A client is experiencing a panic attack. What medication will provide the quickest relief from acute severe anxiety symptoms?
Buspirone (Buspar)
Venlafaxine (Effexor)
Imipramine (Tofranil)
Alprazolam (Xanax)
The Correct Answer is D
Choice A reason: Buspirone enhances serotonin activity, taking weeks to reduce anxiety. Panic attacks, driven by acute norepinephrine surges in the amygdala, require rapid intervention. Buspirone’s delayed onset makes it ineffective for acute symptom relief, unlike fast-acting options targeting immediate neurochemical imbalances.
Choice B reason: Venlafaxine, an SNRI, increases serotonin and norepinephrine over weeks, unsuitable for acute panic attacks. Panic involves rapid sympathetic activation, requiring immediate GABA enhancement or similar fast-acting mechanisms, not gradual reuptake inhibition, making venlafaxine incorrect for rapid relief.
Choice C reason: Imipramine, a tricyclic, modulates serotonin and norepinephrine but takes weeks to act. Acute panic, driven by locus coeruleus norepinephrine spikes, needs immediate relief. Imipramine’s slow onset and side effects make it inappropriate for rapid intervention in acute anxiety episodes.
Choice D reason: Alprazolam, a benzodiazepine, enhances GABA-A receptor activity, rapidly inhibiting excessive neural firing in the amygdala during panic attacks. This provides quick relief from acute anxiety symptoms, like tachycardia, within minutes, making it the correct choice for immediate neurobiological stabilization in panic episodes.
Nursing Test Bank
Naxlex Comprehensive Predictor Exams
Related Questions
Correct Answer is C
Explanation
Choice A reason: Silently adding an inappropriate outcome disregards patient safety and autonomy. Outcomes must align with neurobiological needs, like serotonin modulation for depression. This approach fails to engage the patient in decision-making, risking ineffective treatment and neglecting evidence-based collaborative care principles.
Choice B reason: Formulating outcomes without patient input violates autonomy. Collaborative goal-setting, considering neurobiological factors like dopamine imbalances, ensures patient engagement and effective treatment. Excluding the patient disregards their perspective, reducing adherence and therapeutic alliance, making this approach contrary to evidence-based psychiatric nursing.
Choice C reason: Exploring consequences respects autonomy while guiding patients toward safe outcomes. Discussing implications, like medication non-adherence worsening dopamine-driven symptoms, fosters informed decisions. This collaborative approach aligns with cognitive-behavioral principles and neurobiological treatment needs, ensuring effective, patient-centered care in psychiatric practice.
Choice D reason: Educating that an outcome is unrealistic may dismiss patient autonomy. While addressing neurobiological realities, like serotonin deficits, is important, unilateral education risks disengagement. Collaborative exploration of consequences is more effective, promoting informed choices and adherence, making this option less suitable than discussion.
Correct Answer is D
Explanation
Choice A reason: Linking mental illness to brain disorders, like dopamine imbalances in schizophrenia, is factual and reduces stigma by emphasizing neurobiological causes. This aligns with scientific understanding, not perpetuating blame or stereotypes, making it an incorrect choice for reflecting stigma.
Choice B reason: Genetic predisposition, such as serotonin transporter gene variations, is a scientific explanation for mental illness. This reduces stigma by highlighting biological causes, not personal failings, aligning with evidence-based understanding and making it an incorrect choice for stigmatizing mental illness.
Choice C reason: Recognizing mental illness in children, like ADHD with dopamine deficits, normalizes early diagnosis and treatment. This factual statement reduces stigma by acknowledging neurobiological conditions across ages, making it an incorrect choice for reflecting stigmatizing attitudes toward mental illness.
Choice D reason: Blaming mental illness on family breakdown ignores neurobiological causes, like serotonin or dopamine imbalances, and perpetuates stigma by implying personal or social failure. This judgmental view misrepresents scientific evidence, making it the correct choice for reflecting stigmatizing attitudes toward mental illness.
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