Full Course Description

Session 1: How Therapy can Enhance Psychopharmacology

Learn how you can help clients derive more benefits from medications by:

  • Distinguishing biology from psychology, and psychiatric symptoms from feelings
  • Determining whether psychological factors, including attitudes toward authority and fear of losing symptoms, are blocking medication effects
  • Empowering clients to take responsibility for their own medication decisions
  • Teaching clients to listen to how various parts of themselves are responding to-and often resisting-their prescribed medication
  • Tuning into your own attitudes and biases about meds

OBJECTIVES

  1. Describe how knowing the difference between psychiatric symptoms and feelings can assist with deciding whether to prescribe medication.
  2. Explain how psychological factors like viewing the therapist as an authority figure or subconsciously clinging to symptoms can inhibit a medication’s effects.
  3. Describe the process of educating clients about medication so that they feel responsible for their own medication decisions.

OUTLINE

  • Symptoms vs. Feelings
  • Hvaing Clients Meditate and Reflect on Their Medication
  • Prescribing Medication
  • Collaboration between Psychotherapists and Psychiatrists
  • SSRIs
  • When Medications are Ineffective

Program Information

Target Audience

Psychologists, Counselors, Social Workers, Case Managers, Addiction Counselors, Marriage & Family Therapists, Nurses, and other Mental Health Professionals

Copyright : 05/16/2013

Session 1: How Therapy can Enhance Psychopharmacology

OBJECTIVES

  1. Describe how knowing the difference between psychiatric symptoms and feelings can assist with deciding whether to prescribe medication.
  2. Explain how psychological factors like viewing the therapist as an authority figure or subconsciously clinging to symptoms can inhibit a medication’s effects.
  3. Describe the process of educating clients about medication so that they feel responsible for their own medication decisions.

OUTLINE

  • Symptoms vs. Feelings
  • Hvaing Clients Meditate and Reflect on Their Medication
  • Prescribing Medication
  • Collaboration between Psychotherapists and Psychiatrists
  • SSRIs
  • When Medications are Ineffective

Program Information

Target Audience

Psychologists, Counselors, Social Workers, Case Managers, Addiction Counselors, Marriage & Family Therapists, Nurses, and other Mental Health Professionals

Copyright : 05/16/2013

Session 2: In Defense of Antidepressants

OBJECTIVES

  1. Explain why modern-day SSRIs like Prozac were considered improvements upon older antidepressants like Imipramine and Desipramine.
  2. Identify two ethical dilemmas Peter Kramer says came about with the introduction of Prozac and other SSRIs.
  3. Specify under what circumstances it’s most appropriate to introduce SSRIs to depressed clients in a therapeutic regimen.

OUTLINE

  • Breakthroughs for Prozac
  • Predecessors
  • Today's Psychiatrists
  • The Placebo Effect in SSRIs

Program Information

Target Audience

Psychologists, Counselors, Social Workers, Case Managers, Addiction Counselors, Marriage & Family Therapists, Nurses, and other Mental Health Professionals

Copyright : 07/16/2014

Session 3: The Great SSRI Debate

OBJECTIVES

  1. Describe what the latest research on SSRIs and other antidepressants says about their effectiveness.
  2. Describe how to prepare a depressed client and his family for the possibility of recurrence.
  3. Identify the three types of therapy that are most effective when working with depression.

OUTLINE

  • Prescriptions for Antidepressants
  • Clinical Depression
  • Mild to Moderate Depression
  • The Most Common Reason the Drug Doesn't Work
  • Family Involvement in Treatment

Program Information

Target Audience

Psychologists, Counselors, Social Workers, Case Managers, Addiction Counselors, Marriage & Family Therapists, Nurses, and other Mental Health Professionals

Copyright : 03/03/2013

Session 4: When Meds Don’t Work: A Troubleshooter’s Guide

OBJECTIVES

  1. Describe an assessment procedure for determining the factors at play when meds aren’t working.
  2. List three common reasons for why medications prove ineffective.
  3. Describe how to determine whether medication non-compliance is a factor in treatment failure.

OUTLINE

  • The First Session
  • The Client's Previous Diagnosis
  • Helping the Client Not Feel Overwhelmed
  • Medication and Arousal Levels
  • The Most Effective Way to Treat Mental Health Problems

Program Information

Target Audience

Psychologists, Counselors, Social Workers, Case Managers, Addiction Counselors, Marriage & Family Therapists, Nurses, and other Mental Health Professionals

Copyright : 04/03/2013

Session 5: Does This Kid Need Medication?

OBJECTIVES

  1. Describe common diagnostic signs that medication may be effective for a child suffering from anxiety or depression.
  2. Identify when interventions with juvenile clients need to be changed.
  3. Explain the key developmental issues in prescribing meds to children.

OUTLINE

  • When the Child Needs See a Professional and Consider Medication
  • Complications in Diagnosing and Treating Children
  • Understanding the Developmental Challenges that Kids Have in Different Times of Their Lives

Program Information

Target Audience

Psychologists, Counselors, Social Workers, Case Managers, Addiction Counselors, Marriage & Family Therapists, Nurses, and other Mental Health Professionals

Copyright : 04/19/2013

Session 6: Whole Psychiatry: Alternatives to Conventional Psychopharmacology

OBJECTIVES

  1. Identify the seven bodily systems that underlie many mental health issues.
  2. Describe a clinical assessment procedure that can be used without medical training.
  3. Name three complementary treatments that can be used with psychiatric disorders treatment.

OUTLINE

  • Whole Psychiatry
  • Analyzing the Client's Diet and Food Allergies
  • Infections
  • Inflammation in the Body
  • Detoxifying the Body

Program Information

Target Audience

Psychologists, Counselors, Social Workers, Case Managers, Addiction Counselors, Marriage & Family Therapists, Nurses, and other Mental Health Professionals

Copyright : 03/11/2013

Psychopharmacology: What You Need to Know Today About Psychiatric Medications

  • Improve your clients’ adherence to their meds
  • Practical ways to effectively communicate med information
  • Best meds for each disorder & age group
  • Depression, bipolar, anxiety, schizophrenia, ADHD
  • DSM-5® and psychotropic med use

Most Up-To-Date Psychotropic Medication Info - Guaranteed!

Demands on mental health professionals to expand their knowledge of psychotropic meds are like never before . . . not only do you need to be on top of the latest developments and what is on the horizon, but you also have to take that information, and use it most effectively for your client.

OUTLINE

Biological Psychiatry

  • Neurotransmitters: The brain’s building blocks

Depression

  • Antidepressants: How they work
  • Cyclics
  • SSRIs
  • SNRIs
  • Atypicals/combining antidepressants
  • Side effects and risk factors
  • Herbals and depression
  • Treatment-resistant depression
  • Improving compliance with antidepressants
  • What you and your clients should know

Bipolar Disorder

  • Medicating Bipolar disorder
  • Lithium as the “gold standard”
  • Side effects of Lithium
  • Anticonvulsant and antispsychotic use in Bipolar disorder
  • Anticonvulsant side effects
  • Risks of medication non-compliance

The Many Manifestations of Anxiety

  • Panic disorder
  • Medicating anxiety
  • Benzodiazepines
  • Non benzodiazepines
  • Medications used to treat insomnia
  • Ambien, Lunesta, Sonata, Rozerem, Intermezzo
  • Using anxiolytics safely
  • Side effects of the anxiolytics

Schizophrenia

  • Symptom domains of schizophrenia
  • How antipsychotics work
  • Conventional antipsychotics
  • Second generation agents
  • Antipsychotic side effects
  • Relapse and non compliance

Special Populations: Children, Adolescent, Elderly

  • Using medications for children to treat diagnoses usually found in children
  • Medicating pediatric depression
  • Antidepressants and suicide in children:
  • The real truth
  • Pediatric Bipolar disorder
  • Medicating anxiety in children
  • ADHD and its expanding etiology
  • The evolution of psychostimulants
  • Antidepressant, non-stimulates use in ADHD
  • Alzheimer’s medications

DSM-5® and Psychotropic Med Use

What’s Next: Breakthrough Antipsychotics and Antidepressants

Collaborating with Clients, Families, and Prescribers: Techniques that Work!

OBJECTIVES

  • Discuss the clinical uses of the five major psychotropic medication classes—the antidepressants, mood stabilizers, anti-anxiety agents, antipsychotics and psychostimulants— how they work, and their common side effects.
  • Describe the benefits, risks, safety factors and controversies associated with psychotropic medication use in children and adolescents.
  • Address the wide array of mental health disorders for which medications are frequently prescribed.
  • Examine what’s coming next as well as emerging and innovative trends in psychopharmacology.
  • Implement effective methods for collaborating with clients, families and prescribers.
  • Recognize the ethical and legal issues in discussing medications with clients.

Program Information

Target Audience

Psychologists, Social Workers, Counselors, Case Managers, Addiction Counselors, Nurses, Clinical Nurse Specialists, Marriage & Family Therapists, Therapists, Others in caring professions

Copyright : 08/21/2014

Using the DSM-5® for the Changing World of Psychopharmacology: New Diagnoses, New Strategies for Treating Your Clients

Objectives

  1. Identify specific changes in DSM-5® diagnoses that may result in more patients receiving medications
  2. Understand the impact that the removal of Asperger’s Syndrome as a discrete diagnosis may have regarding drug therapies as treatment possibilities
  3. Apply knowledge gained about new diagnoses and the potential for psychopharmacology treatment for those new diagnoses
  4. Focus on issues that may result in the use of psychopharmacological agents as a result of the combining of Axis I, Axis II, and Axis III
  5. Discuss the differences between symptoms and diagnoses for patients who qualify for the new Autism diagnoses and the new Mental Retardation diagnosis known as “Intellectual Developmental Disorder”
  6. Consider the use of antipsychotic medications for teenagers who are given the new iteration of “Pediatric Bipolar Disorder”- now to be known as “Disruptive Mood Dysregulation Disorder”
  7. Explain the logic behind using Remeron to potentially treat eating disorders in the elderly patient
  8. Expound on the potential for children younger than 5 who may now qualify for the diagnosis of Oppositional Defiant Disorder now being prescribed psychotropic medications

Outline

  • The origination of all DSM® concepts
    • Emil Kraepelin
    • The paradigm shift
  • Significant Changes
    • Disruption, impule, and conduct issues
    • Changes in substance use and addictive disorders
  • Drugs, the DSM-5 and ADHD
    • ADHD medications
    • Autism Spectrum Disorder
      • Notable side effects of ASD treatments
  • Antipsychotic medications
  • Intellectual Developmental Disorder
  • Diagnostics for the psychotic disorders
    • Proposed DSM-5 criteria for schizophrenia
  • Eating Disorders
  • Substance Abuse
  • Cannabis Use Disorder
  • Gambling Disorder
  • Disruptive Mood Dysregulation Disorder
  • PTSD

Program Information

Target Audience

Psychologists, Counselors, Social Workers, Case Managers, Addiction Counselors, Marriage & Family Therapists, Nurses, and other Mental Health Professionals

Copyright : 06/24/2013