Psychopharmacologic Management of Paranoid Schizophrenia Essay
Psychopharmacologic Management of Paranoid Schizophrenia Essay
Instructions introduction to the case (1 page) • Briefly explain and summarize the case for this Assignment. Be sure to include the specific patient factors that may impact your decision making when prescribing medication for this patient. Decision #1 (1 page) • Which decision did you select? • Why did you select this decision? Be specific and support your response with clinically relevant and patient-specific resources, including the primary literature. • Why did you not select the other two options provided in the exercise? Be specific and support your response with clinically relevant and patient-specific resources, including the primary literature. • What were you hoping to achieve by making this decision? Support your response with evidence and references to the Learning Resources (including the primary literature). • Explain how ethical considerations may impact your treatment plan and communication with patients. Be specific and provide examples. Decision #2 (1 page) • Why did you select this decision? Be specific and support your response with clinically relevant and patient-specific resources, including the primary literature. Psychopharmacologic Management of Paranoid Schizophrenia Essay. • Why did you not select the other two options provided in the exercise? Be specific and support your response with clinically relevant and patient-specific resources, including the primary literature. • What were you hoping to achieve by making this decision? Support your response with evidence and references to the Learning Resources (including the primary literature). • Explain how ethical considerations may impact your treatment plan and communication with patients. Be specific and provide examples. Decision #3 (1 page) • Why did you select this decision? Be specific and support your response with clinically relevant and patient-specific resources, including the primary literature. • Why did you not select the other two options provided in the exercise? Be specific and support your response with clinically relevant and patient-specific resources, including the primary literature. • What were you hoping to achieve by making this decision? Support your response with evidence and references to the Learning Resources (including the primary literature). • Explain how ethical considerations may impact your treatment plan and communication with patients. Be specific and provide examples. Conclusion (1 page) • Summarize your recommendations on the treatment options you selected for this patient. Be sure to justify your recommendations and support your response with clinically relevant and patient-specific resources, including the primary literature.Psychopharmacologic Management of Paranoid Schizophrenia Essay
Psychopharmacologic Management of Paranoid Schizophrenia in a 34 Year-Old Female of Pakistani Origin
The most typical of the psychoses in mental health is schizophrenia. Psychosis is defined by an impaired sense of reality that shows as positive symptoms. According to the American Psychological Association (APA, 2013), these are hallucinations or sensory perceptions that are not real and delusions or beliefs that are not true in reality. In total, persons with schizophrenia show abnormalities in five domains. Apart from delusions and hallucinations; the rest are disorganization of speech and thought, disorganization and abnormality in motor behavior such as catatonia, as well as negative symptoms (Sadock et al., 2015; APA, 2013). Negative symptoms are subtractive from the patient and include apathy, poverty of speech, anhedonia, and lack of motivation. A malfunction of the mesolimbic circuits of the brain is what causes the positive symptoms. On the other hand, a malfunction of the mesocortical circuits is what causes the negative symptoms. The nucleus accumbens is important in the reward circuitry of the brain and forms art of the mesolimbic region (Stahl, 2013). Schizophrenia spectrum is placed together with other psychoses in one diagnostic category in the fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental disorders or DSM-5. The diagnostic category is ‘Schizophrenia Spectrum and Other Psychotic Disorders’. One of the other psychoses that share with it the diagnostic category is schizotypal personality disorder (APA, 2013). Of the key domains that define schizophrenia and the other psychoses, delusions stand out. These can be persecutory (a fixed belief that one is going to be harmed), referential (believing that occurrences and happenings are directed at oneself), erotomanic (belief that someone is in love with you), grandiose (a fixed but false belief that one has exceptional abilities), somatic (a preoccupation with one’s health or internal function), and nihilistic (a fixed belief in an impending major catastrophe) (APA, 2013). This is a paper about the psychopharmacologic treatment decisions of a 34 year-old female of Pakistani extraction (Laureate Media, n.d.) diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia.Psychopharmacologic Management of Paranoid Schizophrenia Essay
Background Information
The client is a 34 year-old female Pakistani immigrant who presents with marked paranoid (persecutory) and grandiose delusions. She is suspicious that her husband wants to marry another woman who is American by birth. At the same time, she also believes that she is the Holy Prophet of Islam with powers to make things happen. In particular, she strongly believes that she is able to save the world. During her assessment, it is noted that she is quite hostile towards the PMHNP interviewing and examining her. The characteristics of paranoid schizophrenia which the woman was diagnosed with include paranoia, delusions of grandeur, hostility, and belligerence. This 34 year-old lady met these descriptions perfectly.
