The Biological Approach to Explaining OCD Flashcards
1
Q
What is the biological approach?
A
- biological treatments based on the idea of correcting the biological abnormalities seen as causing OCD
- drugs are the most common form of therapy
- psychosurgery is used as a treatment
2
Q
What is drug therapy?
A
- Antidepressants are used to treat OCD - like SSRI’s elevate levels of serotonin - cause the Orbital Frontal Cortex to function at more normal levels
- most common SSRI with adults is fluoxetine (Prozac)
- children aged 6 - Sertraline
- children aged 8- fluvoxamine
- treatment lasts between 12 and 16 weeks
- Anxiolytic drugs are used for their anxiety lowering properties
- Antipsychotic drugs - have a dopamine lowering effect - have proven to be useful in treating OCD - given after treatment with SSRI’s hasn’t proven effective - incurs serious side effects
3
Q
What is supporting A03 research for Drug therapy? Soomro et al
A
- reviewed 17 studies of SSRI’s versus placebo treatments - involving 3,097 patients and found SSRI’s to be moderately effective in the short term in treating OCD - varying duration in adults - lending a degree of support to the treatment.
4
Q
What is A03 research supporting Drug therapy? (Julien)
A
- studies of SSRI’s show that although symptoms do not fully disappear - 50 to 80 per cent of OCD patients improve - to live a fairly normal lifestyle - wouldn’t be able to do without the treatment
5
Q
What is research supporting drug therapy? Pigott and Seay
A
- reviewed studies testing the effectiveness of drug therapies - SSRI’s consistently effective in reducing OCD symptoms
- tricylic antidepressant drug - clomipramine - slightly more effective - serious side effects - SSRI’s should be given as a first attempt drug treatment and clomipramine should be given when SSRI’s have not proven effective.
6
Q
What is general A03 evaluation for drug therapy?
A
- drugs don’t cure OCD - reduce obsessive thoughts and compulsive behaviour to a level - normal lifestyle can be achieved
- side effects that patients may experience - loss of sexual appetite/ ability is common , irritability, sleep pattern disturbance such as insomnia and feeling drowsiness, headaches and loss of appetite
- antidepressant medication suitable for adults - tolerate and understand side effects
- drug treatments effective in treating OCD reduce OCD symptoms or instead lessen the depressive symptoms that accompany the condition
- drug treatments = cheap -> don’t require therapist to administer them -> user friendly form of treatment as people are used to taking medication for illnesses
- it is argued because of the side effects - antidepressants heightened level of suicidal thinking - the effectiveness of psychological treatment- drug treatments shouldn’t be used to treat OCD
7
Q
What is psychosurgery?
A
- destroying brain tissue to disrupt the cortico- striatal circuit by the use of radio frequency waves
- as a result, this had an effect on the Orbital Frontal cortex, thalamus and the caudate nucleus brain areas - associated with a reduction in symptoms
- deep brain stimulation - magnetic pulses on the supplementary motor area of the brain - blocking out irrelevant thoughts and obsessions
8
Q
What is A03 research supporting psychosurgery?
A
Richter et al- 30% OCD patients had a 35% reduction in symptoms- occasional complications like urinary incontinence and seizures - patients at risk of suicide - hadn’t responded to drug therapies - treatment can be considered effective
Mallett et al - evaluated deep brain simulation - as a therapy for treatment resistant OCD - compared with pretend stimulation- found significant symptom reduction- suggests treatment to be effective
9
Q
What is general A03 evaluation?
A
- psychosurgery relatively small success rate - cause serious side effects - can be seen as an acceptable treatment - severe forms of OCD - have not responded to other treatments- like drug therapies - for about 10 years - diminished quality of life and risk or death to the patient
10
Q
What is general A03 evaluation?
A
- 10% OCD patients get worse over time - with drug treatments and psychological therapies - psychosurgery can be seen as a valid treatment for patients.
11
Q
What is CBT ? ( cognitive behavioural therapy)
A
- drugs address the physical counterparts as underpinning OCD
- CBT changing obsessional thinking - habituation training - sufferers relive obsessional thoughts repeatedly to reduce the anxiety created
- intrusive thoughts = normal - patients come to understand- thinking about a behaviour isn’t the same as actually doing it
- sufferers focus on estimations of potential risks and asses how likelihood of them occurring
- sufferers encouraged to practice adaptive beliefs - disregard former maladaptive ones
- CBT - effective treatment - higher success rate when combined with drug therapies
12
Q
What is A03 research supporting CBT?
A
O’Kearney et al - assessed the ability of CBT to treat children and adolescents with OCD - finding it effective - more so when combined with drug treatments - demonstrating how drugs and CBT can work together to alleviate the condition.
13
Q
What is A03 research supporting CBT?
A
- O’Connor et al - assessed the effect of combining CBT with drug medication - patients received drugs and CBT together - CBT only- drugs only or no treatment and the results concluded that patients in all groups except the no treatment group - showed no improvement - most common symptom reduction was seen when drugs were combined with CBT - if drugs were given for a period first - the most effective treatment is to first administer drugs - reduce anxiety levels - thus CBT can have a more beneficial effect
14
Q
What is general evaluation for CBT?
A
- CBT is considered more effective - side effects of other treatments associated with OCD - it isn’t suitable for patients who have difficulties talking about inner feelings - or those who don’t possess the verbal skills to do so - such patients would be more suited to drug therapies
- drug treatments and CBT can be inter combined - drugs don’t cure OCD they reduce anxiety and symptoms sufficiently for CBT to be introduced - how the treatments can be successfully combined
- drug treatments - lengthy in comparison to CBT - patients show improvements with drugs - continue taking the medication for at least 12 months - to ensure their symptoms continue to improve.
