Examining the Use of Sedative Medicine: Challenges and Controversies

This essay examines the use of psychotropic medications, which are intended to improve the health and well-being of patients with psychological problems. It discusses the effectiveness of these medications in treating conditions like schizophrenia and autism spectrum disorders, while also highlighting the controversies surrounding their use due to potential adverse effects. The essay further explores the challenges faced by registered nurses in administering these drugs, including ethical dilemmas, patient safety concerns, and the complexities of managing side effects and dosages. The paper emphasizes the importance of careful monitoring, short-term use, and controlled dosages to minimize harm, while acknowledging the benefits of psychotropic medications in specific situations. The discussion covers the impact of these medications on family satisfaction, as well as the unique challenges associated with their use in pregnant mothers and children.

Running head: USE OF SEDATIVE MEDICINE
USE OF SEDATIVE MEDICINE
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author Note:

1USE OF SEDATIVE MEDICINE
Introduction:
This paper aims for discussing the use of psychotropic medication. The use of
psychotropic medications are intended for improving the health and well-being of the patients
with psychological problems. There are many studies that have found those drugs to be
effective in helping the patients with schizophrenia, autism spectrum disorders and various
others. However, there are also various studies that states that there are a range of adverse
effects that can be associated with the use of the psychotropic medications. Thus there is a
huge controversy among the scholars on the matter of whether or not the use of those
medications are appropriate in treating the patients. There are also various challenges faced
by the registered nurses, when attempting to use those drugs on the patients. The paper will
focus on discussing both of these aspects in brief in the following sections.
Discussion:
Controversy of the Use of Psychotropic Medications:
The psychotropic medications are used for various problems regarding the mental
health of an individual, such as depression, anxiety, sleep disorders, schizophrenia and
various other disorders. The medications are highly useful in helping the patients with those
mental disorders (Procyshyn, Bezchlibnyk-Butler & Jeffries, 2019).
A study conducted in Argentina aimed at finding out the effectiveness of the
haloperidol and risperidone treatment in treating the patients with schizophrenia from both
economic and clinical perspective. Both of those drugs are antipsychotic drugs in nature. The
researchers used various scholarly resources to find the answer to this query. They found that
the risperidone to be sufficiently cost-effective. They also found that the drug is also effective
in improving the quality of life in the patients and significantly reducing the symptoms in the
patients (González, Moscoso & Lago, 2018).

2USE OF SEDATIVE MEDICINE
Another study recognised the cancer-related fatigue (CRF) to be a very common
symptom in the patients who are the survivors of that disease condition. The researchers
explored the possibility of managing the condition with the use of psychotropic drugs. The
study was a meta-analysis study that focused on the efficacy of those drugs along with the
safety of the drugs. There was two drugs that were discussed in this study, which are
methylphenidate and modafinil. The researchers concluded that the use of methylphenidate is
effective in treating the CRF conditions in the patient (Qu et al., 2016).
However there are various adverse effects also resulting from the long term use of
those medications. One of those effects can be the dependency of the medication. It can be
often found that the patients become addicted to those psychotropic medications and cannot
function normally without those medications. The psychotropic medications are a wide range
of medications, which include the antidepressants, anti-psychotics, stimulants, sedatives and
various others. Each one of those categories have their own range of side effects. However,
all of them are considered to be extremely harmful for the patients (Procyshyn, Bezchlibnyk-
Butler & Jeffries, 2019).
There was a study which used the data from Danish National Patient Registry, aimed
for determining the association of mortality in the middle aged and elderly patients with the
use of the psychotropic drugs. The patients were diagnosed with dementia and were being
prescribed with those drugs as a treatment measure. The study found that there is a higher
mortality in both group of the patients, who were being prescribed with the psychotropic
drugs (Jennum, Baandrup, Ibsen & Kjellberg, 2015).
Another study was focused on determining the effect of the psychotropic drugs on the
individuals with autism spectrum disorder. The researchers also used scholarly articles to find
the answer to their query. The study found that there was an increased co-morbidity rate in

3USE OF SEDATIVE MEDICINE
the patients, who were receiving the treatment. Even though there was a few limitations of
the study, the adverse effects cannot be denied (Jobski, Höfer, Hoffmann & Bachmann,
2017).
A study conducted on China was focused on finding out the effectiveness of the
clozapine drug in the treatment of the Schizophrenia patients. Clozapine is an anti-psychotic
drug that falls under the psychotropic medication category. The study found that even though
the use of those drugs are effective in lowering the delusions and hallucinations in the
patients, the satisfaction of the patients and their families cannot be improved due to the side
effects of the medication. The drug also have no effect on improving the quality of life in a
schizophrenic individual (Li et al., 2015).
Thus many scholars thinks that the use of psychotropic medications should be closely
monitored in the patients. There should be proper regulation of the dosage in order to lower
the adverse effects of those drugs in the mental health patients (Murray et al., 2016). An
argumentative study conducted on Denmark suggested that prescribing those drugs for long
terms use cannot be recommended either. Even with all the benefits considered the drugs
should be used only for a short term use. Otherwise the harm from those drugs are considered
to be higher than their benefits (Gøtzsche, Young & Crace, 2015).
Challenging Aspects for the RN to Administer Psychotic Medication:
Registered nurses are healthcare staffs, who follow the ethical principle of
beneficence and non-maleficence when caring for their patients (Chadwick & Gallagher,
2016). Thus the first challenging aspect for them is to deal with the dilemma. As mentioned
in the above section, even though the psychotropic drugs are effective in lowering the
symptoms of the psychological disorders, there are also a huge range of side effects
associated with the use of those drugs. Those drugs are effective in providing the patients

4USE OF SEDATIVE MEDICINE
momentary relief from their agonised state of mind, thus their use support the principle of
beneficence. However, those drugs are harmful for the patients in long run. Thus the use of
those drugs is wrong according to the principle of non-maleficence.
The psychotropic drugs are not only associated with significant comorbidities in a
patient, those drugs are also associated with the risk of addiction development in the patients
(Desai et al., 2015). There are also common side effects like headache, insomnia and various
others that are associated with the use of those drugs. Thus all these risk factors and the
adverse side effects of the drugs can be considered as the second challenging aspect for the
nurses, when they are attempting to deliver a properly patient centred and safe care to their
patients.
The next challenging aspect also arise from the same difficulty. The use of those
drugs should be monitored closely. The frequent changes are required to be made in the
prescription, when using those medications. The changes in the dose and the medications
themselves help in lowering the severity of the adverse outcomes in the patients. Frequent
monitoring a patient and changing the medications often considering the requirements of the
patient can be considered as a challenging aspect also (Stroup & Gray, 2018).
The nursing practice is based on the evidence based practice. The registered nurses
are obliged to use the evidence based practice always in order to ensure the safety of their
patients. Now, this prescription changing patterns vary widely from one country to another.
Thus it is difficult for the nurses to decide on a pattern of change in order to invite the best
outcome in their patients (Goldberg & Ernst, 2018).
The use of the psychotropic drugs presents various side effects in the patients. Thus it
becomes difficult for all the family members and the primary care givers to manage the
patients. Thus the family satisfaction is lower if the psychotropic drugs are used for the

5USE OF SEDATIVE MEDICINE
treatment of the patient. The patient satisfaction is lower to the use of this medication as well
((Li et al., 2015). Thus this can be considered as another challenging aspect for the registered
nurses, who administer the psychotropic medications in their patients.
Another challenge regarding the use of the psychotropic drugs is that their use in
pregnant mothers and children. There are various challenges associated with the use of these
drugs. The main challenge is that there is a risk of those children developing various long
lasting co-morbidities. The control of the dosage is also very difficult in them (Rasmussen et
al., 2018).
Conclusion:
Hence it can be concluded from the above discussion that the use of the psychotropic
drugs are helpful for lowering various adverse symptoms in the patients. However, there are
various side effects associated with the use of those drugs. There are higher morbidities, the
risks of developing various co-morbid condition and also to develop an addiction to the use
of those drugs. According to many researchers the long term use of those drugs are actually
more harmful compared to their beneficial aspects. However, considering the beneficial
effects of those drugs, the drugs can be used in the treatment of the patients very carefully.
The drugs should be used for a short time period only and the dosage of the drugs should be
carefully controlled. All this restrictions present various challenges for the registered nurses
as they attempt to use them for treating their patients. All the harmful effects of the drugs,
comorbidities and the ethical dilemma can be considered to be the main challenging aspects
for the use of those drugs.

6USE OF SEDATIVE MEDICINE
References:
Chadwick, R., & Gallagher, A. (2016). Ethics and nursing practice. Macmillan International
Higher Education. https://books.google.co.in/books?
hl=en&lr=&id=vG6CDAAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PP1&dq=registered+nurse+ethics&
ots=_Jh9u-
GYef&sig=xO5Mq4cpyPDwnPDxpRknVyncipo#v=onepage&q=registered%20nurse
%20ethics&f=false
Desai, R. J., Huybrechts, K. F., Hernandez-Diaz, S., Mogun, H., Patorno, E., Kaltenbach,
K., ... & Bateman, B. T. (2015). Exposure to prescription opioid analgesics in utero
and risk of neonatal abstinence syndrome: population based cohort study. bmj, 350,
h2102. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.h2102
Goldberg, J. F., & Ernst, C. L. (2018). Managing the side effects of psychotropic medications.
American Psychiatric Pub. https://books.google.co.in/books?hl=en&lr=&id=-
2ZnDwAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PP1&dq=Management+of+psychotropic+medications
&ots=nIXCdCg_SI&sig=JZsTwX_p7wGDitVCIAzrN6Q5iQI#v=onepage&q=Manag
ement%20of%20psychotropic%20medications&f=false
González, G. P., Moscoso, N. S., & Lago, F. P. (2018). A Review of clinical and economic
evaluations applied to psychotropic therapies used in the treatment of schizophrenia in
Argentina. PharmacoEconomics-open, 2(3), 233-239.
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s41669-017-0058-8
Gøtzsche, P. C., Young, A. H., & Crace, J. (2015). Does long term use of psychiatric drugs
cause more harm than good?. Bmj, 350, h2435.
doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.h2435

7USE OF SEDATIVE MEDICINE
Jennum, P., Baandrup, L., Ibsen, R., & Kjellberg, J. (2015). Increased all-cause mortality
with use of psychotropic medication in dementia patients and controls: a population-
based register study. European neuropsychopharmacology, 25(11), 1906-1913.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.euroneuro.2015.08.014
Jobski, K., Höfer, J., Hoffmann, F., & Bachmann, C. (2017). Use of psychotropic drugs in
patients with autism spectrum disorders: a systematic review. Acta Psychiatrica
Scandinavica, 135(1), 8-28. https://doi.org/10.1111/acps.12644
Li, Q., Xiang, Y. T., Su, Y. A., Shu, L., Yu, X., Correll, C. U., ... & Bai, P. S. (2015).
Clozapine in schizophrenia and its association with treatment satisfaction and quality
of life: Findings of the three national surveys on use of psychotropic medications in
China (2002–2012). Schizophrenia research, 168(1-2), 523-529.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.schres.2015.07.048
Murray, R. M., Quattrone, D., Natesan, S., van Os, J., Nordentoft, M., Howes, O., ... &
Taylor, D. (2016). Should psychiatrists be more cautious about the long-term
prophylactic use of antipsychotics?. The British Journal of Psychiatry, 209(5), 361-
365. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1192/bjp.bp.116.182683
Procyshyn, R. M., Bezchlibnyk-Butler, K. Z., & Jeffries, J. J. (Eds.). (2019). Clinical
handbook of psychotropic drugs. Hogrefe Verlag. https://books.google.co.in/books?
hl=en&lr=&id=EzaaDwAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PP2&dq=psychotropic+drugs+side+e
ffects&ots=LkZ84W4g-
L&sig=z1iI1G4yCafrqaob6gyX8Hg7fqk#v=onepage&q=psychotropic%20drugs
%20side%20effects&f=false
Qu, D., Zhang, Z., Yu, X., Zhao, J., Qiu, F., & Huang, J. (2016). Psychotropic drugs for the
management of cancer‐related fatigue: a systematic review and meta‐

8USE OF SEDATIVE MEDICINE
analysis. European journal of cancer care, 25(6), 970-979.
https://doi.org/10.1111/ecc.12397
Rasmussen, L., Bilenberg, N., Thomsen Ernst, M., Abitz Boysen, S., & Pottegård, A. (2018).
Use of psychotropic drugs among children and adolescents with autism spectrum
disorders in denmark: a nationwide drug utilization study. Journal of clinical
medicine, 7(10), 339. https://doi.org/10.3390/jcm7100339
Stroup, T. S., & Gray, N. (2018). Management of common adverse effects of antipsychotic
medications. World Psychiatry, 17(3), 341-356. doi: 10.1002/wps.20567