Fast Facts for Psychopharmacology for Nurse Practitioners

This handbook provides guidance to nurse practitioners on prescribing, monitoring, assessing, educating, and advocating for patients taking psychiatric medications, promoting safe practice outcomes. It covers general pharmacological principles, neurotransmitters, rationale for medication use, risks and benefits, common drugs, diagnostic criteria, practice management, rationales for use, black box warnings, drug interactions, side effects, lab test recommendations, treatment options, and self-management strategies.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 226 pages
Publication date: 28 September 2022
Publisher: Springer Publishing Co Inc

This comprehensive handbook is a vital resource for nurse practitioners, offering guidance on prescribing, monitoring, assessing, educating, and advocating for patients taking psychiatric medications. Written in a concise and bullet-pointed style for quick access to essential information, it covers the key aspects of psychotropic medications used in general psychiatry, provides strategies to simplify medication decision-making, and offers evidence-based best practice recommendations to select and manage psychotropic medications.

The resource begins with an overview of general pharmacological principles, a brief discussion of neurotransmitters, and covers the rationale for medication use and the risks and benefits of the major classes of psychotropic medications. It then provides information about common drugs across drug classes, divided by age population. Each drug includes initial dosing and adjustments, simplified diagnostic criteria, practice management, rationale for use, black box warnings, drug interactions, identification of side effects and adverse reactions, basic lab test recommendations, treatment options, and self-management strategies.

The book concludes with important concepts for patient and/or caregiver education and advocacy. Tables and Fast Facts boxes throughout highlight key information. Chapters begin with learning objectives and include references, website resources, and recommendations for additional reading.

Key Features:

Follows a lifespan approach to psychiatric mental health pharmacology

Provides population-specific treatment approaches for optimal medical decision-making

Highlights critical information with Fast Facts boxes

Delivers essential knowledge included in board certification exams

Contains critical-thinking questions in each chapter.

Dimension: 203 x 127 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9780826162632