Medication Classes & Mechanisms
This principle reminds us that brain chemistry is not fixed and can be influenced by stress, medications, and life experiences.
Neuroplasticity / the brain is influenced by multiple biological and environmental factors.
This class of medications is commonly used for short-term relief of anxiety and insomnia but is associated with risks such as dependence, tolerance, and withdrawal.
Benzodiazepines
This condition is incorrectly assumed to inevitably result from exposure to a traumatic life event.
PTSD
Research on treatment adherence shows that this factor—referring to a patient’s involvement in or agreement with treatment decisions—plays a major role in whether they follow a medication or therapy plan.
Patient agreement / shared decision-making (or treatment concordance)
This principle of care requires that patients understand not only treatment risks but also the risks of refusing or delaying treatment.
Informed Consent
These term describes how a drug moves through the body (absorption, distribution, metabolism, excretion) and also how it produces its effects on the body, including mechanism of action and therapeutic response.
Pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics (PK/PD)
A client taking an SSRI reports low mood and distressing side effects and asks the therapist whether the medication dose should be changed. What is the most appropriate response by the therapist regarding medication concerns and their clinical role?
Acknowledge and validate the client’s concerns, encourage them to discuss medication changes with their prescribing provider, and clarify that medication decisions are outside the therapist’s role.
This factor may cause physicians to be hesitant about collaborating with therapists, making trust and interdisciplinary relationships especially important.
Legal responsibility concerns / need for trust with psychologically minded physician
This neuroscience concept describes how repeated small stressors or neural activation can gradually increase brain sensitivity, leading to stronger emotional or mood responses over time.
Kindling
This cognitive domain includes abilities such as planning, abstract thinking, and completing multi-step tasks.
What is executive functioning?
This class of medications requires strict dietary and medication restrictions due to the risk of hypertensive crisis and serotonin syndrome.
Monoamine oxidase inhibitors (MAOIs)
A client taking an antidepressant has a liver condition and reports either strong side effects or minimal improvement. This physiological factor may be altering medication levels in the body and should be communicated to the prescriber.
Liver function (hepatic metabolism affecting drug levels and response)
What diagnosis should be ruled out in a client who develops manic symptoms shortly after starting an antidepressant?
Bipolar I Disorder (manic episode or antidepressant-induced mania)
This condition is defined more by functional impairment and inability to stop use despite consequences than by the amount or type of substance consumed.
What is alcoholism / substance use disorder defined by functional impairment and loss of control?
This refers to the ability of therapists to recognize when a client’s psychological symptoms may actually be caused by an underlying medical or biological condition rather than a primary mental health disorder.
Psychological Masquerade
This medication has a narrow therapeutic index, meaning small increases in dose can quickly lead to toxicity.
Lithium
In capitated mental health systems, agencies are paid a fixed amount per patient, which often leads to this effect on service delivery such as shorter visits and longer wait times.
Restricted services due to capitated funding (longer wait times, shorter sessions.
The DSM classifies schizophrenia into these three phases of illness progression.
Prodromal, active, and residual phases
This system is activated early in the stress response and prepares the body for immediate reaction.
Sympathetic nervous system activation
This principle explains why serum lithium levels must be monitored closely in patients, especially when symptoms like tremor, nausea, and confusion appear.
Narrow therapeutic index
This antipsychotic medication requires regular blood monitoring due to risk of agranulocytosis.
Clozapine
This set of symptoms—high fever, severe rigidity, and confusion—requires immediate discontinuation and emergency medical evaluation in a patient on antipsychotics.
Neuroleptic malignant syndrome (NMS)
A therapist working with a bipolar client who reports worsening tremor, confusion, and slurred speech should take this immediate action rather than adjusting medication or continuing the session as normal.
Advise immediate contact with prescriber or urgent medical evaluation for lithium level check.
A widely used over-the-counter herbal product that is not FDA-approved for efficacy in treating depression, but can significantly increase serotonergic activity and, when combined with an SSRI, raises the risk of serotonin syndrome and requires careful coordination with a prescriber.
St. John’s Wort
This medication class is used in emergency treatment of opioid overdose by rapidly blocking opioid receptors and reversing life-threatening respiratory depression.
What is opioid antagonists such as naloxone?