Research Proposal

Psychotropic drugs for mental Retarded children

Introduction

In almost every country approximately 1% of the population suffers from mental retardation. Mental Retardation can be explained as a type of disability that initiates even before adulthood, and has a seemingly lasting impact on development producing a significantly reduced ability to cope independently as a result of impaired social functioning along with a sense of impaired intelligence that is the diminished ability to comprehend new information and to learn new skills

Psychotropic medication has been used since decades in order to treat children that are suffering from mental retardation.According to Singh, Ellis and Wechsler (1997), in one of their studies based on psychotropic drugs exhibited that during the period from 1986 to 1995, the individual medication frequency rates in medical institutions ranged from almost 12% to 40% whereas the prevalence rate in the community medication seemed to have ranged between 19% to 29%. Nolen in 2002 depicted that almost 22.8% of the population suffering from mental retardation who resided in group homes were prescribed these psychotropic medications. (Singh et al., 1997)

 

Research Problem

This purpose of this research is to investigate the usefulness of the psychotropic medication in dealing with mentally retarded children. Moreover, this study shall also delve into the interrelationship between psychopharmaco therapies in general and the use of specific psychotropic drugs and other behavior problems that seems to prevail amongst children and adolescents with mental retardation.

Literature Review

Psychotropic or psychodynamic medications refer to all those medications that are capable of affecting an individual's mind, behavior and emotions. Psychotropic medications tend to impact the specific functioning of the human brain by either decreasing or increasing the various activities of the neurotransmitters which are the chemical messengers of the brain. Psychotropic medications tend to impact the specific functioning of the human brain by either decreasing or increasing the various activities of the neurotransmitters which are the chemical messengers of the brain. (Diamond, 2002) Moreover, adequate medications are devised in order to alter and regulate this increase or decrease within the various activities that undergo in these neurotransmitters.

Subsequently changes in the paths of these neurotransmitters can automatically lead to a number of modifications within the brain functions as well thus leading to changes within the behavior of individuals over a course of time.

Historical Background

  these clinical effects of the phenothiazine amine, namely sedation, was like a ray of new light for the researchers and led them to believe that these drugs seemed to possess some sort of effects on the central nervous system which were yet to be discovered. Parallel to the researches that were being conducted at the Rhone-Poulenc, laboratory a French navy surgeon named Henri Laborit was also using the synthetic antihistamines at the same time in order to fight his circulatory shock post surgery. During the course of time while using these antihistamines, Laborit began to notice various secondary qualities such as hypothermic and gangliopalegic properties in the antihistamines that seemed to be extremely beneficial for not only the prevention but also the treatment of surgical ...