Drugs Treatment for Deaf People

Abstract

The resources for deaf persons’ mental health and the studies in the field of the psychopharmacology are nowadays inadequate to meet the specific needs of this population. The indications or the way of using the medication do not differ between deaf and hearing persons, but it is not well-known among professionals that during the psychopharmacologic treatment of deaf patients it is possible to observe the presence of intense and unexpected side effects of the medication, so that it does turn out to be indispensable to give special attention to the prescription of psychoactive drugs in deaf persons. This ignorance is partly due to the fact that the research in this area is deficient. The above mentioned side effects are more prevailing and intense in deaf persons than in hearings and often interfere with basic aspects of a person's daily life as it is his system of communication, the language of signs that becomes affected, for example, due to alterations in the vision or the movement, which means in practice (at the same time) a decrease in the quality of life. Therefore, our aim is to emphasize that the indications for pharmacological treatment in deaf persons are the same than in hearings and at the same time to emphasize the importance of knowing the specific needs.