16.3 Biomedical Therapies

Question 1

Psychopharmacotherapy

Answer 1

the use of drugs to manage or reduce a patient’s symptoms

Question 2

Psychotropic drugs

Answer 2

medications designed to alter psychological functioning

Question 3

Blood-brain barrier

Answer 3

a network of tightly packed cells that allow only specific types of substances to move from the bloodstream to the brain in order to protect delicate brain cells against harmful infections and other substances

Question 4

Antidepressant drugs

Answer 4

medications designed to reduce symptoms of depression

Question 5

Monoamine oxidase inhibitors (MAOIs)

Answer 5

work by deactivating monoamine oxidase, an enzyme that breaks down serotonin, dopamine, and the norepinephrine at the synaptic clefts of nerve cells

Question 6

Tricyclic antidepressants

Answer 6

drugs that block the reuptake of serotonin and norepinephrine

Question 7

Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI)

Answer 7

a class of antidepressant drugs that block the reuptake of serotonin

Question 8

Mood stabilizers

Answer 8

drugs used to prevent or reduce the severity of mood swings experienced by people with bipolar disorder

Question 9

Lithium

Answer 9

one of the first mood stabilizers to be prescribed regularly in psychiatry, and from the 1950s to the 1980s was the standard drug treatment for depression and bipolar disorder

Question 10

Antianxiety drugs

Answer 10

affect the activity of gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA), an inhibitory neurotransmitter that reduces neural activity

Question 11

Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)

Answer 11

a common psychological illness involving recurring thoughts, images, and nightmares associated with a traumatic event; it induces symptoms of tension and anxiety and can seriously interfere with many aspects of a person’s life

Question 12

Antipsychotic drugs

Answer 12

generally used to treat symptoms of psychosis, including delusions, hallucinations, and severely disturbed or disorganized thought

Question 13

Tardive dyskinesia

Answer 13

a movement disorder involving involuntary movements and facial tics

Question 14

Atypical antipsychotics

Answer 14

drugs that are less likely to produce side effects, including movement disorders, that commonly occur with first-generation antipsychotics

Question 15

Frontal lobotomy

Answer 15

surgically severing the connections between different regions of the brain

Question 16

Leucotomy

Answer 16

the surgical destruction of brain tissues in the prefrontal cortex

Question 17

Focal lesions

Answer 17

small areas of the brain tissue that are surgically destroyed

Question 18

Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT)

Answer 18

involves passing an electrical current through the brain in order to induce a temporary seizure

Question 19

Repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS)

Answer 19

a therapeutic technique in which focal area of the brain is exposed to a powerful magnetic field across several treatment sessions

Question 20

Deep brain stimulation (DBS)

Answer 20

a technique that involves electrically stimulating specific regions of the brain