FAQ
Concerns, when translate to clinically diagnosable disorder & illness, your doctor may advise you to take medications for a certain duration.
Depending upon a patient’s diagnoses, treatment duration shall vary. For example, a patient of simple anxiety may get well & off medications within a few months. Whereas a more serious diagnosis requiring intensive medical treatment like Schizophrenia, Bipolar disorder, Seizure disorder etc. may require a number of years of continued treatment.
Usually, it takes 15-21 days for the beneficial effects of medications to manifest their beneficial effects. It varies from person to person. In our clinical practice, many a times we have seen beneficial effects of medications occurring in as little as 7 to 10 days also.
Any medication prescribed in modern medicine (aka Allopathy) tends to have certain common side effects like nausea, vomiting, loose stools which are often self-limiting. These side effects can happen also with psychiatric medications (known as psychotropic drugs) There are certain medications (known as antipsychotics) used in treatment of serious mental illnesses like Schizophrenia which may cause side effects like trembling hands, drooling saliva, excessive sleepiness and/or dizziness. Hence, these medications must be taken under supervision of Psychiatrist & if these side effects do occur, they can be rapidly corrected by your treating doctor.
Usually, first symptom to improve with medication is sleep quality, appetite & energy. Whereas mood, anxiety symptoms may take slightly longer to respond (up to 21 days). So, a patient on medicine treatment will notice improvement in appetite, sleep quality & overall energy level throughout the day as some of the first signs of improvement
All chronic medical illnesses need long term treatment for lasting improvement & recovery. Hence, abruptly stopping medicines shall lead to gradual reappearance of all the symptoms of illness. Sometimes within few days, at other times, it may take a few weeks into relapse into illness. Abruptly stopping treatment may also lead to treatment resistance. That is, the illness no longer responding to earlier effective doses of medications & requiring more intensive treatment modalities to achieve improvement
Simple answer, No. unless medications are not taken at proper time, medications do NOT cause any kind of drowsiness, sleepiness or similar effects
No. by definition a medication can NOT be addictive. But, certain anxiolytic medications like alprazolam, diazepam, clonazepam & certain kind of sleep-inducing medications like zolpidem when taken without Psychiatrists advice in excessive doses can cause dependence & addiction. Hence, never take any medication on your own without your doctors’ advice.
Barring certain chronic mental illnesses like schizophrenia, medications can be safely stopped once the course of treatment is completed, that is after achieving complete remission.
Definitely Yes!! Only while planning a child (in case of female patient) you will have to check with your Psychiatrist & inform your Obstetrician about your medications so as to avoid any potential harm to baby during pregnancy & lactation period.
Yes, mood swings and/or anger issues if are presenting symptoms of one’s mental illness shall definitely show improvement.
No. It only means that you are successfully battling your mental health related concerns & are on road to recovery utilizing all the help you need.
Yes, one can safely take Covid vaccine while on psychotropic medications
Yes, you can take almost all medications of short duration (up to a month) with psychotropic medications. In case of any other medication prescribed (diabetes, hypertension etc.) which requires a longer duration of treatment, you should check with your psychiatrist for any potential cross reaction.
Age, weight, height, waist circumference, any other ongoing medications, any past treatment for Psychiatry/Neurologic diseases. Baseline blood tests for body function viz complete blood count, sugar (fasting, post meal), thyroid profile, liver & kidney function tests are usually sufficient starting points for initiating psychiatry treatment. Concerns related to women
Concerns related to women
Yes. You will just need to plan your pregnancy so that, both your Psychiatrist and Obstetrician can watch out for any potential medication adverse effects on the growing foetus & monitor/change medications accordingly.
All medications consumed by mother goes into breast milk. Same is true for Psychotropic medications. Barring few medications, it is safe to breastfeed your child, keeping some interval between medicine intake & breastfeeding. Your Psychiatrist shall help you in creating a breastfeeding schedule.
Yes. No problems with periods
Yes, your Psychiatrist should know in advance about PCOD, so that medications shall be decided accordingly.
Usually most of the psychotropics are safe in this regard. Certain medications known as anti-epileptic drugs & mood stabilizer medications can cause hair fall or skin rash. You shall be briefed about any worrisome side effect & what to expect, how to manage these side effects beforehand
Yes, some medications can cause bloating for initial 8-10 days, which is self-limiting & goes away on its own.
You will need to inform your psychiatrist about the specific family planning method you are using. So that, medications will be prescribed accordingly.
You will need to inform your psychiatrist about the specific family planning method you are using. So that, medications will be prescribed accordingly.
Therapy Related
Therapy session is a dynamic experience where your therapist acts as a mirror to your behaviour & thoughts. He/she comes up with reflections & suggestions for your problems. Together you & your therapist evolve a strategy to cope, overcome, mitigate these problems. Its essentially a session where both you & therapist work as a team to conquer your problems.
It can be hard to share private thoughts and feelings, but it can help – and can be a real and best way of getting through a bad time. Health professionals you meet care about what you are going through and they try to understand you. They want to help you cope with what’s going on in your life and help you to find ways to manage and find answers to your problems.
However you feel, and however personal it seems, other people will have gone through similar things and so really can understand something of what you are going through.
Based on the methods employed, usually 6-8 sessions (50 minutes session, once every week) are sufficient
Counselling is mostly a one-sided mode of communication where information is shared & expected course of action is communicated. In therapy, patient & therapist work as a team to evolve a joint strategy, therapy is a collaborative, non-directive approach vis a vis counselling, hence more effective.
No. Therapy is a supplement. Supplement alone can’t act as a substitute to medical treatment.
Choosing one’s career or making a career decision is perhaps one of the most important decisions that a student and his/her parents take. Taking a career decision usually get influenced by a host of factors, including the child’s own interest and the opinions, self-perception of his/her abilities and parent’s inclination, child’s personality and interest. Unlike in the past, when the choices for lucrative career were quite limited, today we live in an era, where there are many good choices available. Also, today the careers have become very demanding and therefore, one should choose their field with greater care. It has been well established that the most successful people are those, who put their strengths to use at their work and derive joy while doing their work. This is where need for career counselling comes in. We diligently map the inherent Strength Pattern of the child using an aptitude test and recommend the RIGHT career choices for them.
No. It will take at least 3 sessions for apparent benefits. Usually, 6-8 therapy sessions can help in solving problems.