Psychiatry 5-6 Flashcards
Define somatic treatment
A holistic therapy that studies the relationship between the mind and the body in regard to psychological past.
Difference in diagnosis between poor individuals and upper middle-class individuals
Poor individuals = somatic illness Upper middle-class individuals = neurosis
Define somatic illness
Disorder characterised by an extreme focus on physical symptoms (such as pain and fatigue) that causes major emotional distress and problems functioning.
Somatic treatments before 1940
Malaria fever therapy Insulin coma therapy Metrazol shock therapy Electroshock therapy (ECT) Lobotomy
Why does war cause trauma?
Homesickness, life in the army, killing, threat to life, observing death, coming home and the aftermath, lack of moral fibre.
By the end of the Great War how many cases of shell shock were there?
80,000 cases (1/7 of discharges because of disability)
Shell shock symptoms
Anxiety, paralysis, muscle contraction, blindness, nightmares, insomnia, heart palpitations, depression, dizziness, diarrhoea, stomach cramps, facial ticks
What did the officers at war start to show symptoms of?
Neurasthenia; many started to feel responsible for the men being killed in the war.
What did the enlisted men at war start to show symptoms of?
Hysteria
Psychoanalysis an effective treatment of war neurosis?
YES, it was effective if started when symptoms were first noticed, and soldiers were able to function again.
HOWEVER, what the war psychiatrists didn’t know, was that this was only a temporary function.
What were the 4 main somatic treatments before 1950s (before drug treatment)?
Malaria, ECT, lobotomy, insulin
When and what was the first lobotomy?
First lobotomy in 1936, through drill in head method
What is the ice-prick lobotomy?
Lobotomy through the eye
What is malaria fever therapy?
The injection of parasites seemed to help paralysis.
Success rates > 50%
What is insulin shock treatment?
Insulin injections induces coma and convulsions.
Success rate > 70%
What is electroshock treatment?
Electricity alternative to induce convulsions.
Claimed high success rates, however has many risks associated.
What is lobotomy treatment?
You have damaged tissue in your frontal lobe, and it needs to be removed.
Was hailed in the press as a miracle cure.
What was the more common treatment method after the 1950s?
Modern psychiatrical drugs
Political critiques of the DSM
“Selling sickness”, big pharmaceuticals; diagnoses reflect cultural values and biases; blaming the victim, excusing the perpetrator
Philosophical critiques of the DSM
Focus on reliability, does not guarantee validity); chances you’re getting more false positives than false negatives (creating more patients than we actually have); problem with definitions and ‘making people up’
Scientific critiques of the DSM
Based on consensus; trial and error data material not publicly available (not everything they do is transparent)
