Medication management plays an essential role in mental health treatment because mental illnesses are biologically based. Symptoms of mental illness stem from chemical imbalances in the brain. Medications work to help correct these imbalances. The right medication can reduce or eliminate symptoms, significantly improve a patient’s quality of life, and help patients maintain the stability and control needed to work through the healing process. Although some patients can achieve recovery without medication, many patients find medications combined with therapy or counseling to be helpful.

In medication management, the patient and the provider work together to determine whether or not a medication could benefit the patient. Medication options are discussed and the provider recommends a specific medicine and dosage. The patient then follows up with the provider to discuss the effects of the medicine and to determine whether or not it is beneficial. Some patients may need medicine for a short time while they work through a difficult situation, while others may require long-term treatment.

Midwest Mental Health provides medication management for pediatric and adult mental health conditions. The provider will carefully evaluate physical and mental health to create a psychiatric medication management plan tailored to each patient’s unique needs. In some cases, this will include ordering laboratory or other diagnostic testing to pinpoint underlying medical conditions that may be contributing to mental health conditions or to monitor the effects of the prescribed medications.

Due to the personal and delicate nature of mental health medications, it is vital that patients only take the prescriptions exactly as their provider ordered them. Taking too much or too little of a prescribed psychiatric medication can steer treatment off course. Taking medications that a doctor did not prescribe can have devastating consequences. Safety is the number one reason that Midwest Mental Health strongly recommends medication management for all patients who take psychiatric medicines.