PRINCIPLES AND PRACTICES OF MEDICATION MANAGEMENT FOR PEOPLE WITH SCHIZOPHRENIA Evolution within a Recovery Based Framework of Care
Treating patients with schizophrenia can be highly rewarding, especially as there is the opportunity to reduce illness burden for the patient and family. Th ere is the possibility of return to a good level of functioning, even to prior employment in a minority of patients. Th at said, treatment is challenging for many even the majority of patients and requires a taking a long range perspective. Although certainly not the only aspect of care, medications play a central role. Medication treatments are complex and dynamically evolving over time both because of the availability of new information as well as the new drugs coming "on line." Th is chapter does not cover the fi ner details of psychopharmacology. Nor does it provide an exhaustive account of the relative merits of each available antipsychotic. Th ese important aspects are very well covered elsewhere (Van Os Kapur, 2009; Jones Buckley, 2006) In this chapter, we provide a succinct overview of the principles and clinical practice of modern day drug treatments for schizophrenia, specifi cally incorporating a recovery based framework also. Rather than address the complexities of medication management for all severe mental illnesses an overly ambitious undertaking for a single chapter we discuss medication practices for schizophrenia as a prototype for other severe mental illnesses. We hope that this approach will enable clinicians (some of whom may not be medication prescribers) to appreciate the broader context of care, discover how medication practices can be inculcated into a recovery based framework, and realize the invaluable role that non prescribers can and should play to support recovery based medication management. OUP UNCORRECTED PROOF FIRSTPROOFS, Thu Nov 01 2012, NEWGEN