Nursing Care Management : Psychotropic Medication for Intellectual Disability

Psychotropic medication for Intellectual Disability
Dilemma for registered nurses
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Nursing Care Management 2
Psychotropic medication for Intellectual Disability
Dilemma for registered nurses
Abstract
Intellectual disability is a meta syndrome characterized by deficit related
functioning cognitive functioning before the full acquisition of skills. Physical
traits of this state entail the occurrence of challenging behavior display among
the patients affected. There is a high rate of persons with intellectual disabilities
displaying challenging behavior and are linked to psychiatric disorders,
environmental factors and a combination of other factors. This behavior often
increases risks to self-harm and injury to both self and those around the patient.
Currently, in the medical world, management of this condition has been
undertaken through the administration of psychotropic medication. Results have
shown a reduction in the levels of aggressive behaviors among patients however
this management if not indicated for psychotropic usage. The high rate of this
medication prescription has been a source for alarm as limited evidence has
conclusively illustrated ist effectiveness and safety issues which have an impact
on the general quality of life for the intellectual disability patients. This state of
administration and management has portrayed a challenging for nurses and
other health care practitioners regarding its usage and management of
aggressive and challenging behaviors often portrayed. Because of limited
convincing evidence, nurses must adopt therapeutic interventions to manage
these conditions and use psychotropic medication only under clinical advice and
after a multidisciplinary approach as the last management option for patients
with intellectual disability.

Nursing Care Management 3
Introduction
Intellectual disability entails adversity characteristics leading to poor
coping and resilient strategies manifested by challenging behavior. An estimate
of about a third of persons in mental health care institutions exhibits behavioral
mechanisms that are not in compliance with that of the mental health patients.
With an increase in mental state severity, it leads to an increase of behavioral
disturbances leading to significant challenges in clinical management.
Challenging behavior is viewed as a critical risk factor that limits participation in
social activities and access to fundamental and key services (Vissers, Gilissen &
Veltman, 2016). Due to this aspect, the majority of mental health and
intellectually impaired persons often face exclusion with high demand for needs
compared to the general population. Due to this urgent and necessary
medication management, psychotropic medications have been utilized to
manage intellectual disability and aspects of mental illness. Despite these,
various hypotheses have been formulated concerning safety issues. This report
highlights these issues in-depth and offers an analysis of these concerns and
challenges faced by registered nurses in their medication roles and safety issues.
An in-depth analysis of these concerns is addressed in this report with the way
forward for registered nurses in applying an evidence-based approach in
medication management and care for the behavioral issues among intellectual
disable persons and mental health affected patients.
Intellectual disability and behavioral mechanism
Intellectual disability has been explained in the premise of mental health
disorders as a mental and learning disability occurring for a prolonged lifetime of
an individual. It is a meta syndrome characterized by heterogeneously of various
clinical states which are linked to a decline in cognitive functioning and skills
acquisition through learning processes. Intellectual disability is still viewed as a
marginal aspect of psychiatry, in many regions of the world little attention has
been put forward regarding an effective management guide of this state (Crnic
et al., 2017). The World Health Organization has formulated a list of unmet needs
for persons with intellectual disability, there is a huge global gap in terms of
medical personal specialized in mental health thus putting the majority of clinical
diagnosis for clinicians and nurses to manage this mental health and intellectual
disable patients (WHO, 2019).