Premium
The integrated approach: On the significance of pharmacological and nonpharmacological factors when lithium prophylaxis fails
Author(s) -
Schou M.
Publication year - 1988
Publication title -
acta psychiatrica scandinavica
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.849
H-Index - 146
eISSN - 1600-0447
pISSN - 0001-690X
DOI - 10.1111/j.1600-0447.1988.tb08577.x
Subject(s) - lithium (medication) , intensive care medicine , drug , medicine , prophylactic treatment , psychotherapist , drug treatment , psychiatry , psychology , surgery
Drugs are easy to prescribe, and if a manic‐depressive patient is not helped by one prophylactically administered drug, physicians may be apt as a first reaction to prescribe another drug, especially now that alternatives to lithium have become available. This may or may not be the appropriate course of action. Often nonpharmacological factors determine whether patients consume their medicine and whether they respond to it, and concern about patient selection, patient characteristics, treatment execution, patient and therapist attitudes, treatment organization, and supplementary psychological support may more profitably serve to ensure that manic‐depressive patients obtain help from prophylactic drug treatment. Only by employing a treatment approach which integrates pharmacological and nonpharmacological measures can optimal results be obtained.