Depending on their training, mental-health professionals are often either strongly in favor of, or firmly opposed to, the use of psychoactive medications such as Prozac, Ritalin, and Valium. Drugs and Clients: What Every Psychotherapist Needs to Know advocates a balanced perspective, presenting the advantages and disadvantages of many common psychoactive medications. It also focuses on how non-prescription psychoactive drugs such as alcohol, antihistamines, caffeine, cocaine, marijuana and nicotine affect the clients therapists treat on a daily basis. From alcohol to caffeine to Zoloft, therapists need to understand how these substances work, the nature of the risks and benefits, and how a drug or medication's presence, or absence, affects the process of psychotherapy. Drugs and Clients addresses the confusing and highly complex subject of psychopharmacology as it applies to psychotherapy in a clear, hands-on, practical style that makes it accessible to all mental-health professionals.