Many psychiatric disorders require laboratory testing to rule out substance abuse, medication compliance, toxicity, or medical conditions. Therapeutic drug monitoring for certain drugs has been well documented to improve the use of these agents for therapeutic management of the disorder. It has become the standard of care in psychiatry. The monitoring of these labs is necessary for the safety of the client. Labs are done routinely, and clients know the times and rationales. Standard routine labs will also be conducted due to the nature of some of the medications that can be prescribed. The collection of routine labs helps with secondary and tertiary prevention.
These drugs include, but are not limited to: