Biological Approach To Treating OCD Flashcards
What is used to treat OCD?
Drug therapy - SSRIs mainly used, SNRIs, Tricyclics and benzodiazepines.
What are SSRIs?
A type of antidepressant that acts on the serotonin system, it aims to increase levels of serotonin in the brain.
Why are people with OCD given SSRIs?
Either their serotonin is being reabsorbed too quickly or, they are producing too little of it. SSRIs compensate for the lack of serotonin that would naturally be in the individual’s system.
How do SSRIs work?
-designed to block the re-uptake of serotonin, increasing the levels of serotonin in the synapse.
-Whilst more serotonin is being released from the from the pre-synaptic neuron, less serotonin is being reabsorbed because the SSRIs are blocking the reabsorption channel.
-The lack of serotonin that would naturally be in the individual’s system is being compensated for.
What are the alternatives to SSRIs?
Tricyclics and SNRIs.
What are tricyclics?
A type of antidepressant which acts on various systems and has a similar effect to that of SSRIs but is reserved for those who do not respond to SSRIs.
What are SNRIs?
Serotonin-noradrenaline re uptake inhibitors.
These increase levels of serotonin as well as noradrenaline and is reserved for people who do not respond to SSRIs.
What are benzodiazepines?
A type of medication which is used to reduce anxiety and works by enhancing a neurotransmitter GABA which slows the central nervous system down resulting in relaxation.
What are two strengths of biological treatments for OCD?
- Research support for SSRIs.
-Soomro et al - reviewed research examining the effectiveness of SSRIs as compared to placebos which have no pharmacological value.
found that SSRIs significantly more effective than placebos in the treatment of OCD across 17 studies.
Therefore, this supports the use of biological treatments for OCD.
- Drug therapies are preferable to other treatments.
-require little input from the patient in terms of effort and time.
-Drug therapies are also more cost-effective as they are cheaper for health services due to the fact that they require little monitoring and cost much less that psychological treatments.
Therefore, drug therapies are more economical and are also more attractive to patients than psychological treatments, making them a more popular choice.
What is one limitation of the biological approach to treating OCD?
- Drug therapies treat the symptoms of OCD, not the cause.
-Although SSRIs increase levels of serotonin in the brain, it does not treat the underlying cause of OCD meaning that the effects of this therapy are likely to be short-term and not effective.
-Additionally, once a patient stops taking the drug, they are likely to relapse meaning there are no long-term effects.
Therefore, psychologists suggest that cognitive treatments such as CBT may be a more effective long-term solution to provide a lasting treatment and potential cure.
