Assessing & Treating Clients Wth PsychoPharmacolog Essay

Wk5Psychopharmacology. Assessing & treating clients with anxiety disorder.
Click of copy the link below to access the case study (Decision Tree)
https://mym.cdn.laureate-media.com/2dett4d/Walden/NURS/6630/05/mm/generalized_anxiety_disorder/index.html
The Assignment
Examine Case Study: A Middle-Aged Caucasian Man With Anxiety. You will be asked to make three decisions concerning the medication to prescribe to this client. Be sure to consider factors that might impact the client’s pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic processes.
Please follow the bullet points to cover all. At each decision point stop to complete the following:Assessing & Treating Clients Wth PsychoPharmacolog Essay

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• Include the purpose of the paper
• Decision #1
o Which decision did you select?
o Why did you select this decision? Support your response with evidence and references to the Learning Resources.
o What were you hoping to achieve by making this decision? Support your response with evidence and references to the Learning Resources.
o Explain any difference between what you expected to achieve with Decision #1 and the results of the decision. Why were they different?
• Decision #2
o Why did you select this decision? Support your response with evidence and references to the Learning Resources.
o What were you hoping to achieve by making this decision? Support your response with evidence and references to the Learning Resources.
o Explain any difference between what you expected to achieve with Decision #2 and the results of the decision. Why were they different?
• Decision #3
o Why did you select this decision? Support your response with evidence and references to the Learning Resources.
o What were you hoping to achieve by making this decision? Support your response with evidence and references to the Learning Resources.
o Explain any difference between what you expected to achieve with Decision #3 and the results of the decision. Why were they different?
Also include how ethical considerations might impact your treatment plan and communication with clients.
Note: Support your rationale with a minimum of three academic resources. While you may use the course text to support your rationale, it will not count toward the resource requirement.Assessing & Treating Clients Wth PsychoPharmacolog Essay

Psychopharmacology is the study of substances that influence mental states. Such agents induce changes in mood, sensation, thinking, or behavior, and may be derived from plants or other natural sources or chemically synthesized in a laboratory.

Psychopharmacology encompasses medications used in the treatment of such conditions as depression, anxiety, and psychosis. It also includes agents that relieve acute and chronic pain, and others that curb insomnia and facilitate sleep.

While some psychoactive agents play an important role in reducing the suffering of those with illness, others, such as “smart drugs,” are of increasing interest for enhancing mental capabilities in healthy people.

As a clinical psychologist, it is my experience that psychological assessments – involving the use of comprehensive psychometric measures – are the most under-utilised elements in mental health care. Psychological assessments offer enormous power for clinicians and patients. I’ve also found that my colleagues in Psychiatry often have not been afforded the practical opportunity to experience the benefits the psychological assessment process might bring to their own practice. Assessing & Treating Clients Wth PsychoPharmacolog Essay
And the benefits are many.

In this first article of three I want to layout what psychological assessments are and how they can be used to enhance your own practice. Often times, I’ve spoken with psychiatrists struggling with a client who has tried all of the medications, is ambivalent about therapy, and seems to making little to no change in the course of the treatment. It is this situation that I see as perfect for the psychological assessment process that I’m going to share with you in these blog articles on Psych Scene Hub.

PSYCHOLOGICAL ASSESSMENT
rorschach-fantasy-A Psychological Assessment involves the planned use of interviews (generally semi-structured) and specific psychometric assessments (tests) to answer questions highlighted in a referral. I find that questions are typically around teasing out complex diagnoses, helping clarify symptoms/coping style/personality, or, specifying the types of therapy and therapist most likely to assist the patient. Assessing & Treating Clients Wth PsychoPharmacolog Essay
The components all play a specific role. The interview helps define the current situation/problems and important elements of personal history. It also engages the patient with the assessment process. The tests themselves act as both lens and lever: getting a unique perspective on relevant issues while also highlighting where and how therapy probably needs to be focused.
When it comes to tests, there are many psychological tests assessing almost any variable you could imagine. Categories of test more relevant to clinical assessment include:

Tests of intelligence and neuropsychological functioning (such as tests of executive function, memory, attention, reasoning et cetera);
Brief face-valid symptom measures (such as the Beck Depression Inventory or the K10);
Omnibus measures such as the Rorschach, the MMPI – 2 or the PAI-2 (which combine personality, coping style and psychopathology assessments), and;
‘Pure’ personality measures such as the Hogan Personality Inventory, the NEO or the IPIP-120 which do not assess psychopathology.
The type of measure chosen depends on the question you want to answer as well as the time demands and financial cost of the test under consideration. Each type has strengths and weaknesses. In my opinion, the omnibus measures such as the MMPI-2 and Rorschach are the most complex, the most interesting and the most broadly useful for clinicians and patients.

IMPACT
What are the benefits for psychiatrists? There are many. You get to check and challenge your own diagnoses, specify treatment-related patient factors and get a different perspective cast over complex patients. The tests help clarify what intensity of intervention is required – it helps you not miss those patients who present very well but are just good at ‘holding it together’ on interview while really requiring far more clinical intervention. The insights from these assessments help you build a collaborative formulation and treatment plan with patients, improving the likelihood of treatment compliance and treatment outcome. It’s an interdisciplinary & collaborative form of work – working with a clinical psychologist – and it helps overcome the isolation common in private practice. Finally, it is enjoyable – it helps you to honestly engage with people about distressing, difficult or complex issues. Assessing & Treating Clients Wth PsychoPharmacolog Essay

Benefits for the patient are also significant. The interview and test process engages and empowers; it communicates a genuine respect for the patient and has them as an integral part of the process rather than just the ‘subject’ of an assessment. Testing lends legitimacy to an assessment process. Apart from objectivity, it also fosters rapport-building with patients in the form of a joint understanding and decisions on interventions or treatments. Again, perhaps the most important element is that therapeutic assessments have a clinical impact about the equivalent to a similar period of therapy or counselling. (Poston and Hanson, 2010) Assessing & Treating Clients Wth PsychoPharmacolog Essay

REFERRAL TRIGGERS
When should you refer a patient for a psychological assessment? Whilst it’s easy to say “with every patient”, I think there are a few points when psychological assessment is particularly worthwhile. These include:

Pre-treatment evaluations, particularly if you know a patient has been referred to you because of limited success in previous treatment or the patient has complex problems/presentation;
When treatment has stalled and psychological assessment can be used to identify the factors limiting progress, and;
Questions of fitness where decisions are being made about patients based on their psychological functioning (i.e., return to work). Psychological assessments give you relatively objective evidence to be used in decision-making processes. Assessing & Treating Clients Wth PsychoPharmacolog Essay
SUMMARY

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My professional experience of using therapeutic psychological assessments is extremely positive. I find they bring an insight, clarity of focus and opportunity to engage with patients in an open and powerful way that I have not found in any other way or method of working. When working this way with Psychiatrists, it has helped us ‘divvy up’ the therapeutic tasks, keep a common language and common set of goals with patients. We are able to keep a clear focus on what we are working on and why. Similarly, when I’ve discussed the impact of assessments with patients, the feedback I get is resoundingly positive.
Now I’ve laid out the administrative process and clinical argument for them, I’m looking forward to sharing some case examples of the kinds of insights and impact this type of work can have for you as professionals and for the patient under your care.

Psychopharmacology and Mental Health Counseling
Kaut and Dicknson (2007) states “a growing challenge for mental health counselors is to understand the potential benefits and limitations of many different types of drugs “(.p204-205). Drugs are prescribed to have an effect on the brain and behavior of clients. Mental health counselors are advised to be trained in how psychotropic medications can benefit and be at risk for their clients and to develop a collaborative approach to treatment (Kaut & Anderson, 2004; King & Dickinson, 2007). While mental health counselors cannot prescribe medication, they can recommend medication and educated their…show more content…
Ethical Limitation Clients have the right to confidentiality. Counselors cannot share information about clients without shared consent. Counselors throughout treatment process must inform clients when confidentiality can be breached (Mears, G., 2010). If a counselors foresee that a client is a danger to himself or others confidentiality must be broken. Assessing & Treating Clients Wth PsychoPharmacolog Essay
Counselor’s Role in Educating Clients about Medication Kaut and Dickinson (2007) suggested, without expert training in pharmacology, the mental health counselor must self-educate. Counselors have to pull information from peer-reviewed articles/journals, books, and colleagues to educated themselves. In order for a counselor to address client concerns or therapeutic issues a counselor role is to understand prescription medication (Dickinson & Kaut 2007 p. 216). If the prescribing medical professional does not fully explain the medication side effects, the counselor is left to educate the client on the medication (Kaut and Dickinson, 2007). The counselor monitors side effects and drug interactions, while maintaining an open discussion about the drugs specific to the client treatment. Counselors are encouraged to help their clients manage their medications, and provide therapeutic services that capitalize on the medications desired effects (Mears, G. 2010).
Appropriate Referral Source The client is referral to a particular medical professional depending on the clients need. Determining the most Assessing & Treating Clients Wth PsychoPharmacolog Essay