Following the death of her youngest daughter, the patient is in an acute depression. The patient is on high-dose antidepressants and feels that the medicine is not helping her
She says to the nurse "I hurt so bad, why don't the drugs make the pain go away?" What would be the nurse's best response?
A) "The antidepressants will only work if you are willing to help yourself, so you need to try harder."
B) "Your sense of well-being will return in about a year when you forget about the death of your daughter."
C) "The medications help balance chemicals in our bodies during periods of depression, but they do not fix the losses and stress that created the imbalance."
D) "The key to the medication working is taking the medication correctly; are you taking it every day at the same time and dose?"
Ans: C
Feedback: The balancing of neurotransmitters provided by antidepressants will not replace the grieving process or replace the loss of a loved one. The health care community should place as much emphasis on emotional health as it places on physiologic health and should recognize how biologic, emotional, and societal problems combine to affect individual patients, families, and communities. Option A is incorrect; "trying harder" is a value judgment and will not balance neurotransmitters. Option B is incorrect; the patient may learn to cope with her daughter's death, but she will never "forget about it," and offering a one-year timeframe for grieving is inappropriate. Option D is incorrect; it is important for the patient to take the medicine correctly, but is not the key to curbing her depression.
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