Treatment of psychological disorders Flashcards
What are the goals of treatment?
1) Provide relief from distress
2) Increase self-awareness and insight into problems
3) Teach coping skills to manage symptoms/distress
4) Identify and resolve the root causes of the disorder
What does the psychodynamic approach assume?
Unconscious conflicts originate from early life experience, evoke defense mechanisms and then cause observable symptoms
What is the aim of a psychodynamic treatment?
Identify these unconscious conflicts and bring them into conscious awareness and then help the client to develop strategies to resolve those conflicts
Give an example of a psychodynamic technique
Free association or dream analysis
What is the structure of psychodynamic therapies?
Highly variable, but could be 3-5 sessions per week
What does behaviour therapy assume?
That many psychological disorders arise from faulty learning, involving both classical and operant conditioning
What is the aim of behaviour therapy?
Use associative learning principles, particularly extinction to unlearn or relearn those associations
What is an example of behaviour therapy?
Systematic desensitisation
What type of associative learning is flooding?
Classical
What does cognitive behavioural therapy assume?
Distorted ways of thinking and cognitive biases directly cause symptoms of psychological disorders
What is the aim of CBT
Change the dysfunctional cognitions that underlie psychological disorders
What is the technique for CBT
1) Challenge the dysfunctional thought (what is the evidence for them) 2) Replacing these with more rational and healthy beliefs 3) Testing out these new beliefs during homework
Give an example of CBT
Attentional bias for spiders, irrational spider fear, disorder is phobia
What do humanistic therapies assume?
Important to consider the person as a whole rather than the specific cognitions, behaviours, or emotions that appear disordered
What are the aims of humanistic therapies?
Encourage the client to find their own solutions to enable them to move from one state to another
What are some humanistic therapy techniques?
Unconditional positive regard - non-judgemental
Non-directive - active listening
CLIENT CENTRED THERAPY - Rogers
What do family therapies assume?
Many psychological disorders arise from dysfunctional relationships with and communication between close family members .
What are the aims and techniques for family therapies?
Therapist leads discussing with patient and their close family members.
What do drug treatments assume?
Psychological disorders are caused by brain dysfunction that can be corrected, or at least temporarily alleviated by medication.
Give an example of drug therapy
SSRI’s (Selective-serotonin reuptake inhibitor’s), Zoloft, Antidepressant, Depression
What are some limitations of drug treatments?
Side effects, Overprescription medicalises everyday problems of living
Many drugs are ineffective for people with mild symptoms
What is a case study
Detailed report of treatment provided to an individual patient and their outcome
What are the three possible outcomes after treatment
Improvement, remission, or deterioration
What is the evidence that sick people tend to get better?
About 30% of people with depression or anxiety will get better with no formal treatment. Known as spontaneous remission.
What can you determine by using active control and waitlist control groups
1) If both treatments are better than doing nothing at all (Waitlist)
If both treatments offer something over and above a placebo effect
If one treatment is superior to the other
What trial does medicine make the most use of
The randomised controlled trial
What are some problems with RCT’s
Dropout rates can be high, very expensive, doesn’t take into account patients preferred therapy as random
