Biological treatments Flashcards
What are some advantages of ECT as a treatment for mental illness?
- -ECT can spped up the recovery process of some mental illnesses, especially if medications don’t help.
- -Comer states it’s 60% effective
- -Painless treatment which is less dangerous with fewer side effects compared to medication for some mental illnesses.
- -For most, side effecs are relieved within an hour of treatment
- -life saver, as it treats people who have not responded to many other treatments, and are normally suicidal or a risk to themself and others.
What are some disadvantages of ECT?
- -Adverse mental side effects-some patients experience a period of confusion following treatment.
- -Memory loss–an individual may lose memory of things that happened prior to treatment or after
- -Some view ECT as punishment
- -For 40% ECT makes no difference
- -Treatment can cause medical complications and the risk is increases when anaesthesia is introduced. (Elevate heart rate and blood pressure, increased risk if you have heart problems.
- -High relapse rate after six months (Sackheim)
How does ECT work?
- -Before treatment to prevent injuries patient is given a short acting barbiturate to make them unconscious, is restrained, is given given a muscle relaxant and oxygen and a tongue guard.
- -Either two electrodes (unilateral) or three electrodes (bilateral) are attached to patients’ temples.
- -0.6 amp current for 1/2 second.
- -1 minute epileptic fit
- -3 X a week for up to a total of 15 treatments.
Study for -VE of drugs?
Kirsch et al. (2002) meta-analysis.
- -38 studies
- -found placebos were almost as effective as drugs.
How do antidepressants work?
They increase serotonin levels by stoping serotonin being re-absorbed into the sending cell too early, which leads to a build up of serotonin in the synapse so it can be received by the receiving cell.
In behavioural therapy, what is flooding therapy?
This process involves exposing people to fear-invoking objects or situations intensely and rapidly. It is often used to treat phobias, anxiety, and other stress-related disorders. During the process, the individual is prevented from escaping or avoiding the situation.
What are the stages of systematic desensitisation?
- -The subject is given training in deep muscle relaxation techniques (deep breathing, visual imagery, muscle progession relaxation)
- -The therapist and client work together to construct a heirarchy of fear. This is a series of situations, each one causing a little more anxiety than the previous one. Situations can be in vivo (real) or in vitro (imagined).
- -Patient gradually works through hierarchy, starting with the least fearful stimuli. Patient will utilise relaxation techniques whilst exposed to stimuli. Due to reciprocal inhibition their fear response will be controlled.
Create a fear hierarchy for a phobia of spiders.
- Think about spider
- See the word ‘spider’
- See picture of spider
- Be in the same room as spider in glass tank
- Sit next to glass tank with lid closed
- Sit next to glass tank with lid open
- Put hand in tank
- Hold spider in hands
Describe cognitive behavioural therapy/ REBT
Rational-Emotive Therapy (RET) was developed by Albert Ellis (1957). It is based on the idea that many problems are actually the result of irrational thinking. Individuals frquently develop self-defeating habits because of faulty beliefs about themselves and the world around them. Modern treatments help the client understand this irrationality and the consequences of thinking that way. It then helps them substitute more effective problem-solving methods.
What are the three types of disputing in CBT?
Logical disputing: self-defeating beliefs do not logically follow from the information available (e.g. does thinking this way make sense?)
Empirical disputing: self-defeating beliefs may noy be consistent with reality (e.g. where is the proof tthat this belief is accurate? or statistics)
Pragmatic disputing: emphasises the lack of usefulness of self-defeating beliefs (e.g, how is this belief likely to help me?)
How effective is REBT?
REBT has generally done well in outcome studies. E.g. in a meta-analysis Engels et al. (1993) concluded that REBT is an effective treatment for a number of different types of disorder (unlike SD) including OCD and social phobia.
+VE of REBT/ CBT
- -effective for a number of different mental disroders including OCD and social phobia (Engels et al. 1993)
- -Not only useful for clinical populations (i.e. people suffering from mental disorders or phobias) but it is also useful for non-clinical populations (e.g. people who suffer from lack of assertiveness or examination anxiety.)
- -Patient is in control and gains skill (unlike biological)
- -no side effects (unlike biological)
-VE of REBT/ CBT
- -REBT fails to address the very importatn issue that the irrational environments in which clients exist continue beyond the therapeutic situation, e.g. abusive partners or jobs with horrible bosses. As a result, these environments continue to produce and reinforce irrational thoughts and maladaptive behaviours.
- -(MAT) Ellis believed that people who claimed to be following REBT principles were not putting their revised beliefs into action. Also, some people do not want/ accept the direct advice and disputing the therapist provides.
- -does not address cause of faulty thoughts
- -attrition is common (due to mat)
- -Challenging someone’s thoughts could be considered unethical, especially if they are religious or cultural.
What is the main aim of psychoanalysis?
To reveal the patient’s unconscious
What techniques are used in psychoanalysis?
- -rorschach tests (ink blots)
- -word association
- -dream analysisn (Freud referred to dreams as the ‘royal road’ to the unconscious’. Content can be manifest (literal interpretation) or latent (symbolic interpretation)
- -free association (encourages patient to talk openly about any topic
- -hypnosis
