Nefazodone in patients with treatment-refractory posttraumatic stress disorder.

Background: Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a highly prevalent and often chronic disorder among combat veterans, persisting in as many as 15% of Vietnam veterans for at least 20 years. Treatment response in veterans with combat-related PTSD has been disappointing. Although anxiolytics, anticonvulsants, antipsychotics, and antidepressants have been tried, none has been consistently associated with improvement in all primary symptom domains (i.

Pharmaceutical care role model in psychiatry--pharmacist prescribing.

Pharmacist's expanded roles in a mental health clinic are described. A needs assessment identified problems which could be solved by expanding the pharmacist's scope of practice. Pharmacy, psychiatry, and medical center administration approved the pharmacist's psychiatric prescribing privileges and the authority to order appropriate laboratory tests, which provides the mechanism of solving the problems identified.

Pharmacists' role in clozapine therapy at a Veterans Affairs medical center.

A program in which pharmacists have an active role in prescribing and dispensing psychoactive drugs is described. The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) has established a National Clozapine Coordinating Center (NCCC) that must approve all clozapine therapy in VA medical centers. Clinical and demographic information is required for all new patients, and weekly status reports are required throughout clozapine therapy.

An interdisciplinary approach to the dental care of the mentally disabled.

In institutions for mentally disabled persons, dental care of the patient is often difficult because of uncooperative behavior. Premedication is sometimes necessary. The mentally disabled patient frequently receives other medication for behavioral control, cerebral palsy, seizures, or the like, that may interact with the dental premedication.

Phenobarbital--thioridazine interaction in man.

Plasma thioridazine levels were estimated in seven retarded patients during the course of gradual phenobarbital withdrawal. In each patient, plasma levels of thioridazine plus metabolites increased with decreasing phenobarbital dose. Possible mechanisms of the interaction are discussed.

Pharmacist impact on drug use in an institution for the mentally retarded.

Pharmacist involvement on a team developed to monitor drug use in an institution for the mentally retarded is described, and the results of the team's efforts are reported. The behavioral review committee consisted of a physician, pharmacist(s), nurses, psychologists, sociologists and therapists. The pharmacists reviewed the patients' charts and pharmacy records to compile a complete drug history on a special "drug calender" form.