Interactions between behavior function and psychotropic medication

We reanalyzed published studies that reported functional analyses conducted in the presence and absence of medication. In Analysis 1, we assessed the overall effect of psychotropic medication on problem behavior. Medication had a reductive effect in 29 of the 37 sets of functional analyses reviewed....

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published inJournal of applied behavior analysis Vol. 49; no. 1; p. 85
Main Authors Cox, Alison D, Virues-Ortega, Javier
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published United States 01.03.2016
Subjects
Behavior - drug effects
Databases, Bibliographic - statistics & numerical data
Female
Humans
Male
Mental Disorders - drug therapy
Problem Behavior
Psychotropic Drugs - pharmacology
antipsychotics
stimulants
rate dependency
medication
functional analysis
behavioral pharmacology
Online AccessGet more information

Cover

More Information
Summary:We reanalyzed published studies that reported functional analyses conducted in the presence and absence of medication. In Analysis 1, we assessed the overall effect of psychotropic medication on problem behavior. Medication had a reductive effect in 29 of the 37 sets of functional analyses reviewed. The magnitude of the effect was associated with the baseline level of responding according to a rate-dependency function. Analysis 2 examined medication-induced changes in behavior function. The introduction of medication was followed by the emergence of a new function (1), a change in functions (1), the subtraction of one function in multiply controlled problem behavior (2), and near-zero levels of responding (6). Thus, in 4 of 37 cases reviewed, medication may have induced function-specific changes in problem behavior. We discuss the implications of these findings for a closer collaboration between behavior analysts and prescribing professionals in the treatment of problem behavior.
ISSN:1938-3703
DOI:10.1002/jaba.247