In Mental Health... And going mental over these drugs!

Published

As I'm sure many before me have said or thought, 'I should have tried harder in pharmacology.' Now I'm half way through the entire LPN program, and finally met my match. A class that has me on the fence all because of one little thing - drugs.

In mental health in general - the disorders, therapeutic talking, etc, I excel. But, what is bringing me down is that no matter how many times I read - and reread, I can't remember the antipsychotics, antidepressants, etc for the life of me.

What are some study tips I can utilize? I am in an excelerated program and only have 5 weeks to learn the class. It's been 2.5 weeks so far and I recognize that after 2 tests that I need to change what I'm doing - and fast.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in Critical Care, Med-Surg, Psych, Geri, LTC, Tele,.

Learn 1 drug per category or classification really well. Try to learn the one medication that seems to be commonly used in real life a lot or that your teacher keeps mentioning.

For us, that would be:

1 upper (an amphetamine)

1 downer (a sedative/hypnotic/or barb)

1 barbituate

1 anti seizure

1 ssri

1 maoi

For me, it turned out I did know a little about meds when I thought of it this way. Learn how each category works.

I didn't stress myself trying to learn every single medicine. I did cram names of meds into my short term memory right before tests as best I could.

I recommend focusing on categories and 1 representative per category really well.

Up Vote Up Vote ×

google /Illustrated-Pharmacology-Memory-Cards-PharMnemonics they are awesome!

Up Vote Up Vote ×
+ Join the Discussion