Introduction to the Case
The case scenario provided is of a 31year old male whose chief complaint is insomnia that has been worse in the past 6 months. Previously, he reports enjoying restful sleep although for the past 6months he has experienced both difficulties in falling and staying asleep. He even associates the onset of these sleep problems with the loss of his fiancé consequently leading to the loss. During the interview with the clinic, he explains that the problem is a bother because it has interfered with his job where because he experiences sleepiness during the day thus affecting his concentration and productivity at the workplace. He reports recent dependence on alcohol to help him fall asleep. The mental status examination performed on him revealed no abnormality in the orientation appearance, insight, and judgment.
A comprehensive assessment of this case study shows that the patient’s insomnia might be related to his psychological dysfunction resulting from the loss of his fiancé 6months ago. The sudden loss of a dear one triggers a myriad of psychiatric conditions even if the individual has no prior history of psychiatric conditions (Seiler et al., 2020). One of these psychiatric conditions is depression which is especially triggered by
complicated grief. The affected individual would therefore present with low mood, intense sadness, low energy, and loss of interest in activities of pleasure. They may also report sleep disturbances with insomnia being more common than hypersomnolence (Hasin et al., 2018). Managing the depression through medications or psychotherapy would help to relieve the patient’s symptoms such as insomnia that is suspected to arise from depression. The objective of this paper is to discuss how the patient in the case study was managed by describing the therapeutic options at Decision points 1, point 2, and point 3.
Decision Point One
For the initial management of the patient, I would prescribe 50mg of trazodone to be taken orally at bedtime daily. Trazodone is a drug that acts in the brain by reducing the reuptake of different neurochemicals in the brain such as serotonin but antagonizing the alpha-1-adrenergic and histamine receptors in the brain (Cuomo et al., 2019). By so doing, the serotonin levels in the brain are increased as well as the intensity of their action. Given depression results from an imbalance of brain neurochemicals such as serotonin and norepinephrine, increased serotonin levels resulting from trazodone use can lead to improved serotonergic actions thus treating depression and its symptoms (Hasin et al., 2018). When trazodone is therefore prescribed, the symptoms of depression including insomnia, appetite changes, and mood changes are corrected (Wang et al., 2020). It would therefore be the first-line medication for this patient.
At decision point one, the foregone options are the 10mg zolpidem taken daily at bedtime or 50mg hydroxyzine taken daily at bedtime. Although zolpidem is effective in the management of insomnia by promoting the action of gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) in the brain, its side effect profile which includes drowsiness, complex sleep-related behavior and volition usually limit its use as a first-line medication for insomnia (Edinoff et al., 2021). Hydroxyzine has also been foregone because of its anticholinergic effects such as xerophthalmia and xerostomia (Hasin et al., 2018). Further, neither of these drugs is effective for the management of depression that has been linked with the patient’s insomnia.
The ethical principles require that the health care providers do not harm the patient. At point one, increasing the pill burden by prescribing the antidepressants separately from the drugs addressing insomnia would pose the risk of adverse drug reactions as well as increase the incidence of poor drug compliance (Bipeta, 2019). The ethical principle of non-maleficence would therefore require for prescription of a single agent that could manage both depressive illness and insomnia (Seiler et al., 2020). As such, trazodone is the preferred medication to the other provided options.
Decision Point Two
After 2 weeks of therapy with 50mg of
Order this paper