Psychoparmacology Flashcards
What is the key issue?
do not treat biological factors
Antipsychotic Medications
used for schizophrenia/related psychotic disorders (schizoaffective disorder, delusional disorder) and typical/traditional antipsychotic drugs are sedatives like thorazine and haldol. Therapeutic mechanisms block dopamine receptors in the mesolimbic pathway and it is effective against the positive symptoms and thought to be due to the overactivity of dopamine (dopamine hypothesis). It is ineffective against the negative symptoms due to under activity of dopamine (mesocortical pathway) or neuroanatomical and typical antipsychotics are ineffective. And their are new/atypical antipsychotics like clozapine and resperidone which influence both dopamine and serotinin activity and effective on positive symptoms and fairly effective on negative and the side effects is tardive dyskinesia which are twithces.
Anxiety Medication
benzodiazepines are valium, xanax, ativan, which has a therapeutic mechanisms that facilitates the action of GABA and is highly effective and fast acting and inhibits certain neurons in the brain. Potentially dangerous which are highly addictive, tolerance, and dangerous when mixed with alcohol and the side effects are drowsiness, coordination, and memory
Antidepressants
monomine oxidase inhibitors (MAOI) and MO is an enzyme that breaks down serotonin, norepinephrine, and dopamine. There are tricyclics that reuptake inhibitor, serotonin, and norepinephrine and MAOIs and tricyclics have strong side affects like high blood pressure, constipation, and difficulty urinating, blurred vision, and racing heart. There are selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors and reuptake inhibitors are serotonin and selective does not effect norepinephrine and is effective for depression. Serotonin and norepinephrine reuptake inhibitors and reutake inhibitors and reuptake inhibitors are serotonin and norepinephrine.
Mood Stabilizing Medications
bipolar disorder that are antidepressants can trigger manic episodes and mood stabilizers suppress the mood swing from manic to depressed
Biological/Medical Treatment
ECT, TMS, psychosurgery, and deep brain stimulation
ECT
electrical convulsive therapy induce seizures in the brain and side effects are short term memory loss, headaches, and muscles aches and they are effective for depression and bipolar disorder and more effective than MAOI’s and tricyclics
TMS
transcranial magnetic stimulation are powerful pulsed magnet and left/right prefrontal cortex and their are minimal side effects that are mild headaches, small risk of seizures, and no impact on memory or concentration, but as effect as ECT
Psychosurgery
trepanny: ancient practice of drilling a hole in the skull, prefrontal lobotomy that Moniz won the nobel prize for in 1949 with no complex thinking and it is severing connections between prefrontal loves and inner brain structures, but there are significant side effects like lethargy and child like behavior
Modern Version
extreme severe vases unresponsive to all other treatments, that is cingulotomy targeted the specific brain tissue implicated in obsessions and compulsions as apart of the corpus callosum and cingulate gyrus, as their is an anterior capsubtomy which disrupts the pathway between the caudate nucleus and the putamen both effective for severe OCD
Effectiveness of Treatment
placebo and placebo effect
Placebo
substance/treatment with no known medical solution
Placebo Effect
benefit/improvement experienced when taking the placebo and this seems to be increasing over time, the placebo effect causes regression to the mean, confirmation bias/expectations, and role of empathy/warmth (human connection)
Psychopharmacology versus Psychotherapy
common factors for effective psychotherapy are insight (intellectual and emotional), relationship with the therapists, value of emotional expression, and development of self confidence
