Mental health articles

The symptoms described above can respond well to symptomatic treatment with therelevant drugs. For example, someone who experiences psychotic symptoms such as hallucinations may respond well to a short course of antipsychotic medication; however, prophylactic use of these drugs is often unsuccessful and so patients areusually given a small amount to use when these symptoms occur. This is often a　 more acceptable use of medication for people with personality disorders who dislike being on medication or fear its side effects. It also has the additional benefit of enabling the client to take some control over their treatment, which helps promote self-reliance.

Mood swings in personality disorder must be distinguished from bipolar disorder.If a mood chart is kept, there may be a pattern to the mood swings in bipolar disorder, whereas in personality disorder mood swings are often triggered by events and so appear more random; often these can be seen to result from dissociation or splitting.

Semisodium valporate (Depakote) can be very helpful in dealing with the veryintense emotional distress seen in these clients. Many clients find this drug lowersthe intensity of their emotions and gives them back the emotional control they sofear losing. Other medications, such as antidepressants, can be helpful but are notan answer in themselves. Rather, these can most helpfully be viewed as a crutchto support the client while therapeutic interventions are used to help them develop healthy psychological mechanisms and social skills. When using medication, it must always be remembered that these clients have a higher risk of suicide than any other group. Care must be taken to ensure medication is not misused or saved up for use in an unhealthy manner.

Addictive behaviour is another common problem for this group. The excessiveuse of alcohol and recreational drugs is commonly used by this group as a desperate measure to escape from their distress. Although reducing these behaviours maybe an appropriate short-term goal during therapy, these people with personalitydisorders are significantly different from other drug users. Often, if you address theroot cause or motivating factors, drug or alcohol use is no longer needed and ceases to be a problem.

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