Treatments of Psychological Disorders

Treatments of Psychological Disorders

Psychotherapy

  • Treatment to address emotional, psychological, and behavioral challenges.
  • Involves structured conversations with a trained mental health professional.
  • Effectiveness supported by meta-analytic studies.

Meta-Analysis

  • Research method combining results from multiple studies.
  • Identifies overall trends and effects.
  • Uses statistical methods to calculate effect size.
  • Effect size indicates the strength of the relationship between variables (Unit 0).
    • Large effect size: substantial difference (d is large).
    • Small effect size: minor difference (d is small).

Evidence-Based Interventions

  • Therapists apply methods likely to work.
  • Avoids untested or outdated techniques.

Cultural Humility

  • Therapist is respectful and open to the client's cultural background and beliefs.
  • Acknowledges and values differences.

Therapeutic Alliance

  • Trusting, collaborative relationship between therapist and client.
  • Built on open communication, respect, and collaboration on goals.

Psychotropic Medications

  • Medications to treat mental health conditions.
  • Affect brain function, alter mood, behavior, emotions, or cognitive processes.

Deinstitutionalization Movement

  • Closing/scaling back of psychiatric hospitals.
  • Moving patients back into communities.
  • Increased client freedom and reintegration.
  • Greater focus on community-based support services.

Treatment Plans

  • Medications to stabilize/manage symptoms.
  • Psychological therapies to address emotional, behavioral, and social challenges.

Group Therapy

  • Several individuals meet with a therapist.
  • Share experiences and provide support.
  • Learn from each other's experiences and viewpoints.
  • Creates a community and shared understanding.
  • Feedback from peers facing similar struggles.
  • More cost-effective.

Individual Therapy

  • One-on-one meetings with a therapist.
  • Focus on personal concerns, goals, and treatment plan.
  • Specific feedback and in-depth look at personal issues.
  • More flexible with timing and more private.
  • Can be more expensive.

Ethical Principles (APA)

Nonmaleficence

  • Do no harm (physical, emotional, psychological).

Fidelity

  • Be trustworthy and honor professional commitments.
  • Keep information confidential unless legally/ethically obligated to disclose.

Integrity

  • Be fair, honest, and truthful.
  • Provide accurate information about qualifications and treatment methods.
  • Ensure client understanding of therapy expectations.

Respect for People's Rights and Dignity

  • Obtain informed consent.
  • Respect cultural, religious, gender, and sexual orientation differences.
  • Allow client autonomy in treatment and life decisions.

Hypnosis

  • State of focused attention, heightened suggestibility, and deep relaxation.
  • Effective in treating pain and anxiety by refocusing attention.
  • Not effective for remembering past events or reliving earlier experiences.
  • Can sometimes lead to the creation of false memories.

Psychological Perspectives on Treatment

Psychodynamic Therapies

  • Rooted in the idea that a person's unconscious mind shapes their thoughts, emotions, and behaviors.
Free Association
  • Patients speak freely about any thoughts, words, or images that come to mind.
  • Reveals underlying themes, conflicts, or emotions.
Dream Interpretation
  • Therapists analyze dream content.
  • Dreams consist of:
    • Manifest content: actual storyline of the dream.
    • Latent content: deeper symbolic meaning of hidden desires, fears, or conflicts.

Cognitive Therapies

  • Focus on how maladaptive thinking causes behavioral problems.
  • Identify negative or distorted thoughts and irrational beliefs.
Cognitive Restructuring
  • Therapists help clients recognize, challenge, and replace maladaptive thoughts with more realistic, positive thoughts.
  • Example: Challenging "I am a failure" and reformulating it into "I'm capable of success in many areas even if I struggle with some tasks."
Fear Hierarchies
  • List of anxieties arranged from least to most frightening.
  • Gradual exposure while teaching coping strategies.
Cognitive Triad
  • Consists of the self, the world, and the future.
  • Creates a self-reinforcing loop with negative thoughts.

Applied Behavior Analysis

  • Focuses on how environmental factors (rewards, punishments, reinforcements) influence behavior.
  • Behavior is learned and can be modified.
Exposure Therapies
  • Client is exposed to a feared stimulus while practicing relaxation techniques.
  • Pairs anxious stimulus with calm.
Systematic Desensitization
  • Exposure therapy for phobias.
  • Exposed to increasingly intense versions of stimuli while learning and practicing relaxation techniques to help manage their anxiety.
Aversion Therapy
  • Unwanted behaviors are paired with an unpleasant stimulus.
  • Reduces behavior by creating a negative association.
  • Example: Putting things in alcoholic drinks that cause a person to have a disgusting taste in their mouth, thus having the individual associate alcohol with a bad taste.
Token Economies
  • Clients earn tokens for desired behaviors.
  • Uses operant conditioning (positive reinforcement).
  • Tokens can be exchanged for rewards.
Biofeedback
  • Uses electronic monitoring to convey information about physiological processes.
  • Clients learn to control bodily functions by receiving real-time data.
  • Helps regulate the sympathetic nervous system and activate the parasympathetic nervous system. By focusing on relaxation techniques.
Process
  • Monitor physiological responses (heart rate, blood pressure, brainwave activity).
  • Display information on a screen in real time.
  • Clients observe responses to stimuli and practice self-regulation techniques.

Cognitive Behavioral Therapies (CBT)

  • Blend of cognitive and behavioral approaches.
  • Cognitive side: challenges maladaptive thinking.
  • Behavioral side: implements healthier habits and reduces maladaptive actions.
Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT)
  • Originally for borderline personality disorder; used for emotional dysregulation.
  • Focuses on mindfulness, distress tolerance, emotional regulation, and interpersonal effectiveness.
Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy (REBT)
  • Disrupts irrational beliefs that lead to negative emotions or self-defeating behaviors.
  • Uses the ABCDE model:
    • A: Activating event.
    • B: Belief (irrational thought).
    • C: Consequence (emotional/behavioral result).
    • D: Disputation (challenging the irrational belief).
    • E: Effective new belief (rational, positive perspective).

Humanistic Therapies

  • Focus on a person's inherent goodness and potential.
  • Therapist creates a nurturing environment.
Active Listening
  • Therapist fully concentrates on what the client shares.
  • Paraphrases to validate feelings and clarify confusion.
Unconditional Positive Regard
  • Complete acceptance and support regardless of thoughts, feelings, or actions.
Goals
  • Self-actualization: achieve full potential and personal growth.
  • Self-awareness: explore thoughts and feelings.
  • Congruence: consistency between ideal self and actual experiences.

Biological Perspective

  • Disorders may come from biological processes.
  • Imbalances in neurotransmitters, brain structure abnormalities, or genetic factors.
Psychoactive Medications
  • Substances to alter brain chemistry in a way to help manage symptoms.
    • Antidepressants: boost serotonin and norepinephrine to regulate mood.
    • Antianxiety drugs: enhance GABA to produce a calming effect.
    • Lithium: stabilize mood swings (bipolar disorder).
    • Antipsychotic medications: block dopamine receptors to reduce excessive dopamine activity.
  • Side Effects
    • Tardive dyskinesia: movement disorder characterized by involuntary repetitive body movements from long-term antipsychotic use.
Surgical Interventions (Psychosurgery)
  • Surgical procedure on the brain to alleviate severe psychiatric symptoms.
Lesioning
  • Damaging/removing specific brain areas to observe the effect on behavior, cognition, or bodily function.
Lobotomies
  • Severing connections in the brain's frontal lobe.
  • Extremely rare today due to risks and safer, more effective treatments.
Noninvasive Treatments
Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS)
  • Uses magnetic fields to stimulate nerve cells in specific regions of the brain typically associated with mood regulation.
Electroconvulsive Therapy (ECT)
  • Small electrical currents are passed through the brain to trigger a brief seizure.
  • Used for severe depression after other treatments have not worked.