From Textbook (Treatment Vocabulary) - Unit 14: Psychiatry

art therapy

Therapy that uses drawing or creating other types of art while talking with an art therapist. Art therapy relieves stress, allows patients to express their thoughts and emotions safely, and helps them gain insight into their problems. Art therapy helps small children express something they saw or something that was done to them that they cannot describe in words.

aversion therapy

Therapy in which the patient thinks about a desired, but destructive, behavior and this is coupled with a mild electrical shock or a bad smell (such as ammonia). This is a form of conditioning that creates an aversion to doing that behavior. This therapy is used to treat drug and cigarette addiction.

cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT)

Therapy based on the premise that cognitive beliefs and attitudes (not people or events) cause undesirable or destructive emotions, and that thought patterns and behaviors are learned and can be unlearned. Patients are taught to use guided imagery and self-counseling to produce desirable emotions and behavior. This therapy is used to treat anxiety, panic attacks, phobias, depression, eating disorders, and other behaviors.

detoxication

Therapy that includes observation and medical treatment for a patient with alcoholism undergoing withdrawal. Drugs are given, as needed, to minimize withdrawal symptoms and prevent seizures. This therapy is also known as detoxification.

electroconvulsive therapy (ECT)

Therapy that uses an electrical current and electrodes on the head to produce seizures (convulsions). Patients are given sedative and muscle relaxant drugs to make them unconscious and relaxed. The seizure lasts about 1 minute and the patient awakens within 1 hour. It is used to treat severe depression and schizophrenia. ECT relieves symptoms more quickly than antidepressant drugs (that can take up to a month to become effective). It is also known as electroshock therapy.

family therapy

Therapy that involves the entire family, not just the patient. The focus is on relationships and conflicts between family members (what they say to each other, how they say it, and how they act toward each other). The family often labels one family member as the troublemaker, while others can do no wrong. Unless corrected, these fixed roles keep the family members from adopting more appropriate behaviors.

group therapy

Therapy that provides simultaneous therapy to several patients who have a similar mental illness (such as anxiety, depression, or being a victim of sexual abuse) (see Figure 17-10). Group members share experiences and insights and provide feedback and emotional support to each other.

hypnosis

Therapy that places the patient in a sleeplike trance (the patient is still able to remember who they are and what is happening). The therapist makes suggestions that are incorporated in the patient's subconscious mind and later acted upon consciously to some degree. It is used to treat anxiety and phobias and to help patients stop smoking or lose weight. It is also known as hypnotherapy.

play therapy

Therapy that uses toys and other objects (often dolls) to help young children express emotions and reenact traumatic or abusive events (on a small scale they can control). It is used to treat social withdrawal, anxiety, depression, aggression, and ADHD.

psychoanalysis

Therapy based on the idea of a conscious and subconscious mind. It was developed by Sigmund Freud to analyze a patient's thoughts and behavior by using interpretation of dreams and hypnosis.

psychotherapy

Any therapy (except drug therapy and electroconvulsive therapy) that uses verbal or nonverbal communication between a patient or a group of patients and a psychologist or psychiatrist to treat a mental disorder

systematic desensitization

Therapy technique in which a patient imagines 10 different scenarios involving a specific phobia (e.g., fear of spiders). Each scenario is associated with progressively greater anxiety. The patient practices relaxation techniques before and after visualizing the first scenario. When the first scenario no longer causes anxiety, the patient moves on to the second, and so forth, until that phobia no longer causes anxiety.

therapeutic milieu

Stable, structured, and safe emotional and physical environment that provides ongoing therapy of various types for a psychiatric patient