NCM117: Care of Clients with Maladaptive Patterns of Behavior, Acute and Chronic
What's new in psychiatry?
Just like everything else, the field of psychiatry continues to evolve too. It innovates
as a result of one research after another. In this paper, I will be laying down the updated
information on psychiatric interventions for its varying disorders.
For Bipolar Disorders, a January 2022 clinical trial shows that lumateperone is a
promising new option with minimal side effects for treating type I or II bipolar depression. It
has led to more excellent rates of response and remission. Also, a September 2021
retrospective study about Prenatal antipsychotics and psychopathology in the offspring
reassured that maternal use of antipsychotics during pregnancy does not appear to increase
the risk of psychopathology in offspring.
For Neurodegenerative Disorders, the clinical use of pimavanserin was studied last
September 2021. In its randomized discontinuation trial in dementia-related psychosis,
relapses were approximately half as common in patients assigned to continued pimavanserin.
Whereas in a retrospective cohort study in Parkinson's Disease living in long-term care
facilities in the US, pimavanserin use, compared with nonuse, was associated with an
increased adjusted risk of 30-day hospitalization and mortality at multiple time points.
For Depressive Disorders, an analysis of 15 prospective studies on the inflammatory
markers in patients with depression last December 2021 revealed that elevated levels of Creactive protein and interleukin-6 were associated with physical symptoms, including appetite
changes, anergia, and sleep difficulty. In the same month, maintenance therapy of unipolar
depression was also studied, and it showed that maintenance therapy results in a lower rate of
recurrence and fewer anxiety and withdrawal symptoms. Electroconvulsive therapy and the
risk of serious medical events as well as suicide were also researched last September 2021.
Founded out was that the rate of medical severe events was low and trended lower among
those exposed to ECT compared with an unexposed group. Also, a Swedish national registry
study comparing patients hospitalized for depression who received ECT with a similar
number who did not, fewer patients in the ECT group died of suicide during the 12 months
following hospital admission.
Moreover, Solomon, D., & Friedman, M. (2022) discussed as well the Medical
Consequences of Psychiatric Disorders, Substance Use Disorders, and the Trauma - And
Stressor-Related Disorders. One of the findings of these studies says that patients with preexisting psychiatric disorders who develop SARS-CoV-2 infection may be at increased risk
for severe COVID-19; Patients who use orally dissolving buprenorphine should swish and
swallow the water after the drug has dissolved, see a dentist soon after starting the drug, and
make sure the dentist knows they are taking the medicine; A trial of individuals with
Cannabis Use Disorder (CUD), six weeks of varenicline resulted in higher abstinence rates at
each study visit (and a more significant decrease in cannabis use); A retrospective review on
aggressive initial dosing of buprenorphine was well tolerated with a low incidence of nausea
or vomiting and without toxicity; and A clinical trial including of individuals with severe
Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, MDMA (ecstasy) combined with manualized psychotherapy
led to both a more remarkable improvement in PTSD symptoms and a more significant
decline in functional impairment than manualized psychotherapy.
Other psychiatry issues were also tackled by Solomon, D., & Friedman, M. (2022),
and it included Daridorexant for treatment of insomnia in adults as it was found to improve
both subjective and objective measures of sleep onset and sleep maintenance. Last but not
least, it talked about Suicide in nurses and physicians, which were found that from 2017 to
2018, nurses had a nonstatistically significant increased incidence of suicide compared with
physicians. Whereby the elevated suicide risk in nurses was believed to be due to job
demands, avoiding the use of psychiatric care due to stigma, or access to medications as a
means of suicide.
Today, these studies speak volumes of the latest updates and research in the various
field of psychiatry. However, as experts and researchers continue to explore, validate, and
improve the current situation, months or days after this writing, newer information will surely
be out for our use. Nonetheless, I learned in this article that, as sciences like psychiatry tend
to get updated day by day, student nurses, as to become competent future professionals,
should be an ally to the healthcare system in providing the newest and most updated scientific
and theoretically based nursing care to every single patient coming in for their well-being.
Reference:
Solomon, D., & Friedman, M. (2022, January 25). What’s new in psychiatry. UpToDate.
Retrieved January 1, 2022, from https://www.uptodate.com/contents/whats-new-inpsychiatry