This article explores a child's right to refuse medical treatment, in contrast to giving the state or the parents this choice. The article specifically explores a child's right to refuse psychotropic drugs, which are more limiting of personal liberty than physical restraints and can have long-lasting side effects. With a focus on children's competence and the significant side effects of psychot...

Recent changes in the State Operations Manual put new emphasis on attempts to gradually reduce the dose of certain medications -- namely psychotropic medications -- as a component of medication management in nursing facilities. Applying these federal guidelines to caring for elderly patients is often highly complex. It requires an understanding of existing clinical evidence, the current standar...

OBJECTIVES Second-generation antipsychotics (SGAs), in conjunction with other psychotropic medications, are increasingly used to treat psychiatric disorders in pregnancy. The few available studies investigating the reproductive safety of SGAs did not reach conclusive results, and none have compared monotherapy with polytherapy involving other psychotropic medications. DESIGN Descriptive cohor...

Appropriate preoperative assessment of dental patients should always include analysis of their medications. Psychiatric illnesses including panic/anxiety disorder, depression, psychoses, and manic disorders are prevalent within our society. An impressive number of drug formulations are prescribed for these disorders, and they introduce concern regarding side effects and possible drug interactio...

Background Patients with schizophrenia are managed with antipsychotics and other psychotropic medications. Objectives This study aimed to assess the commonly prescribed psychotropic medications for patients with schizophrenia, explore the types of therapeutic monitoring that were performed, and find out whether the side effects experienced by the patients played any role in their adherence be...

OBJECTIVE To assess whether the risk of incident diabetes was increased with the use of second-generation antipsychotics (SGAs) in a large diverse cohort of children. METHODS A retrospective study was conducted by using the administrative databases of 3 health plans participating in the Health Maintenance Organization Research Network. Children 5 to 18 years of age who initiated SGA therapy b...

Benzodiazepines are widely prescribed for patients with bipolar disorders in clinical practice, but very little is known about the subtypes of patients with bipolar disorder or aspects of bipolar illness that contribute most to benzodiazepine use. We examined the prevalence of and factors associated with benzodiazepine use among 482 patients with bipolar I or II disorder enrolled in the Bipolar...

To help address gaps in information about the links that exist between psychiatric medications and weight changes, an investigation of relationships among select psychotropic agents (i.e., mood stabilizers, antidepressants, and second-generation antipsychotics {SGAs}), eating behaviors, and weight was conducted. Data from a cross-sectional study of food habits in 97 individuals with mood disord...