Biological therapies A03 Flashcards
One massive issue with taking antipsychotics is the range of side effects, from minor to fatal. Why is this a weakness of the treatment?
Some people may stop taking the drug due to the side effects
For those taking clozapine, regular blood tests are necessary to ensure the patient is not developing agranulocytosis - low white blood cell count leading to blood infections and death
Meltzer in 2012 compared clozapine to other antipsychotics and found that it is effective in patients who other antipsychotics could not treat, what did he find in treatment resistant cases?
30-50% of treatment - resistant cases were effectively managed with clozapine
Gilbert in 1995 found in their meta analysis of 66 studies that 53% of patients relapsed within 10 months of stopping medication, compared to 16% who continued taking it. How does this support that drug therapy is effective in treating Sz?
It shows there was a significant reduction in relapse rates the taking the medication
What is the issue with using antipsychotics that block dopamine receptors and decrease production of dopamine?
Dopamine is essential inn controlling mood and feelings of pleasure
Thornley in 2003 reviewed the effects of chlorpromazine in comparison to a control group who received a placebo - he looked at 13 trials with 1121 participants and found?
The drug was associated with better overall functioning for the patient and reduced symptom severity
Healy in 2012 suggested that there are serious flaws with the evidence for effectiveness of drug therapy as many of the studies into antipsychotics are short term, there are only a few successful which have been published many times (exaggerating the positive evidence).
This is an issue because?
It shows publication bias and potentially creates false positives around the effectiveness of drug therapies
Antipsychotics have been used in hospital situations to calm people with Sz and Mae them easier for staff to work with (Moncrieff, 2013).
What are the strengths and weaknesses with this?
Weakness = Ethical implications
Strength = calms people distressed by hallucinations and delusions certainly makes people feel better and would allow them to engage with other treatments such as CBT
