Prescribing Mental Health Medication: The Practitioner's Guide

Prescribing Mental Health Medication is a text for practitioners who treat mental disorders with medication. It explains the entire process of medication assessment, management and follow up for general medical practitioners, mental health practitioners, students, residents, prescribing nurses and others perfecting this skill. Already used by providers and training institutions throughout the world, the newly revised second edition is completely updated and focuses on the following key issues:
How to determine if medication is needed
Proper dosing and how to start and stop medication
When to change medication
Dealing with difficult patients
Specific mental health symptoms and appropriate medication
Special populations including pregnant women, substance abusers, children and adolescents, and the elderly
Monitoring medication with blood levels
Management of medication side effects and avoidance of medication risk
The misuse of medication
Prescription of generic preparations
Prescriptions via the Internet, telemedicine, and electronic medical records
Organizing a prescriptive office and record-keeping
Completely updated, this text includes information on all psychotropic medications in use in the United States and the United Kingdom. It incorporates clinical tips, sample dialogues for talking about medications to patients, and information specifically relevant in primary care settings.