Let’s Stop Using Confusing Names for Psych Drugs

Labels for categories of psychiatric medications should reflect why we use them

Mart Production / Pexels

Psychiatric drugs have a name-calling problem. No, people aren’t bullying or mocking them. It’s that the names themselves aren’t serving as useful labels; they mislead rather than inform.

I’m not referring to the bizarre, often unpronounceable, modern brand names of individual medications, chock full of z’s and x’s, which pharmaceutical companies pay consultants tens of thousands of dollars to devise. (“Ask your doctor about new Mooodzoff!”) Nor am I talking about the bizarre, often unpronounceable, polysyllabic chemical names bestowed upon the generic versions of drugs. (Here’s listening to you, aripiprazole.)

Rather, I’m referring to terms like “antidepressants,” “antipsychotics,” and “mood stabilizers” that the mental health field uses to refer to categories, or classes, of psychiatric medications. Most psychiatric medications, which are often referred to as psychoactive drugs, are effective for a number of different conditions; they have documented success in treating psychiatric conditions outside of the narrow range suggested by their names.

This leads to confusion among patients, who want to know why their condition is being treated by a drug from…