Do you know your GoT? No, I’m not talking about Game of Thrones. I’m talking about Goals of Therapy. Unfortunately, when I speak to my patients about their chronic medications, most have no idea what I’m talking about. The Goals of Therapy should be defined any time you’re starting a new medication. If you don’t know what you’re treating and identify specific targets, it’s easy to fall into the trap of static care.

Goals of Therapy include:

1. Curing a disease.
2. Reducing or eliminating symptoms.
3. Slowing the progression of the disease.
4. Normalizing laboratory values.

Let’s use the example of patient ZY, who has just been diagnosed with high blood pressure and anxiety and their physician has just prescribed Altace and Cipralex. When outlining your Goals of Therapy, we want to establish specific clinical parameters, our desired change in those parameters, and finally a time frame to achieve our goal.

For physical health conditions (like high blood pressure), it’s easier to identify our key parameters as they typically are things we can measure objectively (heart rate, blood pressure, etc).

However, for mental health conditions, the clinical parameters are much more subjective, thus require careful consideration by the healthcare provider and the patient.

Empower. Encourage. Educate

For healthcare providers, anytime medications are discussed with our patients, it’s important to have a conversation about the goals of therapy. By doing so, we can empower patients to actively participate in their treatment, encourage them to take more initiative and action in implementing their desired changes, and finally provide an opportunity to educate them about their health and treatment options.

If you’re someone struggling with their health or medications and are interested in establishing your own Goals of Therapy, I’d love to connect with you. Click the “Work with Shawn” tab at the top of the page and let me know how I can help!

Infinite gratitude and peace to you. SG