psychological treatments for schizophrenia Flashcards
CBT
CBT attempts to change patients thoughts in a constructive way, trying to shift them into a more functional, positive view of the world
- helps to understand positive symptoms
- doesn’t make symptoms go away but they become less scary and more manageable once patient understands they aren’t real
cognitive restructuring
patients are helped to think in a more positive, functional way
reality testing
patients are encouraged to assess the likelihood of delusions or hallucinations and explore alternative explanations
normalisation
psychotic symptoms are placed on a continuum and the client is helped to understand that many people have many unusual experiences under many different conditions - helps to reduce anxiety
jauhar et al
reviewed the results of 34 studies of CBT for schizophrenia.
- concluded that CBT has a significant but fairly small effect on both positive and negative symptoms
family therapy
- aim of family therapy is to reduce high levels of expressed emotion in the family and improve general communication
- can improve family function by increasing everyone’s understanding of the illness
- can be used to help family members support eachother as well as the patient
phahroah et al
- proposed 7 strategies to improve family functions
e.g reducing stress in the family and reducing anger and guilt
token economies
Systems of secondary reinforcement used to improve the behaviour of patients by systematically rewarding desired behaviour.
example of token economies
Tokens can be later exchanged for privileges, e.g. if patient gains tokens for good personal hygiene, these may be exchanged for cigarettes.
evaluation
- evidence for effectiveness
- treatments improve the quality of life but do not cure
- ethical issues e.g privileges and services become more available to those will less severe symptoms and less so for those with more severe schizophrenia who can’t comply to desirable behaviour
