Not all patients and not all psychiatric problems need psychiatric medicines but there are certainly instances where prescription medicines are the most potent treatment available to relieve a patient’s suffering. Medicines are commonly an important and effective part of the treatment of many mental illnesses to include depression, schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, anxiety, panic, sleep problems, attention deficit disorder and several other disorders.
Medications are often utilized at the same time that other forms of treatment such as counseling or behavioral therapies are being used. As would be expected, the use of prescription medicines introduces potential problems to be dealt with such as medicine risks and side effects.
Psychiatrists are the only mental health providers who are legally licensed to independently prescribe and manage prescription medications for mental illnesses. Counselors and psychologists are not permitted to use or prescribe medications as part of their treatments. Psychiatric Nurse Specialists may prescribe medications for mental illnesses but must have a psychiatric qualified physician overseeing their use of medicines.
ABC of DuPage Psychiatrist bring many years of training and experience as a physicians in the use of medicines for the treatment of psychiatric illnesses. Effective management of psychiatric medicines requires knowing which medicines are most likely to help; knowing if combinations of medicines might be more helpful than a single medicine; knowing which side effects are likely with a given medicine; knowing which lab test would be helpful in monitoring a medicine’s safe use; knowing which medicines are addictive and knowing how to talk about these matters in a common sense, understandable fashion with patients and their families.
We also offer suboxone as a treatment for opioid addiction.
Psychiatric medication management appointments are an important service of ABC of DuPage. How often psychiatric medication management appointments are scheduled is different from patient to patient and depends in part on the wishes of the patient, the seriousness of the patient’s symptoms and the potential risks the medicine presents to the patient. If you think that the use of a psychiatric medication might be helpful please consider giving ABC of DuPage a call to set up an appointment or send us a message via our contact us page.
Call 630 629 2700