Sławomir Murawiec

Psychodynamic psychopharmacology concept by D. Mintz and B. Belnap - discussion of the discipline in relation to treatment-resistant patients 61-68

Summary

The process of educating psychiatrists, and psychiatric textbooks, seldom involve information about combined treatment, integrating psychotherapy and pharmacotherapy. They hardly ever include information about the psychological and relational meaning of medication, which is even more striking, in the situation when many patients undergo psychotherapy and pharmacological treatment simultaneously. Another important issue is the integration of psychological knowledge in the process of understanding the effects of pharmacotherapy. This paper discusses the proposal of a new discipline: psychodynamic psychopharmacology, described in detail by D. Mintz and B. Belnap. Their proposal is not merely theoretical. They also put forward real recommendations for cases of psychologically conditioned resistance to pharmacological treatment. The paper also discusses the issue of "a psychotherapist with knowledge of medication", for all those who are psychotherapists but wish to cross over the boundary between psychotherapy and pharmacotherapy.

pharmacotherapy / psychotherapy / integration