Mood Stabilizer and Reuptake Blocker (Nursing)

00:00 Well, we have medications that work quite well for them.

00:04 Mood stabilizers and reuptake blockers can really help patients.

00:11 Valproate and Depakote.

00:13 These are anti-seizure medications that have been demonstrated to be very effective as mood stabilizers.

00:22 We want to be understanding that as we are using these different anti-seizure medications, we're not saying the person has a seizure disorder.

00:34 We have understood that anti-seizure medications can be very effective in stabilizing these moods.

00:44 Lithium has been a go to medication for mania for a very, very long time.

00:53 One of the problems with lithium, which you will learn when you do your psychopharm is that it has a very small window and we have to be very careful.

01:02 So there's a lot of blood tests going on with that patient which can also be disruptive.

01:09 Also antipsychotics like Aripiprazole and Ziprasidone.

01:15 These are antipsychotics that have been identified as also being extremely effective to work with patients who have mood disorders.

01:30 Seroquel has also been identified as a medication that helps to equal out these different moods.

01:41 The other thing that it does, as well as the antipsychotics is that sometimes with mania, you have those delusions and you have those periods of time where you have psychotic features.

01:57 When you are taking something like an antipsychotic and Seroquel, you find that these medications will also reduce the likelihood of psychotic features with a person who has a mood disorder.

02:13 So there is a historical progression that goes on, we normally see that with like 60% of people, the manic episodes are right before a major depressive episode.

02:27 So when we look at a continuum, we see them going up into mania.

02:33 And then they come down into a depressive episode of depressive disorder.

02:39 And then they go back up into mania.

02:44 Sometimes we will say it's rapid cycling, which means they're really going from a week of being really up to 3 weeks of being really depressed and almost suicidal, and then it starts to get better again.

03:00 And there are usually more depressive episodes than we see with mania.

03:07 This is just the way the disease progresses.

03:11 Now when we think about it, we have to really think about the fact that this patient when they are in a depressive episode, have a much higher likelihood of contemplating suicide, dying by taking their own life.

03:27 So we want to really be aware of that.

03:31 When a person is in a manic state, we understand that they might have the psychotic features, you might find them walking on a highway at night.

03:44 And because they really wanted to have a cup of coffee and they can't find one that's open.

03:49 And so they just leave their car and they start walking on the highway because they have so many thoughts.

03:54 So their life is still at a very high risk.