Appropriate Use of Psychopharmacology in the Elderly - Case Study Example

As this is more related to mental tensions, adults are more prone to get affected by depression. In general, elderly people have more medical problems and often are using medications for more than one of these problems. Moreover, they tend to be more sensitive to medications. Moreover, healthy adult people eliminate some medications from the body more slowly than younger people and hence require a lower or less frequent dosage to maintain an effective level of medication. Even when human relations get disturbed because of a lack of proper attention and care, people tend to get depressed. However, depending upon the type of cause and symptoms, depression may be categorized into different types as follows:
- major depressive disorder,
- severe depression,
- late-onset depression,
- bipolar disorder,
- psychotic depression (delusional depression),
- depression with dementia,
- dementia syndrome of depression,
- secondary depression,
- poststroke depression,
- Parkinson's disease with depression.
It is highly essential to treat these different forms of depression efficiently through an integrated approach of various techniques. Here comes the application and relevance of psychopharmacology in curing depression in adults or elderly people. The psychological counseling of patients with the combination of some antidepressants would be of immense help in this context which is mainly facilitated by psychopharmacology. As the field of psychopharmacology discusses a wide range of substances with various types of psychoactive properties, it would be instrumental in curing all types of depression in adults. It will concentrate on the development, study, and use of drugs for the modification of behavior and the reduction of symptoms, in the treatment of mental disorders. It also relies mainly on the psychoactive and chemical interactions with the brain. The natural origin of drugs from plants may be preferred to reduce the side effects.
Antidepressants can certainly make psychotherapy more appropriate in several people. Patients who are highly depressed to talk or interact, may not get many benefits from psychotherapy or counseling, but often, the appropriate medication will improve symptoms so that the person can respond better. Hence the relevance of the integrated treatment approach strikes importance. However, the degree of response of psychotherapy ranges from little relief of symptoms to complete remission which is mainly based on the combination of factors. Effective social workers treatment work well for the treatment of major depression (Sophia F. Dziegielewski, 1998). These drugs interact with particular target sites or receptors found in the nervous system to induce widespread changes in physiological or psychological functions. Tricyclic antidepressants are the most commonly used medications for the treatment of major depressions. Monoamine oxidase inhibitors (MAOIs) are often applied for "atypical" depressions in which there are symptoms like oversleeping, anxiety, panic attacks, and phobias.