Psychiatric medications help people with mental illness.
They work like aspirin on a fever. They make you feel better but do not cure
the underlying problem. But in many cases, they can help a person get along and
keep involved in life. How much better they make you feel depends on the person
and the disorder being treated. The same is true for how long medications are needed.
Sometimes psychiatric medications help in the short term. Other times medication
is needed for the long term.
Like any medication, psychiatric medications do not produce the same
effect in everyone. Some people may respond better to one kind of drug than
another. Some may need larger dosages than others do. Some have side effects,
and others do not. Age, sex, body size and body chemistry affect how much a
drug helps. Also illness, diet, and habits such as smoking determine how effective a drug is.
Adapted from NIMH (2002). Medications(4th edition). NIH
Publication No. 02-3929. Accessed on October 24, 2005 at http://www.nimh.nih.gov/publicat/medicate.cfm.
