Mental Health: Pharmacological vs. Non-Pharmacological Interventions

This assignment is a literature review focused on comparing pharmacological and non-pharmacological interventions for the treatment of schizophrenia. The aim is to determine if medication combined with nursing interventions can effectively reduce schizophrenic symptoms. The research objectives include analyzing the impact of mental health nursing interventions, understanding the effect of standalone medications, and assessing the importance of combining antipsychotic medications with mental health nursing. A systematic review approach is employed, utilizing secondary databases such as PUBMED, Cochrane, ELSEVIER, MEDLINE, and CINAHL. Inclusion and exclusion criteria are applied to filter relevant articles, focusing on keywords like schizophrenia, pharmacological treatment, non-pharmacological treatment, psychosis, and antipsychotic medications. The review prioritizes systematic reviews and randomized control trials. The intended outcome is to understand the benefits of combining medications with non-pharmacological interventions, such as therapeutic communication, positive mindset training, and physical exercises, compared to standalone medication, considering the adverse effects associated with long-term antipsychotic use.

Running head: MENTAL HEALTH CARE
Mental health care
Name of the student
University name
Author’s note

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Table of Contents
Background.......................................................................................................................................2
Aim:-....................................................................................................................................................2
Research objectives:-............................................................................................................................2
Approach to perform systematic review...........................................................................................2
Inclusion/exclusion criteria..................................................................................................................3
Intended outcome of the research.....................................................................................................3
References.........................................................................................................................................5

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Background
The current research focuses upon the aspect of mental health care by trying to draw a
comparison between pharmacological and non- pharmacological interventions for the treatment of
schizophrenia.
Aim:-
The research aims to find out whether medication along with nursing interventions can
reduce schizophrenic symptoms in schizophrenia patients.
Research objectives:-
 To critically analyse the impact of mental health nursing interventions in reducing the
schizophrenic symptoms in schizophrenia patients
 To critically understand the effect of standalone medications on schizophrenia patients
 To critically understand the importance of implementing antipsychotic medications along
with mental health nursing as co-treatment for effectively controlling schizophrenic
symptoms in schizophrenia patients
Approach to perform systematic review
For the present research a systematic review will be performed by the researcher where the
researcher will be using a number of secondary databases for the gathering of the data. In this
respect, secondary databases such as PUBMED, Cochrane, ELSEVIER, MEDLINE, CINAHL, etc.
For the collection of data strict filters will be applied by the researcher, which have been grouped
under inclusion and exclusion criteria. The data gathered from the secondary sources will be used
by the researcher for thematic analysis where the similar will be grouped together. The theme
formation will help the researcher in arriving at acceptable results.

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Inclusion/exclusion criteria
For searching the required articles strict filters have been applied such as effective keywords
will be used to extract relevant articles from the secondary databases. Some of the keywords which
will be used over here are –schizophrenia, pharmacological treatment, noon-pharmacological
treatment, schizophrenia, psychosis, antipsychotic medications, improvements in schizophrenia
symptoms etc. Additionally, Boolean phrases such as AND will be used to extract the articles from
the relevant databases. Additionally, the time limiters will be set to the last 18 years such that any
articles found as result of the search prior to the year 2000 will be excluded. The full text articles
only will be taken into consideration by the researcher. Additionally, peer reviewed internal
journals with good impact factors will be taken into consideration. For the review, systematic
reviews and randomised control trials will be given first priority by the researcher, the case and
cohort studies will be second priority. The publications in local language will be excluded and not
included within the study.
Intended outcome of the research
The research aimed to understand the outcome of implementing mental health nursing
interventions along with medications in the treatment of schizophrenic symptoms in schizophrenia
patients. As mentioned by Taylor et al. (2017), the medications for schizophrenia treatment have
often been associated with strong and adverse outcomes. Some of the anti-psychotic medications
have been seen to affect the digestive system of the patient on long term use (Mizuno et al., 2014).
Therefore, there has been much focus upon using non –pharmacological intervention strategies such
as the use of mental health nursing.
Therefore, the research would try to compare the benefits of providing standalone
medications in combination with non-pharmacologic interventions. Some of these are based upon
use of therapeutic communication approaches training the patients on developing positive mindset
along with engaging them in light physical exercises. As suggested by Gates, Killackey, Phillips

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and Álvarez-Jiménez (2015), communication is one of the most important gateway in mental health
nursing care.

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References
Taylor, J., Stubbs, B., Hewitt, C., Ajjan, R. A., Alderson, S. L., Gilbody, S., ... & Kellar, I. (2017).
The effectiveness of pharmacological and non-pharmacological interventions for improving
glycaemic control in adults with severe mental illness: a systematic review and meta-
analysis. PloS one, 12(1), e0168549.
Mizuno, Y., Suzuki, T., Nakagawa, A., Yoshida, K., Mimura, M., Fleischhacker, W. W., & Uchida,
H. (2014). Pharmacological strategies to counteract antipsychotic-induced weight gain and
metabolic adverse effects in schizophrenia: a systematic review and meta-
analysis. Schizophrenia bulletin, 40(6), 1385-1403.
Gates, J., Killackey, E., Phillips, L., & Álvarez-Jiménez, M. (2015). Mental health starts with
physical health: current status and future directions of non-pharmacological interventions to
improve physical health in first-episode psychosis. The Lancet Psychiatry, 2(8), 726-742.