AP Psychology - Chapter 12.2

Biomedical treatment/therapy

uses medication and medical procedures that act directly on a patient's physiological functioning

What are the most widely used biomedical treatments today?

Psychoactive medications

• Most drugs for anxiety and depression are simply prescribed by a PCP

   

5 types of Drugs/Therapies

Psychoactive medication

Antipsychotic drugs

Antianxiety drugs

Mood-stabilizers

Antidepressant drugs

Psychoactive medication

A chemical substance that influences/alters mind, body, and/or behavior by interacting with the CNS

Downside: they don't produce a 'cure' -- in the way that penicillin cures an infection

Antipsychotic drugs

Drugs used to treat schizophrenia and severe thought disorders

• The molecules of most conventional antipsychotic drugs are similar enough to serotonin and dopamine molecules to occupy receptor sites and limit/block activity

 

Antianxiety drugs

 drugs used to control anxiety and agitation by depressing the CNS

• Critics fear that antianxiety drugs reduce symptoms without resolving underlying problems - 'popping a Xanax' at the first sign of tension can create a learned response, reinforcing a person's tendency to take drugs when anxious

Mood-stabilizers

this simple salt lithium effectively levels the emotional highs of bipolar disorder, and thus is also used to treat the emotionality associated with Borderline PD

Antidepressant drugs

drugs used to treat depression-related disorders by increasing the availability of serotonin and norepinephrine/noradrenaline

Electroconvulsive Therapy

Small electric currents are sent through the brain of an anesthetized patient to treat severe depression that has not responded to other treatments

• Studies show treatment-resistant patients report marked improvement (with only minor memory loss). It also somehow reduces suicidal thoughts and is credited with saving many from suicide

Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS)

Repeated pulses of magnetic energy are applied to the brain to stimulate or suppress brain activity

•  like with ECT, TMS can be applied to specific sites on the brain

• Causes no memory loss, but may lead to headaches/seizures; long-term effects unknown

• NIMH a major study in 2010: 14% achieved remission, compared to 5% in an inactive/sham treatment (like a procedure version of a placebo)

Psychosurgery

• Surgery that removes or destroys (lesions) brain tissue in an effort to alter behavior

  • Because its effect are irreversible, is now seen as a last resort

Lobotomy

a procedure that cuts the nerves connecting the frontal lobes to the emotion-controlling centers of the inner brain