The Overuse of Drugs by Therapists: A Clinical Skills Perspective

This report delves into the contentious issue of drug overuse by therapists, questioning its impact on their clinical skills and experience. It explores the rationale behind this practice, providing background information and personal observations on the topic. The report examines relevant theories, including psychoanalysis, behavioral, humanistic, and cognitive theories, and their application in therapeutic settings. It summarizes findings from various sources, suggesting the importance of utilizing therapies over medications whenever possible to minimize side effects and promote patient well-being. The report emphasizes the need for therapists to continuously enhance their skills through training and specialization, advocating for a balanced approach that prioritizes therapies while judiciously considering the use of medications. The report highlights the importance of patient outcomes.

Clinical Questions

Table of Contents
QUESTION......................................................................................................................................1
Rationale of the topic..................................................................................................................1
Background information on the question....................................................................................1
Personal observation of the topic................................................................................................2
Theories related to the topic........................................................................................................3
Summary.....................................................................................................................................4
Suggestion...................................................................................................................................4
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................5

QUESTION
“Is overuse of drugs by therapists raise question mark on their clinical skills and
experience?”
Rationale of the topic
The overuse of drugs by therapist create a question mark on their skills and experience as
they are required to utilise therapies and some of physical activities to solve specific health
problem rather than using medications. It has been analysed that therapies and other exercises are
very effective to sort out several health problems but some of therapies prefer top utilise drugs
for the same which generate question mark on their abilities (Ericsson, 2015). However, it is
important to investigate about overuse of drug by therapist in order to evaluate the actual reason
behind it in terms of their skills and experience in healthcare. It will helpful to evaluate the level
of experience and ability of therapist in respect of carrying out clinical practices appropriately as
impacts on patient outcomes.
At the other hand, the investigation is essential to study about overuse of drugs by
therapist as it impacts negatively in health of patients. However, additional usage of medications
may create severe complications in conducting of sick individual or may generate addiction of
drugs which is harmful for their health. In addition to this, drugs are helpful for solving problem
of disease while taking in specific amount within particular period of time. Moreover, overuse of
drugs create the issue of addiction and wrong reactions of compound will generate severe
allergies inside the body which is really complicated and difficulty to be tackled by specialists
accordingly. Furthermore, a therapist is required to utilise various therapies including variety of
modalities, mindful- based therapy, cognitive behaviour therapy and psychodynamic therapy or
combination of several ones. They are required to prefer less of no use of drug if possible to
make people healthy (Rousmaniere and et. al., 2017).
Background information on the question
The therapist is a medical professionals who contains perfection of conducting various
therapies in order to make people healthy by solving several healthy problems. They have a
criteria of mostly utilising therapies such as talking therapies, counselling, behavioural
activation, interpersonal therapy, eye movement desensitisation & processing (EMDR), cognitive
behavioural therapy (CBT) and mindful-based cognitive therapy (MBCT). However, therapist is
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required to use on therapies besides of medications or drugs and if they do so then it will create
an issue regrading their abilities & skills. However, there are various kinds of therapies which
can solve different mental disorder including depression, anxiety, panic attacks, bulimia,
obsessive compulsive disorder and post- traumatic stress disorder. At the other hand, counselling
is supportive to overcome with struggling condition, chronic pain, addiction and fertility
problems (Joseph, 2018).
In addition to this, if therapist are using prefer overuse of drug then it reflects that they
did not have desired ability to conducting therapies appropriately. Many times, it is studies that
therapies are combines with drugs to make overall treatment more effective but medication
should be provided in limited amount. Overuse of drugs is not right and it put a question mark on
skills and abilities of them in terms of conducting different therapies for welfare of patient. It is
essential to investigate about actual reason of preferring extra drugs by therapists in order to
evaluate positive or negative intension which facilitate to put efforts for reducing wrong
intentions of using medications. People prefer therapist to avoid drugs as they remain their side
effects on body after solving particular health problem.
Personal observation of the topic
In context of overuse of of drugs by therapists, it has been observed that medications can
be combined with desired therapy for particular sick individual in respect of increasing
effectiveness of treatment. It include that therapist is perfect on conducting therapies in order to
make people healthy by solving desired health issue in proper manner. There are various types of
problems in which therapies are much efficient such as mental disorders, chronic pain, struggling
situation, addiction, fertility problems and many more. However, it has been studied that there
are various types of therapies which can be used by therapist to sort out different types of health
issues accordingly (Cuccurullo, 2014). It consist behavioural therapy, psychoanalysis, cognitive
therapy, relationship counselling, hypnotherapy, neuro- linguistic programming, regression
therapy and so on.
It has been analysed that therapies are much effective to solve various health problems
and therapist can make combination with drugs but in limited amount. In contrary to this,
overuse of drugs by professional reflects their inability and less experience of work in terms of
conducting different therapies. Moreover, it shows that therapist is not much skilled and perfect
to apply different therapies due to which they prefer to use extra drugs to make patients well
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being which is not appropriate. There are various psychological problems which can be sort out
by therapies without using any medication but still few of therapist prefer drugs which is not
appropriate and shows negative intension of them including imperfection of skill or immediate
outcomes.
Theories related to the topic
There are various types of theories which are required to be adopted by therapist in order
to conduct procedure of therapies for achieving better outcomes in terms of making patient well-
being. It is necessary for them to select accurate theory and apply the same conduct overall
process of treatment in respect of solving specific health problem. Some of theories with
interventions which can be prefer by therapists are explained further –
Psychoanalysis/Psychodynamic Theory – This refers to a concept that there are certain
unconscious forces which are responsible to drive behaviour of an individual. It include several
techniques such as free association, dream analysis and transference which are utilised by
psychoanalysts as an intervention to evaluate actual condition of patient (Seiger, 2014).
Meanwhile, it will provide support to psychotherapist to select correct therapy for solving
particular health issue.
Behavioural Theory – The behavioural theory is based on belief of learning behaviour
in which effects of learned response through stimulus are focussed. It consist behavioural therapy
approach which is known as operant conditioning that states that rewards are helpful to increase
likelihood behaviour whereas punishment facilitate to reduce negative activities in behaviour of
an individual. However, these activities can be used as an intervention by therapist to reduce
unwanted behaviour by using positive or negative reinforcement.
Humanistic Theory – This theory can be considered as patient centred approach which
focus to help client in order to achieve their highest potential. It include to avoid negative
experience of an individual and put efforts to evaluate good behaviour to emphasize their self-
growth as well as self- actualisation as an intervention. However, the therapist are required to
utilise gestalt, client centred and existential therapies for welfare of patient (Seng and et. al.,
2015).
Cognitive theory – The cognitive theory focus on counselling technique in terms of
improving thinking, feelings and behaviours by motivating them in respect of solving particular
problem of an individual. It consist the intervention to analyse present situation of client and
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focus on their distorted thinking rather than previous experience. Additionally, therapist can used
behaviour and cognitive therapy as single form of theory which is more effective in mental
disorders.
Summary
From the analysed articles and publications, it is summarised that therapist prefer overuse
of drugs in case of their imperfect skills of conducting desired therapies. It is observed that
professionals are required to attend various sessions, training and learning programs in order to
gain perfection in abilities and conduct practice of therapies for sometime which helps to make
them more capable in this field. However, it has been analysed that therapist are required to
become gain perfection in specific areas and prefer to become specialist like psycho therapist to
deal with specified health problems. It will provide support to conduct particular therapy in more
effective as well as efficient manner which reduce use of drugs and make make patient healthy.
According to opinion of experts, they suggest to utilise therapies rather than medications because
medicines left their side effects on body but therapeutic treatment work slowly and make patient
disease free without any negative impacts. In addition to this, therapist should prefer to attend
learning sessions regularly to improve their skills and gain perfection in clinical practices as well
as experience.
Suggestion
The data for given report collected by several sources like journals, articles, websites and
books. From the above report, it is suggested that medications should be avoid till it is possible
by using therapies and other exercises to make people healthy. It is helpful to reduce chance of
occurring side effects of drugs including reactions, allergies and addiction in patients. However,
it is recommended that therapist are required to make combinations of respective therapies in
order to solve different types of problem like depression, anxiety, chronic pain, struggling
situation, post- traumatic stress disorder and many more. In addition to this, it is suggested to
professionals that they should avoid use of drugs for early results of treatment and prefer
effective therapies for certain period of time for achieving better outcomes. It is necessary to
follow several theories including psychoanalysis/psychodynamic, behavioural, humanistic and
cognitive in treating process as per requirement.
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REFERENCES
Books and journals
Ericsson, K. A. (2015). Acquisition and maintenance of medical expertise: a perspective from
the expert-performance approach with deliberate practice. Academic Medicine. 90(11).
1471-1486.
Rousmaniere, T. and et. al., (2017). The cycle of excellence: Using deliberate practice to
improve supervision and training. John Wiley & Sons.
Joseph, S. (2018). Symptom-focused psychiatric drug therapy for managed care. Routledge.
Cuccurullo, S. J. (2014). Physical medicine and rehabilitation board review. Demos Medical
Publishing.
Seiger, B. (2014). The clinical practice of harm reduction psychotherapy. Clinical work with
substance-abusing clients. 165-178.
Seng, E. K. and et. al., (2015). Improving medication adherence in migraine treatment. Current
pain and headache reports. 19(6). 24.
Online
Five Counselling Theories and Approaches. 2018. [Online]. Available through:
<https://counseling.northwestern.edu/five-counseling-theories-and-approaches/>
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