Therapy for Pediatric Clients With Mood Disorders

Nursing
Week 2: Therapy for Pediatric Clients With Mood Disorders
Mood disorders can impact every facet of a childs life, making the most basic activities difficult for clients and their families. This was the case for 13-year-old Kara, who was struggling at home and at school. For more than 8 years, Kara suffered from temper tantrums, impulsiveness, inappropriate behavior, difficulty in judgment, and sleep issues. As a psychiatric mental health nurse practitioner working with pediatric clients, you must be able to assess whether these symptoms are caused by psychological, social, or underlying growth and development issues. You must then be able recommend appropriate therapies.
This week, as you examine antidepressant therapies, you explore the assessment and treatment of pediatric clients with mood disorders. You also consider ethical and legal implications of these therapies.
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Assignment: Assessing and Treating Pediatric Clients With Mood Disorders
When pediatric clients present with mood disorders, the process of assessing, diagnosing, and treating them can be quite complex. Children not only present with different signs and symptoms than adult clients with the same disorders, but they also metabolize medications much differently. As a result, psychiatric mental health nurse practitioners must exercise caution when prescribing psychotropic medications to these clients. For this Assignment, as you examine the client case study in this weeks Learning Resources, consider how you might assess and treat pediatric clients presenting with mood disorders.
Note: This Assignment is the first of 10 assignments that are based on interactive client case studies. For these assignments, you will be required to make decisions about how to assess and treat clients. Each of your decisions will have a consequence. Some consequences will be insignificant, and others may be life altering. You are not expected to make the right decision every time; in fact, some scenarios may not have a right decision. You are, however, expected to learn from each decision you make and demonstrate the ability to weigh risks versus benefits to prescribe appropriate treatments for clients.
Learning Objectives
Students will:
Assess client factors and history to develop personalized plans of antidepressant therapy for pediatric clients
Analyze factors that influence pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic processes in pediatric clients requiring antidepressant therapy
Evaluate efficacy of treatment plans
Analyze ethical and legal implications related to prescribing antidepressant therapy to pediatric clients
Learning Resources
Note:To access this weeks required library resources, please click on the link to the Course Readings List, found in theCourse Materialssection of your Syllabus.
Required Readings

Stahl, S. M. (2013).Stahls essential psychopharmacology: Neuroscientific basis and practical applications(4th ed.). New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.
Note:To access the following chapters, click on theEssential Psychopharmacology, 4th edtab on the Stahl Online website and select the appropriate chapter. Be sure to read all sections on the left navigation bar for each chapter.

Chapter 6, Mood Disorders
Chapter 7, Antidepressants

Stahl, S. M. (2014b).The prescribers guide(5th ed.). New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.
Note:To access the following medications, click on theThe Prescriber’s Guide, 5th edtab on the Stahl Online website and select the appropriate chapter. Be sure to read all sections on the left navigation bar for each chapter.
Review the following medications:

amitriptyline
bupropion
citalopram
clomipramine
desipramine
desvenlafaxine
doxepin
duloxetine