Moral Issues In Health And Social Care

The moral issue in question in this scenario is whether or not medication should be prescribed for someone struggling with a break up so much that it is affecting their daily life. If I was the psychiatrist in this scenario I would prescribe the drug under the condition I still see the patient for regular talk sessions. I made this decision based on the major health factors involved, this person not sleeping or eating are signs of a deep depression that anti depressants may only slightly mask. I made the decision to prescribe this with the condition that the patient return for. Talk sessions because I think it is important to monitor anyone on new medication and also it is important to make sure the patient does not lose sight of what happened
and benefits in life from the lessons learned from a hard break up. I also made this decision based on beneficence and non-maleficence. Beneficence is the act of compassion and taking action to help others. Non-maleficence is the avoidance of harm. By prescribing this medication I would be taking action to help the patient with the intent of doing no harm. A challenge that may be faced is that the friends and family of the patient may not approve of this decision to medicate this problem. This can have a negative affect on the patient as well because anyone in a healing process can really use all the love and support they can get. Another challenge that may occur is trying to get the patient to return for therapy. This may be an issue because the patient may not want to bring up the past but instead bury issues that may still need discussing. Other concerns with prescribing this medication may be that someone may give it to someone it is not prescribed for which is a risk with any medication however can be very risky in this case. I think other psychiatrist may opt not to prescribe this medication because for all of history psychiatrists have worked with patients who have gone through this scenario and have never used this type of method for treatment, this being said they may not think it is necessary for recovery, however I think it could have a huge benefit in the aspect that it will help the healing process be shorter which can have benefits like increased productivity in daily life. Ultimately i think this should be an autonomous decision for the patient as long as they are a good candidate willing to continue talk therapy.