Psychosis and schizophrenia greatly impact the brain’s normal processes, which interfere with the ability to think clearly. When symptoms of these disorders are uncontrolled, patients may struggle to function in daily life. However, patients often thrive when properly diagnosed and treated under the close supervision of a psychiatric mental health practitioner. For this Assignment, you will develop a study guide for an assigned psychotropic agent for treating patients with Schizophrenia Spectrum and Other Psychotic Disorders. You will share your study guide with your colleagues. In sum, these study guides will be a powerful tool in preparing for your course and PMHNP certification exam.

• Review this week’s Learning Resources, including the Medication Resources indicated for this week.
• Reflect on the psychopharmacologic treatments you might recommend for  treatment of patients with Schizophrenia Spectrum and Other Psychotic Disorders.
• Research your assigned psychotropic medication agent using the Walden Library. Then, develop an organizational scheme for the important information about the medication.
• Review Learning Resource: Utah State University. (n.d.). Creating study guides. https://www.usu.edu/academic-support/test/creating_study_guides

Create a study guide for your assigned psychotropic medication agents. Your study guide should be in the form of an outline with references, and you should incorporate visual elements such as concept maps, charts, diagrams, images, color coding, mnemonics, and/or flashcards. Be creative! It should not be in the format of an APA paper. Your guide should be informed by the FDA-approved and Evidenced-Based, Clinical Practice Guidelines Research but also supported by at least three other scholarly resources.

Areas of importance you should address, but are not limited to, are:

• Title page
• Description of the Psychopharmacological medication agent including brand and generic names and appropriate FDA indication uses
• Any supporting, valid and reliable research for non-FDA uses
• Drug classification
• The medication mechanism of action
• The medication pharmacokinetics
• The medication pharmacodynamics
• Mechanism of Action
• Appropriate dosing, administration route, and any considerations for dosing alterations
• Considerations of use and dosing in specific specialty populations to consider children, adolescents, elderly, pregnancy, suicidal behaviors, etc.
• Definition of Half-life, why half-life is important, and the half-life for your assigned medication
• Side effects/adverse reaction potentials
• Contraindications for use including significant drug to drug interactions
• Overdose Considerations
• Diagnostics and labs monitoring
• Comorbidities considerations
• Legal and ethical considerations
• Pertinent patient education considerations
• Reference Page

You will need to submit your Assignment to two places: the Week 7 Study Guide discussion forum as an attachment and the Week 7 Assignment submission link. Although no responses are required in the discussion forum, a collegial discussion is welcome. You are encouraged to utilize your peers’ submitted guides on their assigned psychotropic medication agent for study.

To submit your completed Assignment for review and grading, do the following:

• Please save your Assignment using the naming convention “WK7Assgn+last name+first initial.(extension)” as the name.
• Click the Week 7 Assignment Rubric to review the Grading Criteria for the Assignment.
• Click the Week 7 Assignment link. You will also be able to “View Rubric” for grading criteria from this area.
• Next, from the Attach File area, click on the Browse My Computer button. Find the document you saved as “WK7Assgn+last name+first initial.(extension)” and click Open.
• If applicable: From the Plagiarism Tools area, click the checkbox for I agree to submit my paper(s) to the Global Reference Database.
• Click on the Submit button to complete your submission.