Psychiatric medications rid many people with a mental illness of their symptoms while they undergo psychotherapy. Rachel Smith-Bowery, DNP, APRN, PMHNP-BC, is a psychiatric mental health specialist in Copperas Cove, Texas, who provides medication management for mental health conditions through telehealth. She offers psychiatric medication management for people living in Texas and Florida. Call today or use the online booking button to learn more about medication management.
Medication management is using drugs to ease or eliminate symptoms caused by an illness or disease. Rachel is a psychiatric mental health specialist providing medication management for mental health conditions.
Proper psychiatric medication can significantly reduce symptoms and improve quality of life. But no one medication works for everyone, even for those with the same diagnosis.
Rachel understands how psychiatric medications work. She uses her training and experience to determine which drug and dose might best help you.
Rachel determines if you need medication management for depression after completing an initial psychiatric evaluation. The information she gathers during your first telehealth visit helps her come up with a diagnosis and assess your symptoms’ severity to determine an effective treatment.
Rachel diagnoses and treats many mental health conditions, including:
Not everyone with a mental illness needs psychiatric medication. However, if your symptoms are severe or don’t improve with psychotherapy alone, Rachel will recommend medication.
Medication management works best when combined with psychotherapy.
You can expect attentive and professional medication management from Rachel.
When starting a new psychiatric medication, Rachel explains how the drug works and its possible side effects. She starts you on a low dose and schedules weekly follow-up appointments to monitor your symptoms and side effects, adjusting your dose or changing to another medication as needed.
Once you’re on a medication that provides the best relief from your symptoms, Rachel schedules your medication management follow-up appointments every 1-3 months.
You and Rachel work together to determine how long you need medication management for your mental health. You might only need to take psychiatric drugs for a short time. However, depending on your diagnosis and needs, you could continue on your medication for months or years.
When you both agree that it’s time to stop your medication, Rachel will taper you off the drug by slowly lowering the dose over weeks or months. Abruptly stopping psychiatric medication can cause your mental illness symptoms to return.
At this time, Rachel doesn’t prescribe controlled substances like stimulant medication for attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) or antianxiety drugs.
Call Rachel Smith-Bowery, DNP, APRN, PMHNP-BC, or use the online booking tool to learn more about medication management.