Psychotropics
This mood stabilizer requires monitoring of sodium intake and has a therapeutic level of approximately 0.6–1.2 mEq/L.
What is Lithium?
This disorder includes at least one manic episode.
What is Bipolar I Disorder?
Hallucinations, delusions, and disorganized thought processes are classified as these types of schizophrenia symptoms.
What are positive symptoms?
An older adult develops sudden confusion, visual hallucinations, and fluctuating levels of consciousness after surgery.
What is delirium?
A 22-year-old reports excessive worry for over a year, muscle tension, fatigue, irritability, and trouble sleeping.
Questions
A patient taking phenelzine eats aged cheese and develops severe hypertension and headache. What is occurring?
What is a hypertensive crisis?
Name two symptoms of mania.
A patient insists the government implanted a tracking device in their brain despite reassurance and evidence to the contrary.
What is a delusion?
Difficulty recognizing objects despite intact vision.
What is agnosia?
A patient reports recurrent intrusive thoughts about germs and washes their hands for hours daily.
Questions
This antipsychotic side effect includes muscle rigidity, high fever, autonomic instability, and altered mental status.
What is Neuroleptic Malignant Syndrome (NMS)?
This nonpharmacological therapy may be used for severe depression with suicidality or psychosis.
What is ECT?
A patient reports command hallucinations instructing them to stab another patient on the unit. What is the nurse’s priority intervention?
Assess immediate risk for harm to self or others and initiate safety precautions.
A patient with dementia becomes increasingly agitated during evening hours. This phenomenon is known as:
What is sundowning?
A teenager restricts food intake, has bradycardia, low BMI, and distorted body image.
Questions
A patient taking haloperidol for several years develops repetitive lip smacking, tongue protrusion, and choreiform movements that persist despite dose reduction.
What is Tardive Dyskinesia?
A 52-year-old patient recently lost their spouse, lives alone, has a history of depression, and states, “Everyone would be better off without me.” The patient has been giving away belongings and recently purchased a firearm.
Questions
This disorder includes psychotic symptoms along with a mood disorder.
What is schizoaffective disorder?
A patient with dementia becomes tearful and repeatedly asks for their deceased spouse, believing they are still alive. What is the BEST nursing response?
Use validation and redirection rather than confrontation with reality.
A patient manipulates staff, fears abandonment, self-harms, and has unstable relationships.
Questions
Name two patient teaching points for SSRIs.
A patient alternates between periods of severe depression and episodes of elevated mood with increased energy, impulsive behavior, and decreased need for sleep, though the elevated episodes do not cause marked impairment or hospitalization.
Questions
A patient with schizophrenia who recently started clozapine reports fever, sore throat, and extreme fatigue.
A family member asks why their parent with advanced Alzheimer’s disease is no longer improving despite taking donepezil for several years.
Questions
A patient is repeatedly hospitalized for unexplained symptoms and is later discovered tampering with wounds to delay healing. The patient appears eager to undergo procedures and testing.
What is Factitious Disorder (Munchausen syndrome)