The mental health medication can relieve some of the symptoms of psychiatric disorder which can make life more tolerable.

 Since the middle of 20^th century, management of psychiatric disorders has included medications along with their treatments. For these last 50 years the psychiatric researchers have been searching for ideal medications to treat specific disorders. The combination of medication and other kind of therapy is seen to be most effective.

 Categories of mental health medications:

Most of the dugs for mental health are designed to treat particular problems or symptoms. They are classified into four main categories:

 Anti anxiety drugs:

 These drugs are also know as tranquilizers and are used in many forms of medication. They relieve the anxiety by slowing down the central nervous system. Anti anxiety drugs are very popular due to their calming and relaxing effects. They are most widely prescribed types of medication for settling the anxiety. They are also prescribed as muscle relaxants and sleeping pills.

 The main ingredients in the most common class of anti anxiety drugs are Xanax (alprazolam), Valium (diazepam), Ativan (lorazepam) and Klonopin (clonazepam). However some of the anti anxiety drugs are known to produce the side effects.

 Antidepressant:

 Antidepressants are psychiatric medicine used to relives the symptoms like depression, mood disorder and dysthymia. These drugs are often used to treat some other conditions like obsessive compulsive disorder, chronic pain, eating disorders, anxiety disorders, eating disorders and some hormone-mediated disorders.

 This family of drugs includes Paroxetine (Paxil), Fluoxetine (Prozac), Fluvoxamine (Luvox), Escitalopram (Lexapro), Sertraline (Zoloft) and Citalopram (Celexa).

 The therapeutic effects of antidepressants are caused by their effects on neurotransmitters and neurotransmission. Monoamine oxidase inhibitors (MAOIs) inhibit the enzyme monoamine oxidase and it leads to the increased concentrations of these neurotransmitters in the brain.

 Antipsychotic:

 This is one of the important mental health medications. They are groups of psychoactive drugs. The old anti-psychotics are known to give some side effects like weight gain and tardive dyskinesia.

 However, the development of new, safe and effective antipsychotic is the primary preferences by the modern day researchers. This mental health medication tries to block the D2 receptors in the dopamine pathway of the brain.

 Mood stabilizers:

 These mental health medications are used to treat the mood disorders. Actually most of the mood stabilizers are anticonvulsants. However, one of the oldest and the best known mood stabilizer lithium is not included in it. The downstream target of these stabilizers is arachidonic acid cascade.

 The development in the medical field of new type of medication also brings with them their own set of issues as well. The issues could be caused due to various factors like the age of the patient, other medication recently used and various other medical conditions.

 The characteristics of ideal mental health medications include:

 1)       It needs to be effective for all the symptoms of mental illness

2)       It needs to work quickly

3)       It has no side effects and never affect badly in our system

4)       It never causes any drug interaction

5)       It needs to be affordable

6)       The cure should be on a permanent scale

It can be stated that the mental health medication used to treat the psychiatric disorder will affect the entire life of the patient. Some drugs may be effective for some people with a specified dosage whereas there might be people who will need higher dosage for recovery.  

 Certain drugs can destroy the man’s ability to think or they can also interfere with their personal relationships. Some types of drugs can even a ruin the professional lives and sexual lives as well.

 Deciding on mental health medication is by far not an easy task because of the white spectrum of new medicines being introduced into the market. Some of the medication may be time tested whereas some may be practically new.

 To come to a conclusion, the symptoms of mental issues can be cured through effective and safe medication followed by proper mental health assessment.

Need of Medications is a post from: Mental Health