HESI RN Mental Health Exam Prep Questions & Answers: Latest Updated: Guaranteed A+ Score Guide

A nurse is administering medications to clients on a psychiatric unit. What does the nurse identify as the reason that so many psychiatric clients are given the drug benztropine or trihexyphenidyl in conjunction with the phenothiazine-derivative neuroleptic medications? 1. They reduce postural hypotension. 2. They potentiate the effects of the neuroleptic drug. 3. They combat the extrapyramidal side effects of the neuroleptic drug. 4. They ameliorate the depression that may accompany schizophrenia. (Ans- 3. They combat the extrapyramidal side effects of the neuroleptic drug. Benztropine and trihexyphenidyl control the extrapyramidal (parkinsonian) manifestations associated with the neuroleptics and are classified as antiparkinsonian drugs. These drugs do not reduce postural hypotension, nor do they potentiate phenothiazine derivatives or have an effect on depression