title: Person-centred psychopharmacotherapy: what is it? Each patient is a unique, responsive and responsible subject.
abstract: Modern psychopharmacotherapy is currently in contention both outside and within the field of psychiatry. Conventional psychopharmacology paradigms focusing just on a disease perspective, biological narrative and a "one fits all" treatment are often regarded as inadequate and disjunctive. A significant proportion of psychiatric patients achieve no improvement or only partial improvement in their symptoms, while many of them suffer adverse and even toxic effects of medications. Psychopharmacotherapy as a sole form of treatment may carry the wrong message that patients don't have to change their life style and don't have to learn any new skills, they just have to receive their medication on time because the only problem is in brain chemistry. Evidence-based psychopharmacotherapy and person-centered narrative psychopharmacotherapy are not competitors but a complementuary duality, as intimately connected as brain and soul. Narrative preserves individuality, distinctivenesss and therapeutic context, whereas quantitative methods and evidence-based guidelines offer a solid foundation for what is reliably and generally correct. The purpose of person-centered psychopharmacotherapy is to empower the patients to control their disease, to re-author their problematic life story, to obtain full personal recovery and to regain control over their life.
authors.affiliation: University Hospital Centre Zagreb, Department of Psychiatry, Kišpatićeva 12, 10000 Zagreb, Croatia, psychiatry@kbc-zagreb.hr.
authors.forename: Miro
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Jakovljevic
mesh_terms: D001921:Brain / Q000187:drug effects / Q000503:physiopathology; D003131:Combined Modality Therapy; D003405:Creativity; D019317:Evidence-Based Medicine; D006801:Humans; D008019:Life Style; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000523:psychology; D062525:Narrative Therapy; D009629:Person-Centered Psychotherapy / Q000379:methods*; D011619:Psychotropic Drugs / Q000009:adverse effects / Q000627:therapeutic use*
chemical_list: D011619:Psychotropic Drugs