Drug Therapy Flashcards
(8 cards)
Component: Antipsychotics
Treat psychotic disorders e.g. schizophrenia
Conventional = Binds to dopamine receptors and fully blocks
More side effects e.g. tardive dyskinesia
Atypical = Temporarily occupy dopamine receptors, then dissociates to allow normal flow
Less side effects e.g. headache
Component: Antidepressants
Depression = Not enough serotonin produced at synapse
Normally, serotonin reabsorbed + broken down by enzymes
Someone with depression has too little serotonin left after reabsorption
Antidepressants (SSRIs) slow reabsorption OR block enzyme breaking it down
Component: Antianxiety
BZ’s = Enhance GABA (natural anxiety relief), slowing down CNS
Betablockers = Reduce adrenaline + Bind to receptors that receive arousal, heart beats slower
Effectiveness: Symptoms not cause
Affective in treating symptoms, but not underlying cause
E.g. Someone may need to resolve childhood trauma to fully cure depression
Drug therapy = Short term solution
‘Revolving Door Syndrome’ - Patient back and forth at doctors
Effectiveness: Compared to other treatments
Compared to others e.g. CBT, drug therapy cheap for patient (NHS)
Practitioner invests less time in patient (Less checkups than CBT)
Faster solution (CBT waitlist 1-2 years, drug therapy soon prescribed by NHS)
Ethics: Placebos
No patient should be given treatment known to be inferior
No protection from harm - Patient might not actually get better
If effective treatments exist, they should be used as control group
Ethics: Lack of informed consent
Patients have difficulty remembering all side effects / Not in mind frame to digest the info
Doctors may withhold info e.g. not fully explain benefits of drug are slim / Exaggerate benefits of medication
Aims of drug therapy
Aims to manipulate bodily processes to treat mental health disorders, as it’s assumed that behaviour is due to biology e.g. neurotransmitters
Drug therapy treats a wide range of illnesses (SZ, depression, anxiety)
