Biological approach: treating OCD Flashcards
How is drug therapy used to treat OCD?
- Involves the use of antidepressants such as SSRI’s
- Reduces the rate of reabsorbtion of serotonin, making more available in the synaptic gap
- By blocking the transportation of serotonin from the synapse back into the pre synaptic neutron, SSRI’s keep serotonin floating around the synaptic space.
- Due to this increased availability, some serotonin receptors on the dendrites that are inhibitory reduce in number (down regulation)
- This process ultimately makes each serotonin cell fire more rapidly, increasing serotonin levels.
- This neuro adaptation takes a few weeks to occur but helps alleviate OCD symptoms
If the point is:
A strength for drug therapy to treat OCD is that there’s evidence for its effectiveness.
What is the evidence and link?
Evidence- Typically, symptoms decline for 70% of patients taking SSRI’s. Soomro et al found that participants in all 17 different studies showed significantly more improvement with SSRI’s than controls receiving placebo drugs.
Link- This implies that SSRI’s are an effective way of helping with OCD compared to other drugs, as there’s a vast amount of research support for them.
If the point is:
However, a weakness of drug therapy to treat OCD is that unwanted side effects may reduce the effectiveness of drug therapy for OCD.
What is the evidence, explanation and link?
Evidence- Soomro document common side effects of taking SSRI’s were nausea, headaches and insomnia.
Explanation- This may mean that patients stop taking the drug due to unpleasant side effects.
Link- This suggests the effectiveness of the treatment is reduced.
If the point is:
Another strength of drug therapy to treat OCD is that it’s relatively cost effective in comparison to other forms of therapy for OCD.
What is the evidence, explanation and link?
Evidence- Drug therapies are also relatively cheap in comparison to psychological therapies and are also easy for the patient to engage in.
Explanation- This means the NHS is likely to prescribe drug treatments to patients with OCD compared to CBT.
Link- This suggests that drug therapies are easily accessible as they aren’t expensive and can be widely used.
If the point is:
Another weakness of drug therapy to treat OCD is that drugs don’t offer a permanent solution for the treatment of OCD.
What is the evidence and link?
Evidence- Although symptoms may often improve with SSRI’s, they don’t generally disappear, and return if the drug hasn’t been taken. This means that drug treatments for OCD are only partially successful.
Link- This reduces the long term use and the effectiveness of drug therapy, as patients will require additional treatment for long term use, such as CBT.
