Psychotropic Medication Pros And Cons

Psychotropic medications are drugs that can help prevent certain mental health symptoms. Antianxiety, antidepressant, antibipolar, and antipsychotic drugs are all forms of psychotropic medications (Homer, 60). The most common antianxiety drug, benzodiazepines (BZD), helps reduce anxiety that most patients experience (Homer, 139). There’s a controversy that psychotropic medications are overprescribed. Over prescription of psychotropic medication, such as BZD, can be detrimental to one’s health. The article “Correlates of Potentially Inappropriate Prescriptions of Benzodiazepines among Older Adults,” measured data from an economic and social affairs survey (ESA). The article reported that there’s records of over prescription of BZD in older patients. About 43% of people have reported being overprescribed BZD drug after taking the ESA survey (Préville et al., 2012, p. 314). These patients usually experience problems with stability, memory, and concentration from a long term use of BZD. The survey reported that two-third of the respondents used BZD 12 months preceding the survey. They also claimed that they used a mean dose of 6.1 mg of BZD daily (Préville et al., 2012, p.316).
Préville et al. (2012), reported that prolong use of BZD, given to older adults can have an adverse effect. For instance, overuse of BZD can increase the risk of hypertension as well as coronary and renal diseases. Puustinen et al. (2007) stated that, although there's high risk and side effects of taking BZD for a long term, patients are still overprescribed BZD. These negative effects include, hip fractures, depressed mood, and impaired cognition (Puustinen et al., 2007, p. 1046). Préville el al. (2012) claimed that the use of BZD should be short-term, however, long term use is more common; especially amount older adults. Long term use of BZD is correlated with negative health indicated by symptoms, such as dizziness, sleeping problems, morning fatigue, and depressive symptoms (Béland el al., 2012). Furthermore, the author claimed that long-term use can cause cognitive impairments, these cognitive impairments are usually persistent after the withdrawal of the drug (Béland el al., 2012). Long term use of BZD can cause high risk of dependence and withdrawal symptoms in most patients who are using a high dose medication of BZD (Fisher, Sanyal, Frail, & Sketris, 2011, p. 7).Benzodiazepine should only be prescribed when the patient needs adequate symptom relief. However, most people become highly dependent on BZD and withdrawal becomes more difficult and usually requires professional help to stop the medication (Baldwin et al.). Therefore, Badwin et al. (2013), explained to reduce the risk of high dependence, BZD should not be prescribed no longer than four weeks. Benzodiazepine is beneficial for one’s health when used in a short term process. …show more content…
For instance, it can help reduce anxiety, induce sleep, and also contribute to muscle relaxation (Baldwin et al., 2014). In 2014, a randomized control trial was conducted using BZD, the results showed that short term use of BZD, usually in acute treatment can help minimize symptoms of anxiety (Balwin et al., 2014). According to Baldwin et al. (2014), BZD should be prescribed under two conditions; if the anxiety symptoms are very severe or when the patient can't function in daily activities. If the short term use of BZD does not work to treat these anxiety symptoms, then it would be acceptable to use a long term treatment of BZD. Badwin et al. (2013), proclaimed