The effects of organizational stress on inpatient psychiatric medication patterns

The effect of organizational stress on the antipsychotic medication levels of patients was assessed over a 1-year period. Through the use of autocorrelational techniques, medication use was shown to function as a dynamic homeostasis: Continuous adjustments and counter- adjustments resulted in an approximation of equilibrium centering around an idealized dose level. Graphically, these homeostatic oscillations resembled a sinusoidal function with distinct amplitude and periodicity. Organizational stress significantly increased the amplitude of dose level oscillations and shortened the periodicity of each oscillation. Uncontrolled, this situation could lead to a state of extreme overmedication followed sharply by extreme undermedication .