Medications can ease the symptoms of many mental health problems, from depression to schizophrenia. However, their use requires expert management. The experienced psychiatrists and physician assistants at the Rein Center in Iowa City, Iowa, offer medication management reviews to ensure your medicines provide maximum benefits and minimal side effects. Call the Rein Center or book an in-person or telehealth appointment online today to arrange your medication management review.
Ongoing medication management includes thoughtful addition and elimination of medications when needed and ongoing close follow-up when changes are being made. We don't ignore the small print and understand adverse effects of medication can be potentially harmful or seriously impair long-term outcomes. Our philosophy is simple, why take a potentially harmful pill when a combination of psychotherapy, exercise, meditation, yoga, and proper nutrition will bring about greater change and vitality? Although we see the benefits of medication for serious mental illness and managing acute distress, our long-term goal is to support your transformation from the inside out and foster the body’s inherent healing wisdom.
Our treatment approach commits to treating you with the optimally minimal dose of psychotropic medication when possible and offers several alternative treatments to further enhance health and wellness as well. We believe that there is no reason for a person to not feel completely or nearly completely better with the number of different approaches available.
Our psychiatric providers are supervised/mentored by Dr. McCormick who is a board-certified psychiatrist and family physician with 19 years of post-residency training experience in private practice and academic medicine. We typically schedule weekly sessions at the onset of treatment, or when starting a new medication, to closely monitor the effects of the medication and determine what approach is best for you. Our follow-up sessions are typically 30 minutes or longer when needed.
Medication management helps you receive optimal benefits from your medicines while minimizing adverse effects.
Medications are a vital aspect of comprehensive psychiatric disorder treatment. You might need to take antidepressants or anxiolytics (anti-anxiety drugs). People with bipolar disorder benefit from mood stabilizers like lithium, while those with conditions like schizophrenia find antipsychotic drugs help them manage their symptoms.
However, there are many different kinds of drugs within these classifications that all work in slightly different ways. Added to that, people’s responses to drugs can vary.
That means one person might benefit greatly from a selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) antidepressant like fluoxetine while someone else finds it ineffective or experiences intolerable side effects. The Rein Center specialists use their medication management skills to address all these problems.
At your medication management review, your Rein Center provider starts by checking all your current medications. They look at the dosages and see if you’re taking the correct doses at the right time of day.
Your provider also considers other medicines and treatments you take. These include prescriptions for physical complaints like high blood pressure, over-the-counter drugs you take regularly, herbal remedies, and dietary supplements. These are important because some substances have unwanted effects when taken together.
A good example of this issue is the herbal remedy for depression, St John’s wort. This herb is an effective treatment for mild depression, but it can have harmful effects if you take it at the same time as a prescription antidepressant.
Finally, your provider asks you about your experiences with the medicines you take. That includes the positive effects on your mental health as well as side effects like dry mouth, headache, sleeping problems, or nausea.
After the consultation, your Rein Center provider determines what, if anything, needs to change. They may recommend a different dose of drugs you already take or change one type of drug for another. For instance, they may switch you to a tricyclic antidepressant if you aren’t responding to an SSRI or experience unpleasant side effects.
Regular medication management reviews improve your likelihood of benefitting from psychiatric drugs and prevent new problems from arising. Your provider will tell you how often you need a medication management review.
Call Rein Center or book an appointment online to schedule a medication management consultation today.