apsych c18--treatment of psychological disorders

types of therapy:

• psychodynamic therapy—viewing the cause of disorders as unconscious conflicts. thus, they think that you must dig REALLY deep to address a problem

  • hypnosis—altered state of consciousness to see trauma (not much research to back it up)

  • free associate—say whatever comes to mind without thinking, see and interpret what a patient says

  • dream interpretation

• humanistic therapy—helping people understand and accept themselves, and thus self-actualize

  • person-centered, meaning that the therapist provides the client with unconditional positive regard (blanket acceptance) to help them develop healthily

  • nondirective—encouraging clients to direct the conversation, with the therapist actively listening and saying things like “i see what your feeling about this is ___”

  • achieving a sense of purpose

• behavioral therapies—trying to change learned behavior

  • applied behavior analysis: helps with developmental disorders

  • counterconditioning: unpleasant response is replaced with pleasant one. ex: emily is afraid of eating arugula and cries when she eats it. so, she starts putting arugula in her sandwiches and realizes it tastes good.

  • exposure therapies:

    • systematic desensitization

      • replacing anxiety with relaxation by constructing a fear hierarchy (pg. 175, in this example the fear is of spiders)

      • start with fear-related thing that would cause the least anxiety. once that can be accomplished without anxiety (by using relaxation techniques) you move up to the next level

    • flooding: starting at the scariest scenario, and showing clients they shouldn’t back down from a problem

    • modeling: watching someone ELSE interact with something you are afraid of and talking about what you saw

• cognitive therapies—aka cognitive restructuring, challenging people’s patterns of maladaptive thinking to help them be successful

• cognitive behavioral therapies—combo of cognitive and behavioral

  • rational emotive behavior therapy (REBT)

    • questioning both the likelihood that an anxiety would actually happen and if the impact would be so great to show clients that it would not be that bad

    • ex: emily forgets to wash her hands and started OCDing because she is afraid that she will die from germs. her therapist tells her to try not washing her hands and also explains to her that not washing her hands will probably not be that bad

• group therapy

• somatic therapies—used by biological-oriented psychologists, produce bodily changes

  • psychoactive medications treat psychological problems

    • schizophrenia: antipsychotic medications like Thorazine

      • downside is often tardive dyskinesia (muscle tremors)

    • depression: antidepressants, monamine oxidase inhibitors, tricyclic antidepressants, serotonin inducers

    • anxiety: anti-anxiety drugs like Xanax and Valium

    • bipolar disorder: lithium

  • biofeedback

    • a patient is taught to recognize and then control various responses such as breathing and brain activity

    • transcranial magnetic stimulation—employs magnets to change brain activity

    • electroconvulsive therapy—shocks brain, causing brief seizure and temporary loss of memory. benefits may be caused by change in the blood flow of your brain

    • psychosurgery—taking out a part of a person’s brain completely (lobotomy)!! only a last resort

kinds of therapists

• psychiatrists prescribe medication

• clinical psychologists (more severe problems)

• counseling therapists (less severe problems like family therapy)

• therapeutic alliance (patient-therapist relationship) is really important