Medication Management

What is Medication Management?

Medications can play a critical role in the treatment of various mental health issues. The right medication can reduce or eliminate symptoms and significantly improve a person’s quality of life. While medication is not right for everyone, many patients do find success with prescription medication. For some of these individuals, medication is necessary only in the short term. Other patients may need long-term medication to treat chronic mental health issues.

At McLean Counseling Center, our psychiatric professionals can work with you or your child to determine if medication is necessary and to create a treatment plan that includes the right type and dosage of medication to help promote recovery and normal living. The psychiatrists and psychiatric nurse practitioners on our team listen to patients’ needs and educate patients on how medications work and any possible side effects that may be experienced. For many people, combining talk therapy with medication management produces the best results.

What Conditions Do We Treat with Medication?

Our psychiatrists and psychiatric nurse practitioners have extensive experience prescribing and managing medications for a variety of mental health conditions, including:

• Anxiety
• Depression
• ADHD
• Panic Disorders

What is a Psychiatric Nurse Practitioner?

A nurse practitioner is a registered nurse who has completed additional graduate- or doctorate-level nursing education. This means they either have a master’s degree or a doctorate in nursing. This allows them to provide similar care as medical doctors. They can see patients, develop treatment plans, and prescribe medications.

Nurse practitioners (NPs) with specialties (like psychiatric nurse practitioners) have additional training and education in the psychiatric and mental health nursing field. Similar to psychiatrists, psychiatric NPs can provide mental health services for individuals, families, and communities.

Your appointment will be the same with a psychiatric NP as it would be with a traditional psychiatrist. Psychiatric NPs can diagnose and treat psychiatric, emotional, and behavioral disorders just like psychiatrists can. This includes common mental health concerns such as anxiety and depression, as well as more complex and specialized ones such as bipolar disorder.

Psychiatric nurse practitioners work autonomously and have the same care capabilities as psychiatrists do.

They can:

• Diagnose and evaluate patient health
• Facilitate therapy sessions with patients, families, and groups
• Order diagnostic tests
• Prescribe and adjust medications
• Make referrals to additional service providers
• Evaluate and monitor patients’ overall well-being, adjusting treatment outcomes as needed over time
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