Psychoptahology - strengths and weaknesses of drug therapy

Question 1

What is a strength of drug therapy which includes that it is cost effective?

Answer 1

• a strength of drug therapy is that it is cost effective compared to psychological treatments and is good value for public health systems like the NHS

Question 2

How else has drug therapy been effective?

Answer 2

• Drug therapy has also been shown to be effective at tackling OCD symptoms
• research (Soomro et al) showed that SSRI’s were more effective than a placebo in 17 studies

Question 3

What do SSRI’s typically do?

Answer 3

• SSRI’s reduced symptoms significantly for approximately 70% of those suffering with OCD
• most of those patients who don’t experience a reduction in symptoms respond to other drugs , or a combination of drugs and psychological therapy

Question 4

What is the use of drugs seen as?

Answer 4

• the use of drugs is seen as being non-disruptive
• as sufferers can simply take drugs and wait for their symptoms to abate without having to engage in psychological therapy
• which involves hard work

Question 5

How is the relapse rate affected?

Answer 5

• the relapse rate is quite high following the discontinuation of medication
• 45% of patients had relapsed 12 weeks after finishing their medication according to Simpson (2004)
• this compares to relapse rate of just 12% of patients for who had undergone a psychological therapy

Question 6

What is a limitation of drug therapy that involves evidence being biased?

Answer 6

• some psychologists (Goldacre 2013) argue such evidence is biased as the research is sponsored by drug companies
• evidence which questions the effectiveness of the treatment is not reported by the drug companies and therefore the evidence presented suggests that drugs are more effective than they are

Question 7

What is another limitation of drug therapy which involves side effects?

Answer 7

• drugs have side effects, e.g. those taking SSRI’s have been known to suffer from blurred vision
• Clomipramine, a type of tricyclic, has common side effects such as weight gain, aggression and disruption to blood pressure according to the NHS

Question 8

What is another limitation of drug therapy that includes dependency?

Answer 8

• the use of drugs can also lead to dependency
• this also leads to a problem in terms of effectiveness as people stop taking the medication due to the side effects