Pharmacology of Psychiatric and Neurologic Drugs

Neurological and psychiatric disorders encompass a diverse range of disabling conditions. Collectively, these diseases are increasingly recognized as disorders of the brain’s neural connections. Brain disorders are currently estimated to affect as many as 1.5 billion people (approximately 15%) of the worldwide population—a number that is expected to grow as life expectancy increases. Treatment of these chronic conditions involves long-term use of multiple pharmacologic agents, raising the concern of side effects and possible drug interactions with medications used during the delivery of dental care. There is much overlap between the types of medications used to treat both neurologic and psychiatric diseases. Appropriate preoperative assessment of dental patients should always include obtaining a through medical history that includes a current complete list of medications. It is incumbent on the oral health-care practitioner that an analysis of possible drug interactions be done prior to the administration or prescription of any drugs used during the provision of dental care. This chapter provides an update of the current drug therapies used for patients with psychiatric diagnoses as well as Parkinson’s disease, Alzheimer’s disease, and seizure disorders and discusses potential drug interactions of clinical importance to the oral health-care provider.