What are psychotropic drugh
Answers
A psychotropic describes any drug that affects behavior, mood, thoughts, or perception. It’s an umbrella term for a lot of different drugs, including prescription drugs and commonly misused drugs.
We’ll focus on prescription psychotropics and their uses here.
The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) National Survey on Drug Use and Health data found that in 2018, 47 million adults over age 18 reported a mental health condition.
This is around 1 in 5 adults in the United States. More than 11 million reported serious mental illness.
Mental health and well-being affect our daily lives. Psychotropic medications can be an important part of the tools available to help keep us well.
Fast facts about psychotropic drugs
Psychotropics are a broad category of drugs that treat many different conditions.
They work by adjusting levels of brain chemicals, or neurotransmitters, like dopamine, gamma aminobutyric acid (GABA), norepinephrine, and serotonin.
There are five major classes of legal psychotropic medications:
anti-anxiety agents
antidepressants
antipsychotics
mood stabilizers
stimulants
Some can cause very serious side effects and have special monitoring requirements by healthcare providers.
Why are psychotropic drugs prescribed?
Some conditions psychotropics treat include:
anxiety
depression
schizophrenia
bipolar disorder
sleep disorders
These medications work by altering neurotransmitters to improve symptoms. Each class works a bit differently, but they have some similarities, too.
The type or class of medication a doctor prescribes depends on the individual and specific symptoms. Some medications require regular use for several weeks to see benefits.
Let’s look closer at psychotropic drugs and their uses.