Introduction
Psychotropic drugs are various drugs that are used to treat a mental illness and to minimize the symptoms of this illness so that a normal everyday life for the patient is possible. If you translate the word psychotropic drugs, it means something like “a drug for the soul”. Thus, psychotropic drugs have the claim to heal or repair the soul.
Because psychotropic drugs only partly have the claim to a complete cure, partly psychotropic drugs are also used to make life with the mental illness easier for the patient and his environment. In general, most psychotropic drugs are drugs that act on the brain and can therefore have very general effects on the body. This can lead to some psychotropic drugs having quite high side effects.
Cause
There are several causes that can lead to a patient having to take psychotropic drugs. One of the most common causes for treating a patient with psychotropic drugs is depression. Overall, every 5th-10th patient suffers from depression once in his or her life, which explains why the use of psychotropic drugs in this area is very high.
In addition, there are now many different drugs on the market, all of which can be used as psychotropic drugs for moderate to severe depression. Apart from depression, there are other causes that can lead to patients taking psychotropic drugs. Firstly, psychotropic drugs can be used in patients suffering from psychosis, i.e. a psychic perception that does not correspond to reality.
On the other hand, psychotropic drugs are used in patients who have severe anxiety states and are therefore under great strain. These patients often find themselves unable to leave the house because the fear that something might happen to them on the street is too great. The psychotropic drugs can help the patients to become more active in life again by reducing their anxiety bit by bit so that they are able to leave the house and do everyday things like shopping.
Often patients with severe anxiety have to take psychotropic drugs that have a sleep-stimulating effect in addition to the antianxiety drugs. However, these psychotropic drugs, which also have a sleep-stimulating effect, are also used by patients with major problems falling asleep or sleeping through the night. However, these are often psychotropic drugs that can lead to addiction, so the use of these psychotropic drugs should usually be limited to a very short period of time.
Also psychotropic drugs are drugs that are used to delay dementia. In this case, the psychotropic drugs cannot cure the dementia and the patient will sooner or later become demented despite the drugs, but the drugs can delay the dementia a little and thus give the patient a few valuable years of life. However, it is important to note that these psychotropic drugs make no claim to cure and that the patient, with or without psychotropic drugs, will become demented when he is diagnosed.
All articles in this series: