Drugs and Physical Treatment

Abstract

Many social workers remain sceptical about the use of physical treatment of all kinds in psychiatry. Certainly history is on their side, since some practices, long held to be efficacious, have been abandoned as ineffective. However, regardless of one’s personal stance and beliefs the reality is that most people who suffer from psychiatric disorder in this country are going to be treated with some form of physical procedure, most usually drugs. It is important therefore for the social worker to gain some working knowledge of what these treatments entail, how they affect the client, what may be some of the likely side-effects, and how they are likely to affect the relationship between the client, the worker and his family.