Resource Guide
Prescription Drugs for Mental Illnesses

 

This guide provides links to web-based resources that can guide SHIP staff to determine prescription drugs used to treat patients with mental illnesses. The FY 2007 SHIP Grant requires that SHIPs allocate at least five percent of their Federal funding to provide assistance to beneficiaries with mental illnesses. These resources should help SHIPs identify which counseling sessions fall within the five percent allocation.

• National Institute of Mental Health:
  http://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/publications/medications/medications.pdf or
  http://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/publications/medications/summary.shtml

This site contains a detailed booklet by the National Institute of Mental Health that provides information on how and why medications are used as treatment for mental illness. The booklet contains an index of medications along with both their trade names (brand names used by pharmaceutical companies) and generic (chemical) names. It is a good resource for information about the medications taken by patients with mental illness.

 

• U.S. Food and Drug Administration- Center for Drug Evaluation and Research:
  http://www.fda.gov/cder/drug/DrugSafety/DrugIndex.htm

This site contains a list of all FDA-approved drugs. While this site does not contain a comprehensive list of all drugs for mental illnesses, it does include drug-specific patient and consumer information sheets. Also marked with a red star are the drugs that have an active FDA safety alert.

 

• Internet Mental Health:
  http://www.mentalhealth.com/

This site, which is funded and created by a Canadian psychiatrist, is a free encyclopedia of mental health information. Featured on the left side under the Medications tab is an alphabetically arranged list of medications. Some of the information on each drug includes its pharmacology, overdose, and dosage. This website is based in Canada, so there may be some variations with American drugs.

 

• A project of Mental Health Association of Southeastern Pennsylvania:
  http://www.mhasp.org/coping/resources/medications.html

This resource contains a list of commonly prescribed medications for mental illness categorized by condition. It provides concise and easy-to-locate information. The medications are all identified by brand names only.

 

• Medline Plus: A service of the U.S. National Library of Medicine and the National Institutes of Health: http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/druginformation.html

This website contains an alphabetical list of drugs for all illnesses. The information for each drug includes the condition treated and brand name, if any.

 

• Web MD:
  http://www.webmd.com/drugs/index-drugs.aspx

This site includes an alphabetical list of both prescription and over-the-counter drugs. Although displayed with brand and generic names, there is also a search feature.

 

• National Alliance on Mental Illness:
  http://www.nami.org/Template.cfm?Section=About_Medications&Template=/
  ContentManagement/ContentCombo.cfm&NavMenuID=798&ContentID=23662

This website contains a list of certain mental illness drugs, with generic names in brackets, and what they are used to treat. It also provides the contact information of the pharmaceutical company that produces the drug.

 

• Counseling Resource: NIMH Booklet Part 4:
  http://counsellingresource.com/medications/nimh-part-four.html

This booklet from the National Institute of Mental Health addresses psychotropic medications. The fourth section of the NIMH Booklet contains lists of generic and brand-name drugs specified by the condition being treated.

 

Please note that these resources do not provide tools to diagnose any individual with mental illness. This site is intended to help SHIPs in reporting the five percent allocation for assistance to those with mental illness.