Drug Therapy Flashcards
What are the main components?
Antipsychotics
Antianxiety
Antidepressants
What are the two types of antipsychotic drugs?
Conventional
Atypical
When are antipsychotics used?
To treat mental health conditions where the client has lost touch with reality
How do conventional antipsychotics work?
They bind to dopamine receptors to treat positive symptoms
How do atypical antipsychotics work?
They bind to dopamine receptors and can rapidly disassociate to reduce side effects
Which type of antipsychotic drug has more side effects?
Conventional
What is the main type of antidepressant?
Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors (SSRIs)
How do antidepressants work?
They increase the activity of dopamine by reducing how much is reabsorbed by the pre-synaptic neurone or by blocking the enzyme that breaks it down so there is more left in the synapse for the post-synaptic neurone to absorb
What are the two types of antianxiety drugs?
Benzodiazepines
Beta blockers
How do benzodiazepines work?
They enhance the activity of GABA which is the body’s natural anxiety releif
How do beta blockers work?
They reduce the activity of adrenaline and noradrenaline around the body by binding to receptors around the heart and lungs to make the heart beat slower and the client to be calmer
What points can be made about the effectiveness?
Drug v Placebo
Side effects
Symptoms, not cause
Comparison to other treatments
What can be said when comparing drugs to placebos?
More effective in randomised control trials
Soomro: Meta analysis of 17 studied using SSRIs on OCD patients and found they were effective for 3 months afer treatment
Kahn: 250 patients over 8 weeks with Bzs and found they were better than placebos
Who compared drug therapy to placebos?
Soomro
Kahn
What was Soomro’s study comparing drug therapy to placebos?
Meta analysis of 17 studied using SSRIs on OCD patients and found they were effective for 3 months afer treatment
What was Kahn’s study comparing drug therapy to placebos?
250 patients over 8 weeks with Bzs and found they were better than placebos
How can the side effects of drugs be used to evaluate effectiveness?
Some drugs have side effects that may make the patient stop taking them.
SSRIs: Insomnia and nausea
Trycyclic antidepressents: Hallucinations and irregular heartbeat
How does drug therapy not tackle the origin of the condition?
It treats the symptoms, not the psychological cause
Creates revolving door syndrome as they become dependent as it’s never cured
How does drug therapy compare with other treatments?
Cheap and easy to adminster. Practitioner doesn’t need to invest much time in the patient
Avaliable on the NHS
What are the ethical issues of the therapy?
Use of placebos
Patient information
How is the use of placebos an ethical issue?
The practitioner is knowingly giving them an inferior treatment
How is patient information an ethical issue?
They may not be able to give valid consent as they might not understand everything or remember all the side effects. The doctor may exaggerate the benifits
