Pharmacological treatment and ECT

Abstract

Many years ago doctors used to devise their own prescriptions. The symbol used for prescribing, Rx, stands for ‘recipe’ and many early prescriptions were individual concoctions of various substances. Now, with a wide range of active and standardized drugs, prescribing has a strong scientific basis in the discipline of pharmacology. The emphasis on effective pharmacology has, however, tended to detract from other aspects of treatment, including the relationship between health worker and patient, the reduction of stress for the individual and the family and the provision of a healthy social context. Just as we now have a better understanding of pharmacology, we also have a better understanding of the psychological and social principles of non-pharmaceutical treatment. This has been dealt with in earlier chapters. Here we deal with some of the problems of prescribing medication for old people and some of the principles that can minimize these problems. For convenience we include the treatment of electroplexy in this section.