Side Effects of Psychotropic Medications and Challenges for Nurses

This study explores the side effects of psychotropic medications and the challenges faced by nurses in administering them. It discusses the controversy surrounding the use of these medications and the impact on mental health. The article also highlights the challenges nurses face in managing patients who pose significant risks.

Nursing Project

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................3
Controversy of the use of psychotropic medications to control behaviours and managing
symptoms of mental illness....................................................................................................3
Challenging aspects for registered nurses who administer psychotropic medication to the
consumer who poses significant risk......................................................................................5
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................7
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................2

INTRODUCTION
Psychotropic refers a drug which affects a person’s mental state (Orsel and et.al., 2018).
This study is going to show some side effects of taking different psychotropic medicines which
can even worsen the health of people who are suffering from mental health problems. Further, it
will also show some challenges aspects which nurses administer psychotropic medications and
deal with all these problems.
MAIN BODY
Controversy of the use of psychotropic medications to control behaviours and managing
symptoms of mental illness
Mental illness refers mental disorders or wide range of mental illness/condition which affects
thinking, mood and behaviour as well. There are some examples of mental illness such as:
depression, anxiety disorders etc. There are several symptoms which are associated with
mental illness or disorder such as: high or low mood, long lasting sadness, social withdrawal
and sleeping habits. There are several medicines which are available and are being given by
professional care provides to people who are suffering from mental illness in order to
improve their health (Telles-Correia and et.al., 2017). But there are several such medicines
that affect the mind, behaviours and emotions and have side effects. Psychotropic drug have
capability to affect emotions and mind of people and these kinds of legal medicines include:
lithium for bipolar disorders is known as psychotropic.
A psychotropic refers any drug which affects thoughts, perception, mind and mood. Mental
health affects daily lives of people who are suffering from this disease. There are some facts
about this drug such as:
It is a broad category of drugs which treats several different conditions. These drugs work by
adjusting level of brain chemicals like dopamine etc. Some classes of legal psychotropic
medication include: mood stabilizers, anti-anxiety disorders, stimulants etc. Some of
psychotropic drugs can cause severe side effects and also require special monitoring
requirement by healthcare providers.

There are side effects or controversy use of this psychotropic drug which include: dizziness,
drowsiness, loss of balance, memory problems, slow breathing, low blood pressure etc.
There are some psychotropic medicines which have different side effects such as:
SSRI Antidepressants: This psychotropic drug is being used and being given by mental health
care providers to patients who are suffering from different types of depression. Depression is
one of the main mental illnesses in which patient feel sad for few days. It is called persistent
symptoms which last for weeks sometimes. People who suffer from depression they also
feel like insomniac or sleep related issues, body ache and lack of appetite. This drug works
by increasing the amount of serotonin which is available in the brain. This drug has some
side effects such as: vomiting, poor sleep, weight gain, dry mouth, diarrhea and sexual
disorders.
SNRI Antidepressants: It is other type of psychotropic drug which also help in treating
depression but work in a different manner than SSRIs. It is being given to patients when
health care providers feel that SSRIs have not brought improvement in their mental health
(Baumeister, Ciufolini and Mondelli, 2016). But the high dose of this drug causes several
side effects such as: nausea, dry mouth, headache, agitation etc.
MAOI Antidepressants: This drug is also being given to improve symptom of depression by
increasing norepinephrine as well as serotonin level in the brain. It also have several side
effects in the body of people who take this drug for the long run such as: weight gain,
vomiting etc.
Tricyclic Antidepressants: This drug is being given to improve mood as well as treating other
mental disorders. It is also being used to treat chronic pain, migraine etc. It causes side
effects which include: drowsiness, weight gain etc.
Typical antipsychotics: This psychotropic drug is being given to block dopamine in the brain
and treat mental illness. This also causes severe side effects which include: blurred vision,
anxiety, sexual problem, weight gain etc.
Stimulants: This psychotropic drug is also being given for improving mental health of people
but if this is being given for the long run than it can make that person dependent on others.
By taking this drug for the long run causes several problems such as problems related to
sleep, poor appetite and weight loss as well.

Some other main and common side effects of taking any type of psychotropic drug include:
Emotional flattening: It is one of the main side effects which is mainly under recognized. It is
mainly happen because of taking serotonin reuptake inhibitor. It can make depression
treatments less effective and also have great negative impact on relationship. This side effect
and condition is not good for the person who is taking this medicine or for their family who
take care of that person (Woroń and Siwek, 2018). So, it is important for clinical and family
members to become proactive in communicating and interacting with patients about
emotional flattering and using effective measurements for measuring the extent of this side
effect.
Sleep disturbance: Almost all psychotropic medications result in several sleep disturbance and
problems with sleep can cause many other problems to patient. In this context, it is also said
that if a person suffering from sleep related or disrupted sleep than it is well worth to
examine all of the medications on which psychotropic patients are and need to ask if it is
necessary to give all medicines to patient or can skip some of them. Sleep problems are
chronic but can be treated with the help of some strategies such as: sleep hygiene education,
sleep restriction, relaxation, behavioural therapy etc.
Sexual dysfunction: There are several psychotropic drugs which include: anti psychotics,
anti depressants
Which causes sexual dysfunction? First generation medications tend to cause worse sexual side
effects. These problems may not occur initially as it occurs after few months of treatment
and taking such types of drugs. So, it is important for clinical to consider risk of side effects
before selecting a drug for patient (Valdovinos and et.al., 2017).
So, from the above discussed side effects, it can be said that psychotropic drugs cure patients and
improve their mental health but on the flip side they can cause severe side effects if all these
drugs are being taken for the long run.

Challenging aspects for registered nurses who administer psychotropic medication to the
consumer who poses significant risk
There are an increasing number of patients who are been suffering from mental health
problems, in order to cure it mental health registered nurses plays a major role. It has been
analysed that consuming of sedative medications such as anti-depressants has huge side effect
and it can become a really challenging task for nurses to cure them. It has been analysed that
consuming of psychotropic medication can lay severe impact on the health aspect of patients like
they can suffer from various problems such as nausea, vomiting, skin allergies. The severe
impact of sedatives can also lead to service users facing critical health related problems like
changes in behaviour. They can face problems such as depression, anxiety and these medications
can even cause problem like sleep disorders. Nurses needs to be engaged in making use of
various interventions such as recovery oriented approaches that can assist them in improvising
the health outcome of patients and also it can help them in reducing the risk related to changes in
behaviour of service users. Nurses can face various issues like challenges associated with
exposure to patients’ unpredictable behaviour. It has been analysed from the research that
because of this type of behaviour by patients nurses were also exposed to increase level of
aggression and violence (Telles-Correia and et.al., 2017). Nurses has also provided with the
information that while treating patients who are facing changes in behaviour due to consumption
of sedative, they also have other challenge in treating them. Like for example nurses has not
provided adequate support and resources to treat service users who are going through these
changes.
Most of the service users are also exposed to the risk towards injury as the service users
deny the mental health problems that has been faced by them. So the risk related to injury
increases. It has been analysed that in order to cure patients from the side effects that has been
faced by them due to consumption of psychotropic medicines includes making use of person
centred approach. In this nurses must be engaged in communicating effectively with health care
professionals while providing sedative to service users. This will assist them in preventing the
risk related to challenges that can be faced by them during managing the mental health patients.
If the service users are being injured because of the changes in behaviour the injury can lay
impact on the central nervous system (Dekker, 2016).

So in order to provide safety to service users from injury nurses can take various safety
interventions like they can raise the side and rails and also keep their surrounding safe and
secure, so that no injury cam be caused to service user. It has also been analysed that service
users form consuming psychotropic medicines can also face problems related to deprivation of
sleep, pain in abdominal, severe allergies. This can make patient more aggressive and depressed,
so it can act as challenge for nurses, so in order to manage it nurses really needs to corporate
with service users. They also need to make their family members aware about this condition, so
that the side effects if consuming these drugs can be managed effectively.
It has been analysed that nurses can face severe challenges while providing sedative to
service users. Instead of making use of psychtropic medications which has several side effects
nurses can motivate patients to be engaged in making use of multimodal approaches like
exercise, yoga and aerobic. So this will assist nurses in saving patients from the changes in
behaviour. It will assist them in improvising the health outcome of service users and will also lay
impact on their quality of life. There are various other challenges that can be faced by mental
health nurses in managing behavioural changes of service users. They can face problems like
impaired urinary elimination (Lynn and Lynn, 2019).
This challenge can be overcome by the nurses by keeping a follow up on the input and
output of urine by service users. Mental health nurses can also involved in keeping pace with
drugs as per the prescription provided by health care professionals. The other challenge which
can be faced by mental health nurses is that patients can face problems related to their sleep. So
they can engage in motivating them to practice good sleep so that issues related to health which
has been faced by the service users can be reduced. It has been analysed that the other challenge
that can be face by registered nurses can include impaired physical activity. The nursing
intervention that can be taken by health care professionals includes providing service users with
safe and secure environments. This will assist the nurses in improvising health aspects of service
users. It can also support registered nurse in overcoming the challenges.

CONCLUSION
From the above study, it has been summarised that consumption of psychotropic medication
has various side effects on the health aspects of patients. They have been suffered from various
problems such as low blood pressure, headache, frequently falling ill, sleep deprivation, feeling
of heaviness, behavioural challenges.
It has also been analysed that these side effects has reduce the quality of life of patients who
have been consuming the sedatives. It has also been analysed from the report that various
preventive measures needs to be taken by nurses to overcome the challenges that has been faced
by them. They have made use of communication so that aggression and depression aspects faced
by workers can be reduced. It has also been analysed from the report that sedative can also
reduce the count of blood cells of service users. In order to overcome from these nurses has
motivated the patients to make use of multimodal approaches like exercise, yoga so that health
outcome of service user can be improved.

1

REFERENCES
Books & Journal
Baumeister, D., Ciufolini, S. and Mondelli, V., 2016. Effects of psychotropic drugs on
inflammation: consequence or mediator of therapeutic effects in psychiatric
treatment?. Psychopharmacology. 233(9). pp.1575-1589.
Orsel, K. and et.al., 2018. Psychotropic drugs use and psychotropic polypharmacy among
persons with Alzheimer's disease. European Neuropsychopharmacology. 28(11).
pp.1260-1269.
Telles-Correia, D. and et.al., 2017. Psychotropic drugs and liver disease: a critical review of
pharmacokinetics and liver toxicity. World journal of gastrointestinal pharmacology and
therapeutics,. 8(1). p.26.
Valdovinos, M.G. and et.al., 2017. Adverse side effects of psychotropic medication and
challenging behavior: pilot work assessing impact. Journal of developmental and
physical disabilities. 29(6). pp.969-982.
Woroń, J. and Siwek, M., 2018. Unwanted effects of psychotropic drug interactions with
medicinal products and diet supplements containing plant extracts. Psychiatr Pol. 52.
pp.983-996.
Lynn, L.A. and Lynn, E.N., 2019. Patient safety processor. U.S. Patent 10,366,790.
Dekker, S., 2016. Patient safety: a human factors approach. CRC Press.
2