Psychiatry is not an exact science. Often little quirks emerge that can take us by surprise. Some of the more common abnormalities are listed here...
- Reducing the dosage of a drug with sedative qualities - such as Mirtazapine - does not always lead to a reduction in sedation. Instead a lower dosage - say, 15mg of Mirtazapine instead of 30mg - can lead to even greater sedation.
- Although MAOI antidepressants are meant not be mixed with any other type of antidepressant, in reality they can be. In fact, a mixture of Dothiepin, a TCA antidepressant, is traditionally mixed with the MAOI antidepressant Tranylcypromine.
- Drugs - especially psychiatric drugs - often do not have a single use. For example, the TCA antidepressant Dothiepin is often - at low doses, say, of 50mg - used as a hypnotic.
- Higher dosages do not equal greater therapeutic responses. Instead, there is an optimum dosage and therapeutic effect lessens when one is administered more or less of the drug in question.
- Different people respond to different medications in different ways. There is a lot we don't know about the mind and how it works, so treating the mind can often be a difficult and drawn out thing.