Prescribing Psychiatric Medications: The How, Why, and Why Not

There is a growing need for academic enquiry acknowledging the challenges surrounding successful prescribing for mental health. This book focuses on the act and skills of psychiatric prescribing and its psychosocial context, bringing together differing views on prescribing, assessing the challenges, and identifying useful principles and guidelines together. Covering a multitude of topics including interpreting and handling uncertainty in the clinical evidence, accounting for phases of illness and natural course, collaborating with allied professionals, addressing the meaning of medications, minimising structural barriers to medications; accounting for interactive effects of dietary factors, supplements and alternative remedies, and shared decision-making approaches. Case vignettes and accompanying analysis frame the issues relevant for psychiatric prescribers and offering an approach that strikes a balance between the biological, psychological and social elements of prescribing. For psychiatrists, clinical psychologists and all those involved with the care of patients with mental health conditions.