EVAL OF PSYCHOLOGICAL THERAPIES

Question 1

what are 4 evaluation points for psychological therapies?

Answer 1

+ evidence for effectiveness
+ alt psych treatment
- improve quality of life but do not cure
- ethical issues

Question 2

evidence for effectiveness of psychological therapies

Answer 2

P - there is support for benefits is psych treatment
E - 34 studies CBT found small but signif effect of +/- symptoms
Pharoh et al found that fam therapy decrease readmission and improve quality of life
E - these show how psych treatment for schizo is effective as decrease symptoms severity and relapse rates
L - increases practical application, people more likely ppt if know that it works
C - Pharoh et al found evid for fam therapy is weak
Token economy only 1/3 studies randomly allocated and didn’t show improvement in symptoms, decrease IV

Question 3

alternative psych treatments

Answer 3

P - there are alt psych treatment
E - NICE recommended art therapy, allowing sufferers to express emotional, cog and psychotic experience in art
E - unlikely that 1 type of therapy will address all symptoms e.g. isolation and social withdrawal needs programmes such as music/art to access and express feeling in alt media
L - therefore alt psych treatments are a strength because it shows versatility in options for psychological therapy

Question 4

treatments improve quality of life, but do not cure

Answer 4

P - a weakness of psych therapies is that they do not cure sz
E- all psych treatment aim to make sz manageable and to improve patient quality of life
E - CBT can find out about sense of hallucinations and challenge, fam therapy lead to decreased stress, token econ leads to more socially acceptable beh, easier to reintegrate in society, however none if these actually cure sz
L - decreased usefulness because biological treatments can be used to reduce the severity of symptoms internally, through regulating neurotransmission

Question 5

ethical issues

Answer 5

P - a weakness of psych treatment is ethical issues
E - psych therapies can be used to discrim and challenge individual freedom
E - token econ privileges only work for those with mild symptoms, basic needs can become rewards, CBT can challenge paranoia and can interfere with individual thought
L - psych treatment can be seen as subjective and cannot be applied fairly to everyone