Antipsychotic Medications: Principles of Safe and Effective Use
Course #95420 - $24 -
- Participation Instructions
- Review the course material online or in print.
- Complete the course evaluation.
- Review your Transcript to view and print your Certificate of Completion. Your date of completion will be the date (Pacific Time) the course was electronically submitted for credit, with no exceptions. Partial credit is not available.
Antipsychotic medications are essential to the treatment of schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and other conditions associated with psychosis, but their safe use requires careful medication selection, monitoring, and patient counseling. This course compares first- and second-generation antipsychotics, reviews their mechanisms, indications, adverse effects, and clinically important drug interactions, and examines strategies for improving adherence. Participants will also explore metabolic, cardiovascular, hematologic, and movement-disorder monitoring; risk-mitigation approaches; off-label use; and the advantages and limitations of long-acting injectable formulations. Clinical examples demonstrate how patient preferences, comorbidities, treatment response, and tolerability can guide individualized antipsychotic therapy.
- INTRODUCTION
- MEDICAL CONDITIONS REQUIRING ANTIPSYCHOTIC THERAPY
- FIRST-GENERATION ANTIPSYCHOTICS
- SECOND-GENERATION ANTIPSYCHOTICS
- ADHERENCE
- ADVERSE EFFECTS
- DRUG INTERACTIONS
- ANTIPSYCHOTIC SELECTION
- MONITORING
- RISK MITIGATION STRATEGIES
- OFF-LABEL ANTIPSYCHOTIC USE
- USE OF LONG-ACTING ANTIPSYCHOTICS
- CASE STUDY
- CONCLUSION
- Works Cited
- Evidence-Based Practice Recommendations Citations
This course is designed for physicians, physician assistants, and nurses involved in the care of patients who are prescribed antipsychotics.
The purpose of this course is to provide healthcare professionals with practical knowledge for selecting, monitoring, and managing antipsychotic medications safely and effectively, resulting in improved patient care and outcomes.
Upon completion of this course, you should be able to:
- Discuss conditions that commonly require antipsychotic therapy.
- Identify key differences between first- and second-generation antipsychotics, including their efficacy profiles.
- Identify key approaches to assess and improve patient adherence to antipsychotic therapy.
- Describe the adverse effects of antipsychotics.
- Explain common drug interactions with antipsychotics.
- Outline appropriate drug selection and monitoring of antipsychotic therapy.
- Discuss long-acting injectable antipsychotics.
Gina Corley, PharmD, is an Assistant Editor at TRC Healthcare. She earned her Doctor of Pharmacy degree from West Virginia University in 2013. Before joining TRC in 2024, Gina worked as an inpatient operations floater pharmacist at WVU Medicine’s J.W. Ruby Memorial Hospital, gaining experience in central pharmacy operations, IV room/sterile products, peri-op/OR, psychiatry, and the cancer center. She also spent 6 years as a retail pharmacist at CVS Health, including two years as a pharmacy manager. Gina’s professional interests include women’s health, mentoring residents, and fostering professional networking relationships with other providers.
Contributing faculty, Gina Corley, PharmD, has disclosed no relevant financial relationship with any product manufacturer or service provider mentioned.
John M. Leonard, MD
Mary Franks, MSN, APRN, FNP-C
The division planners have disclosed no relevant financial relationship with any product manufacturer or service provider mentioned.
Sarah Campbell
The Director of Development and Academic Affairs has disclosed no relevant financial relationship with any product manufacturer or service provider mentioned.
The purpose of NetCE is to provide challenging curricula to assist healthcare professionals to raise their levels of expertise while fulfilling their continuing education requirements, thereby improving the quality of healthcare.
Our contributing faculty members have taken care to ensure that the information and recommendations are accurate and compatible with the standards generally accepted at the time of publication. The publisher disclaims any liability, loss or damage incurred as a consequence, directly or indirectly, of the use and application of any of the contents. Participants are cautioned about the potential risk of using limited knowledge when integrating new techniques into practice.
It is the policy of NetCE not to accept commercial support. Furthermore, commercial interests are prohibited from distributing or providing access to this activity to learners.
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The role of implicit biases on healthcare outcomes has become a concern, as there is some evidence that implicit biases contribute to health disparities, professionals' attitudes toward and interactions with patients, quality of care, diagnoses, and treatment decisions. This may produce differences in help-seeking, diagnoses, and ultimately treatments and interventions. Implicit biases may also unwittingly produce professional behaviors, attitudes, and interactions that reduce patients' trust and comfort with their provider, leading to earlier termination of visits and/or reduced adherence and follow-up. Disadvantaged groups are marginalized in the healthcare system and vulnerable on multiple levels; health professionals' implicit biases can further exacerbate these existing disadvantages.
Interventions or strategies designed to reduce implicit bias may be categorized as change-based or control-based. Change-based interventions focus on reducing or changing cognitive associations underlying implicit biases. These interventions might include challenging stereotypes. Conversely, control-based interventions involve reducing the effects of the implicit bias on the individual's behaviors. These strategies include increasing awareness of biased thoughts and responses. The two types of interventions are not mutually exclusive and may be used synergistically.