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Unit number: PSY
205
Unit title: Introduction
to Psychiatric Drugs
Credit value: 3 credits
Description: Psychiatric drugs are a major way of managing mental health problems, and the pharmaceutical industry has a great influence not only on self-medication, but also on how doctors prescribe and treat mental health problems and how the medical and allied professions and the public are educated about treating mental conditions. This unit gives a comprehensive and broadly based coverage of the facts and issues needed to understand how psychiatric drugs are used and marketed, and what the drugs do. The text is organised according to broad problem/treatment categories: psychoses, affective disorders, psychostimulants, anxiety management, sleep disorders/insomnia, cognitive impairment, sexual difficulties, dependence/withdrawal. Additional material is provided on legal/ethical issues of consent, abuse and liability, and on the marketing of psychoactive drugs. Throughout the text, side effects are fully considered, and information on the history of drugs and theories of how they work are included. This unit provides essential material for the lay (i.e. non-medically qualified) helping professional or student of psychology to understand psychiatric drugs and the controversies surrounding them, and will provide the confidence and knowledge to take part in debates about the role of drug treatment for mental health problems. A key issue emerging from the text is the need to listen to patients’ experiences with psychiatric drugs and to allow such experiences to inform research, theory and treatment policy.
Key textbook: Healy, David. Psychiatric Drugs Explained. Fourth edition. Churchill Livingstone, 2005. [This course is regularly updated as new editions of the textbook become available, but some time may elapse between publication and update. Please revisit this page for updates.]
Comments:
Amendments may be made to the details and provision of units at any time.
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