CliveUK

I think thorazine is called chlorpromazine over here Don. As one of the older antipsychs, I really can't remember when I saw it last used - ages and ages ago.

Ah, these are the tensions you have to live with as a nurse. You can't "make" people better, they do that for themselves.

Self-injury is just another form of coping mechanism for some people. You say later on in this thread that she says she has gone down the therapy route and found it useless. Seems to me like she has found a space in her life for her cutting, a way ...

Me too StuPer. ECT is a controversial treatment, but in terms of side-effects, it's probably safer than some anti-depressants.

StuPer - I've never advocated for meds alone as a treatment for depression. My feelings are that the chemical imbalances which are a feature of depression may - when the depression is still "mild to moderate" - be amenable to change through effectiv...

StuPer - it is rather convenient, isn't it, that certain schools of counselling/therapy consider themselves too mysterious and unquantifiable to be researched adequately? Which allows them to get away with the self-proclaimed tales of their efficacy...

Over here, the counselling and therapy industry is totally unregulated, except through informal, voluntary regulation by organisations representing therapists of various flavours. This is why I have a healthy dose of scepticism about therapy and the...

There is next to no evidence for the effectiveness of "counselling". And seeing as "counsellors" don't even need to be licensed or registered to set their service up, you could be allowing rank amateurs to have access to your brain. Give me the dru...

Hypothetically. In fact, none of the studies has demonstrated conclusively that ventricular enlargement is a feature of schizophrenia.

In the field of psychiatry, I don't think you can ever say "OK that's it, we've done all we can". It's the nature of the beast, and I would be strongly opposed to any measures which, basically, punished patients for having the temerity not to agree ...

Short answer - no. Long answer - NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

Horses for courses, I suppose. Some kids get on with them, others don't. I guess the point is that the drugs companies should have been upfront and honest about the side effects, allowing patients a real choice, rather than practising the worst kin...

Is there published evidence Hukilau - do you have a reference?

Don't most antipsychotics interfere with prolactin levels, hence the galactorrhoea some women experience and the erectile dysfunction in men? Would that lead to gynaecomastia? I owuld have thought any young man growing breasts as a result of drug tr...

The Liverpool University Neuroleptic Side Effect Rating scale (Day et al 1996) sounds like the kind of thing you're after. It's a 51 item checklist of side effects and patients are asked to rate how much they have experienced the side effect over th...

Your reply assumes that process groups are effective for acutely-ill patients. I have yet to see any evidence that this is the case.

Don't worry about screwing up - all of us have done it at some time or other. Nobody expects you to be perfect. If you have the yearning to be a psychiatric nurse, then I say go for it!

I would like to see the reference that says brain surgery is beyond the scope of practice of nurses. I've never seen it, and yet it is generally accepted that it is, and nobody would be advocating nurses just having a rummage around in someone's cra...

I don't think psychotherapeutic groups are at all appropriate for acute inpatients, nor do I think it appropriate for untrained nursing staff to be blundering about trying to run them. Specific psychoeducational groups with a definite focus (hearing...

Acute in-patient units are not appropriate for more than a very short-term crisis admission for people with BPD. However, over here in the UK, I'm sure it's the same as over there in the US: BPD patients up the ante by carrying out ever more dramati...

The outcomes stack up pretty well, actually. Here in the UK, ECT is only given for recalcitrant depression that hasn't responded to antidepressant treatment.

Over here in the UK, we have an organisation called NICE (National Institute for Clinical Excellence) who have evaluated ECT and produced useful guidance to its use and efficacy. You can download a copy of their guidance here: - http://www.nice.org....

We have two examples of her behaviour that lead you to think she might be mentally ill: - one seems to me to be a heightened concern about an ex-partner. Perhaps the ex was abusive (her description of him "going postal" suggests this): it is not unc...

Interesting take on mental illness, but I'm afraid I don't think delusional thinking can be classed as 'fantasy', not unless you accept that any belief (such as the world being round, needing oxygen to live) is a 'fantasy' as well.

Hmm - well, my first thought is what qualifications does your counsellor have that make her able to decide your DIL is "paranoid", without having seen her or heard her side of the story? I would be wary of proceeding to offer you advice on the untes...