Medication Management

Medications have an essential role in the treatment of many psychiatric disorders. If you take mental health medications, you also need medication management. The team at Anywhere Wellness, based in Everett and Chelan, Washington; Boise, Idaho; Denver, Colorado; and Jacksonville, Florida, uses medication management appointments to monitor your health and make treatment changes as necessary to improve your symptoms. If you have questions about psychiatric medications or need medication management, call the office or request an appointment online today. 

What is medication management?

Psychiatric medications can do an exceptional job of treating your symptoms. However, they may not work optimally at first, and they can cause side effects. 

For these reasons, you need medication management, an ongoing process that involves regular appointments to talk about how you’re doing and adjust your treatment, if necessary.

How does medication management support my mental health?

Prescribing a mental health medication often takes trial and error to find the medicine that works for you. Your provider chooses from many different options, and each one has a different effect on the brain’s neurotransmitters.

Each person’s unique metabolism affects the impact of each medication. These individual differences mean that a specific medicine may produce great results for one person but fail to improve symptoms in another.

Proactive medication management allows your provider to:

• Evaluate the medication’s effectiveness
• Monitor for side effects and adverse reactions
• Change the dose to improve results
• Prescribe new medications when needed
• Order routine blood tests

Your provider prescribes your initial medication based on your medical history, symptoms, general health, and diagnosis; then, they assess your progress during medication management appointments.

How frequent are medication management appointments?

After you start a new medication, you have a follow-up appointment in one month. Since most psychiatric drugs take 30 days or longer to reach full potency in your body, this gives you enough time to see if your symptoms improve.

Your provider may ask you to track your symptoms and any changes you experience in your moods, appetite, sleep, or general health. This information helps determine how well your medication works.

Your Anywhere Wellness provider reviews your health and talks with you about symptom improvements and side effects at each visit; then, they adjust the dosage, prescribe a different medication, or change your treatment plan as needed. 

You continue to have medication management appointments every 30-90 days until your symptoms stabilize and you don’t need medication changes. Then you can go for a longer time between visits.

It’s important to remember that medications can lose potency over time. If you notice your symptoms start to get worse, schedule a medication management appointment as soon as possible.

If you have questions about medication management, call Anywhere Wellness or request an appointment online right away.