Treatment of Disorders

Why do some people not get treatment?

Personal stigma
Barriers to treatment
Lack of knowledge/access

Psychotherapy

an interaction between a therapist and someone suffering from a psychological problem, with the goal of providing support or relief from the problem

Psychodynamic therapy

explore childhood events and encourage individuals to use this understanding to develop insight into their psychological problems

Psychoanalysis

long-term therapy (3-5x/week for 3-6 years), emphasis on uncovering repressed thoughts

Insight Techniques (Psychoanalysis)

free association, dream analysis, interpretation, analysis of resistance

Existential Humanistic Therapies

psychological problems stem from feelings of alienation and loneliness and that those feelings can be traced to failures to reach one’s full potential

Person-centered therapy (Existential Humanistic)

assumes that all individuals have the capacity for growth

Behavior Therapy

assuming disordered behavior is learned; symptom relief is achieved through changing overt maladaptive behaviors into more constructive behaviors

Exposure therapy (Behavior Therapy)

confronting an emotion-arousing stimulus directly and repeatedly, ultimately leading to a decrease in the emotional response

Systematic desensitization

a procedure in which a client relaxes all the muscles of his or her body while imagining being in increasingly frightening situations

Mindfulness Therapy

helping a client identify and correct any distorted thinking about self, others, or the world

Mindfulness meditation (Mindfulness Therapy)

teaches an individual to be fully present in each moment; to be aware of their thoughts, feelings, and sensations; and to detect symptoms before they become a problem

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy

a blend of cognitive and behavioral therapeutic strategies
Focus on: replacing maladaptive coping skills, cognitions, emotions and behaviors with more adaptive ones

Cognitive restructuring (CBT)

involves teaching clients to question the automatic beliefs, assumptions, and predictions that often lead to negative emotions and to replace negative thinking with more realistic and positive beliefs

Psychopharmacology

the study of drug effects on psychological states and symptoms

Antipsychotic Medications

treat schizophrenia and related psychotic disorders (act by reducing dopamine- see dopamine hypothesis), more effective for positive (hallucinations, delusions, motor) than negative symptoms (flat affect), new drugs block both dopamine and serotonin receptors

Antianxiety Medications

drugs that help reduce a person’s experience of fear or anxiety

Benzodiazepines (Antianxiety)

valium, atavan, xanax
Fast acting and very effective, high potential for tolerance, easy to abuse, increase the activity of GABA (inhibitory)

Antidepressants

a class of drugs that help lift people’s moods

SSRIs (Antidepressants)

selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (prozac, celeza, paxil)

Mood Stabilizers

medications used to suppress swings between mania and depression
Used to treat bipolar disorder

Lithium (Mood Stabilizer)

reduces excitatory (dopamine and glutamate), increases inhibitory (GABA)

Valproate (Mood Stabilizers)

increasing GABA

Treatment Illusions

happens when you conclude mistakenly that a treatment has made you better when you would have gotten better anyway

Placebo effect

an inert substance or procedure that has been applied with the expectation that a response will be produced- works even when you know it’s a placebo