Monitoring the adverse effects of psychotropic drugs – need for an evidence-based approach

Abstract

Psychotropic drugs (those that affect a person’s mental state) are frequently associated with adverse effects. For many physical adverse effects, it is necessary to do baseline blood tests to avoid giving medication to patients who are at a high risk of particular adverse effects and to monitor blood tests to either avoid or manage specific adverse effects. Most treatment guidelines recommend blood tests to monitor the adverse effects of psychotropic drugs. However, most of the recommendations from commonly used practice guidelines are based on expert opinions and low levels of scientic evidence leading to wide variations in recommendations This area is a clinically significant area which has not received due attentions from clinicaians and researchers alike... In this review, we have compared blood test monitoring recommendations, by various national and international treatment guidelines, of commonly used psychotropic drugs such as antipsychotic drugs,and mood stabilising drugs This is a narrative review, in which we have critically appraised the recommendations and highlighted the need for evidence-based monitoring of adverse effects of psychotropic drugs. Finally, we have made suggestions to make the monitoring recommendations more scientifically valid and meaningful.