Medications for Mental Illness
Psychiatric medications for mental illness can alleviate your symptoms and improve your treatment outcomes. At New Mind Wellness Center in Philadelphia, we provide comprehensive treatment that includes medications, therapy, and holistic approaches to mental health disorders.
Call us today or visit our admissions page to get started.
Medications for Mental Illness
Psychiatric medications for mental illness can alleviate your symptoms and improve your treatment outcomes. At New Mind Wellness Center in Philadelphia, we provide comprehensive treatment that includes medications, therapy, and holistic approaches to mental health disorders.
Call us today or visit our admissions page to get started.
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Medications for mental illness can vastly improve the symptoms of mental illness, but there are so many of them available. How does a person know which one is right for them?
New Mind Wellness Center understands that the massive amount of prescription medications available can confuse people. That’s why our expert staff of mental health clinicians provides a full assessment of each person so we understand their exact diagnosis and needs. This allows our prescribers to select the medications we feel will provide the best results. We monitor each person for how they react to the drug and make any necessary changes to the dosage or type of medication.
About Medication for Mental Health
When someone has a mental health disorder like bipolar disorder, depression, anxiety, borderline personality disorder (BPD), and more, attending therapy can provide tremendous results. However, often therapy alone is not enough to garner real results. Adding in medications for mental illness can improve the individual’s symptoms of mental illness and help them make progress in healing.
Who Can Prescribe Medications for Mental Health?
Physicians are allowed to prescribe medications for mental illness in all 50 states. This includes psychiatrists, who have completed medical school and specialize in treating mental illness.
Most Common Medications for Mental Illness
While there are many types of medications for mental illness, they are grouped into different categories according to what they treat and what kind of med they are. In the sections below, we delve into the most common medications used to treat poor mental health.
Antidepressants
Antidepressant medications help people who suffer from different types of depression. They also prove useful in treating anxiety for many people. The most common types are Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors (SSRIs) like Paxil and Serotonin Norepinephrine Reuptake Inhibitors (SNRIs). Common antidepressant medications include Paroxetine, Escitalopram, Fluoxetine, and Citalopram.
Anti-Anxiety Medications
These medications help ease the symptoms that occur with anxiety disorders. Benzodiazepines are often used to treat anxiety and include options like Lorazepam, Alprazolam, and Clonazepam. SSRI drugs may also help people who struggle with anxiety.
Antipsychotics
Antipsychotic medications are used to treat those who have schizophrenia and psychotic disorders. They can also help people who experience psychosis as part of another mental illness. Choices include first-generation antipsychotics to treat psychosis and second-generation antipsychotics, which help treat schizophrenia and other illnesses.
Mood Stabilizers
People who have trouble regulating their moods often respond well to mood stabilizers. They can be used to treat bipolar disorder and personality disorders. Common mood stabilizers include lithium, antipsychotics, and anticonvulsants.
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New Mind Wellness is a leader in the provision of mental health treatment in Pennsylvania. If you or a loved one are struggling with mental illness, reach out to us today or verify your insurance now.
Pros and Cons of Psychiatric Medications
Taking medications for mental illness can provide wonderful results for a person. On the other hand, some people do not respond well to them and instead focus on therapy and other healing approaches to improve their mental health.
The pros of psychiatric medications include how much they can reduce or even eliminate many symptoms of mental illness. For example, they can reduce the amount of anxiety a person feels or help someone with depression feel hopeful and happy again. Medications can be used on a short-term basis or for a longer amount of time.
Potential cons of psychiatric medications include the fact that, for some people, there doesn’t seem to be a truly effective one. For them and others, it can take a long time to experiment with different types of medications and dosages. This can be frustrating and time-consuming.
As well, some people experience side effects from using psychiatric medications. For many, these prove temporary, but others end up unable to stay on medication because the side effects are too much to endure.
Efficacy of Meds
According to the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI), “They’re usually more effective when combined with psychotherapy. In some cases, medicines can reduce symptoms so other methods of a treatment plan can be more effective.”
Someone who isn’t sure if taking medications for their mental health is right for them may wonder about how effective they are. Certain factors influence how well meds work for each person. The individual should be taking a medication prescribed for them and according to directions. Skipping dosages or using someone else’s medications can keep a person from getting the effects they need.
When trying a new drug, it may take some time to take effect, and an increase in dosage could be required. Not recognizing these facts can make a person feel the drug doesn’t work for them. Overall, most medications for mental illness help a great deal of people, but not every drug is for everyone. Talking to a prescriber and being willing to experiment greatly increases the chances of someone finding the right medication for them.
How Will These Meds Make Me Feel?
How a medication for mental health makes a person feel depends on their specific brain and bodily reactions, as well as the drug they take. The goal is to relieve a person’s symptoms of a mental illness.
Someone taking an antidepressant should experience an elevated mood, whereas someone taking an anxiety med will feel less anxious. The right medication can help someone think clearly, focus on tasks, increase their energy, and feel calmer. It can assist in allowing the person to sleep better, feel more inclined to take care of themselves, and be capable of communicating more effectively with others.
Side effects may occur and should be discussed with the provider.
Recommended: Most Common Depression Medications
Where Can I Get Medication for Mental Health?
Medications can only be prescribed by a licensed doctor, such as a primary care physician. Meds can also come from a psychiatrist, who is a medical doctor who specializes in mental health disorders. Psychiatrists work independently, as part of a group, in outpatient facilities, and residential treatment centers.
Find Quality Care and Medications for Mental Illness in Philadelphia
Are you interested in trying medications for mental illness to help improve your symptoms and want to discuss your options with a professional? New Mind Philadelphia provides an overall program to help people who struggle with mental health disorders. We offer different levels of care that feature evidence-based therapies to help people seize control of their mental health. Our program also offers access to an array of prescription medications that reduce or eliminate many symptoms of mental illnesses.
Contact us now and open up a discussion about what types of medications can meet your needs. Our friendly staff is ready to answer your questions and help you get started on a healing path.