Topic 14 - part 2 Flashcards
Humanistic therapy
People have control of their behaviour and essentially are responsible for solving their own problems
- Therapist as guide or facilitator
- Psychological disorders are the result of people’s inability to find meaning in life, feeling lonely, unconnected
- Several different therapeutic techniques
Person-centered therapy
Aims to enable people to reach thir potential for self actualization
- Provides a warm and ceepting enviomrne
- The therapist provides unconditional positive regard - nonjudgmental
- Rearly used in purest form today - clients toward insight
How deos humanistic therapy stack up?
Advantages
- Idea that psychological disorders result from restricted growth potential appeal to many people
Disadvantages
- Lack specificity
- Not very persies
- Works best for high verbal clients
Interpersonal Thearpy
Short term (6-12 weeks) that focuses on context of individual’s current social relationships
- Therapists make concrete suggestions on improving relations with others
- Effective dealing with depression, anxiety, eating disorder
Group therapy
People meet in groups with a therapist - support and advice for group members
- Economocal
- It doesn’t always involve a professional therapist
Different types
- Self-help groups
- Family therapy - get families to adopt new, more constructive roles & patterns of behaviour
Does therapy work
Psychtherapy is effective for most people but may not be effective for everyone
Different treatments for different problems
Therapists tend to use electric approach
Biomedical therapy: Biological approaches to treatment
Drugs therapies work by altering neurotransmission (agonist/antagonist)
Antipsychotic drugs
- Temporarily reduce psychotic symptoms by blocking dopamine receptors
Antianxiety drugs
- Benzodiazepines - reduces excitability & increase feelings of well being - concerns with dependence and lethality with alcohol
Antidepressant drugs
Improved feeling of well being, aslo being used for anxiety disorders
- Tricyclic drugs –> increase norepinephrine
- MAO inhibitors –> prevent monoamine oxidase from breaking down neurotransmitters
- selective serotonin Reuotake Inhibitors –> Traget serotonin, allows it to linger at synapse
Prozac (SSRI)
Fluoxetine (Prozac) is best-selling SSRI
Daily dose around $2
Proza (Also luvox, paxil, celexa, zoloft)
Mant do well with prozac that don’t with others
New direction in psychopharmacology
Ketamine blocks nerual receptor NDMA, which affects glutamate (plays a role in mood regulation)
Promising for treatment-resistant depression
Side effects
- Affects cognitive functioning, some experience increase in depressive symptoms over time - concerns over addiction.
Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT)
Used in treatment of severe depression
electric current of 70 to 150 voltsis briefly administered
The patient is sedated & receives muscle relxants
Uslaly 10 treatments in course of a month
Conversial - potential serious side effects
We do not know why ECT works! It may produce permanent damage in brain
Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS)
Precise magnetic pulse directed to a specific area of the brain - activates particular neurons
Effective in relieving symptoms of depression
Side effects include seizures and convulsions
Psychosurgery
Historically, lobotomies - Frequent in 1940s & 50s
1960s - lessons in amygdala or areas of limbic system (emotion)
Primitive procedures replaced with ultrasound, electricity, freezing of tissues, and implants of radioactive materials
Today last resort for people with severe OCD, major depression, bipolar
Biomedical therapies in perspective
Arguebly the greatest revolution in the field of mental health
More patients that can be treated as outpatients
Not a cure-all for disorders
- Temproary symptom relief
- May not solve the underlying problem
- Serious side effects - especially antipsychotic medications
Eye movement desensitization & reprocessing (EDMR)
Involves patients conjuring up images associated with traumatic event, then performing rapid left right eye movements while tracking an object
Controversial - not a strong body of research, lack of evidence in reduction in physiological/beahviour anxiety
No basis for why it works
