Psychopharmacology
Chapter 11
Psychopharmacology
4 topics
- 28Antipsychotics: types, mechanism of action, clinical effects, adverse effects, long-acting injectable (depot) antipsychotics, indications, and monitoringThe drugs that treat psychosis by blocking, or partly stimulating, dopamine D2 receptors, and the first that works through muscarinic receptors instead. The page covers the first- and second-generation drugs, the partial agonists, clozapine and its blood monitoring, the long-acting injections, and the harms to watch for, from neuroleptic malignant syndrome to weight gain.
- 29Antidepressants: types, mechanism of action, clinical effects, adverse effects, indications, and monitoringThe drugs that treat depression and many anxiety disorders, mostly by raising serotonin and noradrenaline at the synapse. The page covers each class from the SSRIs to the MAOIs, the newer drugs esketamine and zuranolone and their status in Europe, how a drug is chosen, switched and stopped, and the harms to know, from serotonin syndrome and hyponatraemia to tricyclic overdose.
- 30Mood stabilizers: types, mechanism of action, clinical effects, adverse effects, indications, and monitoringThe drugs that treat mania and prevent the relapses of bipolar disorder, lithium first among them, with valproate, carbamazepine, lamotrigine and several antipsychotics. The page covers how each works and is dosed, lithium's levels and toxicity, the monitoring each needs, and why valproate is now kept from anyone who could conceive a child.
- 31Anxiolytics: types, mechanism of action, clinical effects, adverse effects, indications, and monitoringThe drugs that relieve anxiety, from the benzodiazepines, quick and effective but habit-forming, to buspirone, pregabalin, beta-blockers and antihistamines, while the antidepressants do the long-term work. The page covers how each acts, when it is used and for how long, benzodiazepine dependence, withdrawal and overdose, and the safe way to stop.