Today's mental health practitioner is likely to be quite familiar with a rather diverse range of pharmacological issues confronting clients seeking mental health services. Indeed, drug therapies are commonplace, and in some cases, might be viewed as the primary intervention for a presenting problem. Pharmacological approaches to mental health concerns can be effective, and provide treatment options with significant therapeutic potential. Nevertheless, the current pharmacological and ever-growing biomedical milieu that so often characterizes modern health care can potentially undermine the importance of the bio-psycho-social perspective of mental health assessment and intervention. The growing emphasis on pharmacotherapy must certainly be recognized by the mental health practitioner, but frameworks for mental health service delivery should continually identify better ways to integrate pharmacological options with the psychological and socio-cultural context that influence the behaviors, cognitions, and emotions of clients.

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