Schizophrenia: treatments Flashcards
Biological treatments = drugs
(-) drug therapy has ethical issues attached e.g it is a ‘chemical straitjacket’ as it doesn’t help or cure symptoms it just controls them - makes them socially acceptable
(+) quick and efficient, widely used alongside other treatments
drug therapy - antipsychotic drugs block dopamine receptors as increase in this may cause schizophrenia symptoms
Typical - (-) only treats positive symptoms (-) severe side effects e.g dizziness, cramps: purely dopamine
Atypical - (+) treat both positive and negative symptoms as they contain serotonin and dopamine (-) sever side effects
Psychological treatments = CBT
(-) not time efficient, requires a lot of commitment and effort - drop out rates higher
CBT - ellis’s abc model
teaches them to recognise fake voices and delusions, think rationally: encourages a ‘reality test’ their hallucinations
homework tasks etc given
(+) helpful in positive and negative symptoms unlike typical antipsychotics + helpful when people don’t respond to drug treatment
(-) only treats symptoms and doesn’t address cause
Family therapy
(-) gaining confirmed consent from all family members can be difficult
due to idea what dysfunctional families cause schizophrenia, family therapy aimed to reduce conflict and high emotion in families
(+) pilling et al - reduced readmission of patients
(+) useful for people who lack insight into own condition, can educate family
Token economies - behavioural treatments
(-) superficial results - only behaving desirably to receive token
Work via operant conditioning (learning through reinforcement) to help sufferers manage symptoms e.g rewards for good behaviour like bed making
(+) Ayllon and Azrin - schizophrenic women showed improvement under token economy
(-) little ecological validity - once taken out of institutions, desirable behaviour decreases as there’s nothing to reinforce it
Interactionalist approach
treatments should work alongside each other e.g drug and psychological
(-) difficult to establish what is effective and what isn’t
(-) can be complicated and time consuming if they have to undergo too many e.g cbt, family therapy, and drug therapy
