Finding the Right Medication
The response to treatment varies from one person to another. One medication may help one person but not another. One medication may cause unbearable side effects for one person while another may tolerate it very well. This is an area in medical science where we still have much to learn.
Trial and Error
Doctors have to rely on trial and error as they try to make educated guesses when choosing the best medication for each patient.
This trial and error method is used in most medical specialties. This is how doctors treat blood pressure, diabetes, asthma, and many other conditions. The key to the success of this process is effective and open communication among the doctor, the patient, and the family. Letting the doctor know which symptoms improve and which do not, and which side effects are troubling you and which are not, is the best way to help the doctor help you find the right medication and the right dose.
Knowing What and How to Prescribe
Prescribing antipsychotic drugs requires expertise. Ideally, it should be done by a psychiatrist or a physician who has received special training in these treatments. It is not enough to know only the different medications and their characteristics; it is also necessary for the prescriber to have global medical knowledge about the body in general, about its different organs and their functions. This is because medications affect all parts of the body. After they do their job, most medications are broken down by the liver and other organs and are filtered out of the body by the kidneys. It is therefore essential for the prescriber to understand how the body's organs react to various medications, how other diseases and their treatments may change the treatment of schizophrenia, and how potential side effects of the drugs should be monitored, prevented, or minimized.
Essential
Initial doses of antipsychotic medications should be low and increased slowly until the target symptoms are suppressed. As little medication as possible should be prescribed. The dose should be just enough to avoid recurrences of psychotic symptoms while avoiding side effects, which should be monitored closely.
The prescriber must have up-to-date knowledge of conditions that may be associated with antipsychotic medications, such as diabetes, high blood pressure, and high cholesterol. Whoever takes the responsibility for prescribing these medications should follow certain minimum guidelines: Generally, only one medication should be used at a time, and its side effect profile should be carefully considered with regard to the person taking it.
Fact
In the last fifty years, dozens of effective antipsychotic drugs have been synthesized, studied, and introduced into clinical therapy. These medications remain vital components of most schizophrenia treatment plans. They continue to provide the majority of patients the opportunity to live better lives, something the patients once had little or no chance of achieving.
It is sometimes necessary to change either the type or the dose of a patient's medication. The goal is always to reach the best balance between the benefits and the side effects. A newly diagnosed patient may require different treatment than does someone who has had the disease for months or years.
