds on to the requirement of treating each mental patient on a
priority basis. Mental disorder or mental illness needs to be identified and treated on the
priority basis for keeping the society healthy and productive. Psychotropic medications has
been providing the minor mental patients with an ability to transform their thoughts and
channelize it in a productive way.
Identification of challenging aspects for nurses who administer psychotropic medication
to the consumer who poses significant risk of harm to self and others
As per Tseng et al. (2018), mental illness carries a broad concept on the impact it has over the
society or their surroundings. Mental illness which could be dangerous includes
schizophrenia and paranoia along with the severe mood disorders like severe depression and
mania. The treatment of such major and harmful mental illness is mainly done through
psychotropic or sedative medications. The sedative medicines increases the dependency
which might result in failure of treatment whole the psychotropic medicines respond

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gradually and is a bit more effective than sedatives. But the sedatives are used for controlling
patients with high mental illness and who could be majorly harmful to their surroundings.
Nurses and doctors are the ones who carry a position where they need to control a harmful
situation in an effective way which do not harm the patient or the surrounding. The registered
nurses carries the most critical position as they need to take care of the patients in a way that
the diagnosis and the treatment both is effective along with a controlled situation. As per
Djaiani et al. (2016), there are situations in mental illness cases where the patient goes out of
control or has a maniac attack which needs to be controlled on an urgent basis, this is the
most challenging situation for the nurse as she has no option left than giving sedatives to the
patient in order to slow down their activity or brain commands. Such situations creates
challenges for the nurse as giving sedatives to a patient is limited by specific quantity and if it
goes out of the specified quantity then it causes harm to the patient. Recovery oriented
practice needs to be tackled in a sensitive way by the nurse as a minor mistake or a wrong
decision could impact the patient severely. The sedative medicines could take up the life of a
patient f it is overdose and this creates a challenge for the nurse. As if the patient is having
severe attacks at short periods than the nurse is not allowed to control it through sedative
drugs (Schepis & McCabe, 2019). If the nurse has created a balance in the drugs than this
could be such a situation where the patient could turn out to be harmful for himself as well as
for his surroundings. Another significant challenge for a nurse is that the mental patients
refuses to take up medicines and this checks the patience of the nurse as well as her
sensibility to tackle the patient. On time medicines is the foremost requirement for medicines
to be effective and productive for a mental patient. Other challenge which the nurse faces is
inadequate facilities available which adds n to their problems (Chen, Kaufmann & Mojtabai,
2018). The inadequate facilities available could lead to a moralistic downfall of the nurse and
this could impact her service and duty execution. Stress and emotional exhaustion is another

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challenge as nurse is also a human being who have natural reactions to some situations.
Though education and training provides them with the competencies which are required for
being a mental patients nurse but there could be situations where the nurse could get
exhausted and stressed (Maust et al. 2017). The challenge of controlling self-emotions and
stress is the major concern in nursing. Nursing is a critical job and being a mental illness
nurse adds on to the sensitivity, sensibility and accuracy to it.
Conclusion
On acknowledging the sedative and psychotropic medications, the difference in the two
medicines have been closely identified. Though both the medications are related to mental
illness, the impact and the results which could be achieved through it are quite different.
Sedative is a drug which makes the patient dependent on it and it slows down the activities of
the patient through reducing its brain commands, while psychopathic medication controls the
emotions, behaviour and reactions of the patient. The addictive nature of it has made it a
controlled substance and it could cause people to be dependent on it beyond control. Sedative
works through modifying some of the nerves communications in the central nervous system
to the brain. This relaxes the body and slows down the brains activity. The controversy of
using the psychopathic medication in mental illness is quite wide and people have their own
opinion based on their experiences. Through the exploration it could be stated that
psychopathic medication carries productive results and it needs to be enhanced with future
research for gaining some more accuracy in its results. Psychopathic medication should be
enhanced and it needs to be supported socially for gaining positive results. Though
psychopathic medication does not have capability of working alone, and social support is
required for gaining positive results from its medication, the medicines used in it helps in
channelizing the thoughts of the patient and thus the capability of identifying positivity
around him gets enhanced.

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References
Ahn, W. Y., & Vassileva, J. (2016). Machine-learning identifies substance-specific
behavioral markers for opiate and stimulant dependence. Drug and alcohol
dependence, 161, 247-257.
Cavanagh, J. J., & Smith, T. Y. (2018). Opiates, Opioids Intoxication. In Quick Guide to
Psychiatric Emergencies (pp. 193-198). Springer, Cham.
Chen, L. Y., Kaufmann, C. N., & Mojtabai, R. (2018). Major Depression and Sedative-
Hypnotic Use Disorder: a Review. Current Addiction Reports, 5(3), 330-335.
Claridge, G., McCreery, C., Mason, O., Bentall, R., Boyle, G., Slade, P., & Popplewell, D.
(2018). The factor structure of ‘schizotypal’traits: a large replication study.
In Psychopathology and personality dimensions (pp. 158-168). Routledge.
Davies, S. J., & Mulsant, B. H. (2018). Using sedatives–hypnotics or opioids in older adults:
a narrow path. International psychogeriatrics, 30(7), 925-927.
DiNapoli, E. A., Bramoweth, A. D., Cinna, C., & Kasckow, J. (2016). Sedative hypnotic use
among veterans with a newly reported mental health disorder. International
psychogeriatrics, 28(8), 1391-1398.
Djaiani, G., Silverton, N., Fedorko, L., Carroll, J., Styra, R., Rao, V., & Katznelson, R.
(2016). Dexmedetomidine versus propofol sedation reduces delirium after cardiac
surgerya randomized controlled trial. Anesthesiology: The Journal of the American
Society of Anesthesiologists, 124(2), 362-368.
Help, G., Professionals, F., Listed, G., Help, G., Professionals, F., & Therapist, F. et al.
(2020). Psychotropic Medication for Depression, Anxiety & Other Therapy Issues.

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Retrieved 1 April 2020, from https://www.goodtherapy.org/drugs/psychotropic-
medication.html
Maust, D. T., Blow, F. C., Wiechers, I. R., Kales, H. C., & Marcus, S. C. (2017). National
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Ralevski, E., Horvath, T. L., Shanabrough, M., Hayden, R., Newcomb, J., & Petrakis, I.
(2017). Ghrelin is supressed by intravenous alcohol and is related to stimulant and
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Ramanda, K. (2017). Comparison of psychopathic traits between chronic benzodiazepine
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Spivak, S., Cullen, B., Eaton, W., Nugent, K., Spivak, A., Fenton, A., ... & Mojtabai, R.
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Tseng, H. Y., Yu, S. H., Lee, C. Y., Huang, W. H., Huang, S. L., Wu, C. S., ... & Hsiung, C.
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