Negative aspects of psychotherapeutic drug treatment

Negative effects of psychotropic substances may be divided into seven categories: 1. Physical symptoms, e.g. headache, dry mouth, etc. 2. Somatic complications, i.e. conditions which seriously impair the patient's health, e.g. choleostatic jaundice or tardive dyskinesia. 3. Behavioural toxicity, i.e. noxious modifications of the patient's behaviour as the result of the drug's action, e.g. drug-dependence, psycho-motor retardation, etc. 4. Compliance problems, i.e. irregular or unreliable adherence to the prescribed drug regime by the patient. 5. Restriction of the patient's learning capacity, which may represent an obstacle to the application of other treatment modalities, e.g. behaviour modification, or to the patient's social re-adaptation. 6. Psychodynamic interference with psychotherapy, e.g. by diminishing the patient's motivation to pursue this type of treatment or by disturbing the structure of his defences. 7. Reducing the physicians' therapeutic efficacy if he relies exclusively on psychotropic agents.