POLYPHARMACY IN PSYCHIATRY - BALANCING CAUTION WITH DARING

Although it is wise to be cautious when administering more than one dr ug to a patient, polypharmacy is not a controversial practice. Rather, it is a useful and an accepted method of treating complicated cases i n all medical specialities. There is a need for more rigorous study of multiple-medication therapies. However, physicians must be able to ma ke decisions based on the data that are available and not be limited i n their ability to treat a patient by a lack of scientific validation for every aspect of the treatment.