Book contents
- Practical Psychopharmacology
- Practical Psychopharmacology
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Foreword
- Preface
- Abbreviations
- Part I General Principles
- 1 Core Concepts of Good Psychopharmacology
- 2 Targets of Treatment: Categories versus Dimensions of Psychopathology
- 3 Interpreting and Using the Literature: Integrating Evidence-Based Trials with Real-World Practice
- 4 Placebo and Nocebo Effects
- 5 Tailoring the Fit: Moderators and Mediators of Treatment Outcome
- 6 Complex Regimens and Rationale-Based Combination Drug Therapies
- 7 Laboratory Values and Psychiatric Symptoms: What to Measure, What Not to Measure, and What to Do With The Results
- 8 Pharmacogenetics: When Relevant, When Not
- 9 Cross-tapering and the Logistics of Drug Discontinuation
- 10 Managing Major Adverse Drug Effects: When to Avoid, Switch, or Treat Through
- 11 Novel Drug Therapeutics: Nutraceuticals, Steroids, Probiotics, and Other Dietary Supplements
- 12 Human Diversity and Considerations in Special Populations
- Part II Targets of Pharmacotherapy
- References
- Index
6 - Complex Regimens and Rationale-Based Combination Drug Therapies
from Part I - General Principles
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 19 October 2021
- Practical Psychopharmacology
- Practical Psychopharmacology
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Foreword
- Preface
- Abbreviations
- Part I General Principles
- 1 Core Concepts of Good Psychopharmacology
- 2 Targets of Treatment: Categories versus Dimensions of Psychopathology
- 3 Interpreting and Using the Literature: Integrating Evidence-Based Trials with Real-World Practice
- 4 Placebo and Nocebo Effects
- 5 Tailoring the Fit: Moderators and Mediators of Treatment Outcome
- 6 Complex Regimens and Rationale-Based Combination Drug Therapies
- 7 Laboratory Values and Psychiatric Symptoms: What to Measure, What Not to Measure, and What to Do With The Results
- 8 Pharmacogenetics: When Relevant, When Not
- 9 Cross-tapering and the Logistics of Drug Discontinuation
- 10 Managing Major Adverse Drug Effects: When to Avoid, Switch, or Treat Through
- 11 Novel Drug Therapeutics: Nutraceuticals, Steroids, Probiotics, and Other Dietary Supplements
- 12 Human Diversity and Considerations in Special Populations
- Part II Targets of Pharmacotherapy
- References
- Index
Summary
Many patients with complicated psychiatric disorders – which we will define here as conditions involving multiple comorbidities, atypical or protracted symptoms, persistent functional impairment, and poor treatment response – often find themselves taking multidrug therapy regimens. Sometimes, combination therapies reflect wise, thoughtful, and even elegant amalgams crafted with careful deliberation. Such handiwork might capitalize on pharmacodynamic synergies and complementary, nonredundant mechanisms of action, or specific medications may make unique contributions to an overall regimen (such as drugs thought to exert anti-impulsivity, antisuicide, pro-cognitive, or anxiolytic effects). In a well-devised multidrug treatment plan, each component ideally has a well-defined job description and fills a particular role, much the way each player on a sports team covers a unique position, or every instrument in an orchestra makes its own distinct contribution to form a cohesive whole. In that sense, every drug within a psychopharmacology regimen should serve an identifiable and unambiguous function.
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- Practical PsychopharmacologyTranslating Findings From Evidence-Based Trials into Real-World Clinical Practice, pp. 107 - 128Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2021