Psychology Therapy

Question 1

What does beneficial treatment combine?

Answer 1

Antipsychotic medication with psychological interventions.
Psychological therapy when discharged from hospital helps prevent re-hospitalisation.

Most individuals who attend psychological interventions are also simultaneously taking neuroleptic drugs.

Question 2

Cognitive Behavioural Therapy in treating schizophrenia:

Tarrier

Answer 2

• using detailed interview techniques found that people with schizophrenia an identify triggers and develop their own methods of coping with symptoms.
• cognitive strategies included the use of distractions concentration on a task, and positive self talk.
• behavioural strategies involved initiation or withdrawal from social contact.
• 73% of the sample reported these strategies were successful in managing symptoms.

Question 3

What else does CBT help patients with?

Answer 3

Help to make sense of how their delusions & hallucinations impact on their feelings and behaviour.

Just understanding where symptoms come from can be helpful eg. If a patient hears voices and believes the voices are demons, they will be afraid but offering a psychological explanation for the existence of them can help reduce anxiety.

Question 4

Evidence for effectiveness of CBT:

Answer 4

Sameer et al. reviewed the results of 34 studies of CBT for schizophrenia.
They concluded that CBT has significant but small effects on both positive and negative symptoms.

CBT can be effective but it seems to work best with the delusional thinking. It is especially effective when delusional thoughts are preventing the person from taking their medication.

Question 5

What have recent clinical trials found CBT to be helpful for? (AO3)

Answer 5

Many symptoms of schizophrenia:

• in stable patients on medication, CBT can reduce hospital admissions, increase social skills and decrease symptoms such as voices and hallucinations.
• has shown benefits in treating the negative symptoms of schizophrenia, such as flattening.
• CBT is a collaborative therapy and involves the action and co operation of the client, for this reason it avoids the criticism made of drug therapy that the client becomes a passive recipient of treatment.

Question 6

Weaknesses of CBT:

Answer 6

• hospitalised patients were not tested so further research is needed in this area.
• depends on the individuals being able to talk about their thoughts lucidly

Question 7

What is Coping Strategy Enhancement? (CSE)

Answer 7

Aims to teach individuals to develop and apply strategies which reduce the frequency, intensity and duration of psychotic symptoms.

Provides an effective way of helping people with the disorder to control their symptoms.

Question 8

What are the two components of CSE?

Answer 8

1) education and rapport training: therapist and client work together to improve effectiveness of the clients own strategies and develop new ones.
2) symptom targeting: a specific symptom is selected so a strategy can be devised.

The strategy is practiced in the session and client is helped with any problems.

The client is given homework tasks and to keep a record of how it worked.

The aim of CSE is ensure the adoption of at least 2 appropriate strategy per distressing symptom.

Question 9

What did a controlled trial find about the effects of CSE?

Answer 9

Found a significant alleviation of positive symptoms in a CSE group as opposed to a non-treatment group, and a significant improvement in the effective use of coping skills.