With around a quarter of the UK adult population being prescribed a psychiatric drug,4 it has never been more important for us as psychological therapists to understand and actively engage with the impact these drugs can have on our work with clients. Learning about their effects and becoming aware of what might happen during withdrawal allows us to help our clients better. If you want to include what you have learned within your practice, you could start by:
- Updating your client-facing information to say you are aware of/work with issues related to prescribed psychiatric drug dependence and withdrawal.
- Suggesting this short read as a discussion topic for your supervision or reading group.
- Deepening your understanding by doing some further reading or training – go to www.prescribeddrug.info where you can access the full guidance (which includes an additional resource list in Appendix A) and find news about planned events.
References
- Guy, A., Davies J., Rizq, R. (Eds.) (2019). Guidance for Psychological Therapists: Enabling conversations with clients taking or withdrawing from prescribed psychiatric drugs. London: APPG for Prescribed Drug Dependence.
- British Psychological Society (2011) Response to the American Psychiatric Association DSM-5 Development.
- British Psychological Society (2017) Understanding psychosis and schizophrenia (revised). A report by the Division of Clinical Psychology. Ed. Anne Cooke.
- Taylor, S., Annand, F., Burkinshaw, P., Greaves, F., Kelleher, M., Knight, J., Perkins, C., Tran, A., White, M. & Marsden, J. (2019) Dependence and withdrawal associated with some prescribed medicines: An evidence review. London: Public Health England.