Biological Therapy Flashcards
(14 cards)
What does the therapy claim?
A physical illness is the same as a psychological illness so should both be treated in a physical way e.g. Drugs.
Link the therapy to the assumption localisation of the brain.
The limbic system controls the emotion or mood and drugs if it is disturbed this can cause the individual to have low or changing moods. Drugs can target specific parts of the brain and balance the emotions better.
Link the therapy to the assumption neurotransmitters
When a neurotransmitters causes a disturbance drugs can fix the imbalance and send a correct chemical message instead
What are the three main components?
Anti- psychotics
Anti- anxiety
Anti- depressants
Explain what Anti- psychotics do.
Anti-psychotics deal with the positive symptoms of schizophrenia such as delusions. They do this by binding and temporarily occupying the receptor until it is dissociated from transmission
What is the most common anti- depressant for depression?
SSRIS
Explain what anti- anxiety drugs do?
There are two type BZs and BBs
Benzodiazepines slow the activity of the central nervous system allowing GABA a natural form of anxiety relief to calm the patient. Beta blockers stop adrenaline in order to stop stress and therefore the blood pressure decreases causing the patient to calm down.
Explain the side effects of drug therapy
Although the drug is effective there are side effects to drugs such as nausea and insomnia which may cause the patient distress and not make them want to take the drug making it ineffective
Explain the patient involvement of drug therapy
The drug is easy to applicate and requires little patient involvement making it easier for severely depressed people as they have little motivation for cognitive behaviour therapy however the patient will not feel responsible for their recovering making a weakness to the effectiveness of the patient involvement
Explain the appropriateness of the therapy.
The therapy is appropriate for cases such as depression or schizophrenia however in some cases where the drugs do not work this is where it is not appropriate
Explain the cause of the therapy.
The cause of the therapy is ignored as drug therapy looks for a short term to help the disorder rather then looking for a long term help. This means when the patient comes off the medication the illness will return causing distress
Give evidence for the therapy.
Kahn researched drug therapy with 250 patients over a period of 8 weeks and discovered that the drugs were more effective then the placebo when tested.
Somaro et all looked at 17 studies on placebo over an SSRI for OCD treatment over a 12-25 weeks and found the drug to be more effective over a placebo over a short term period.
Describe the ethical issues of the therapy.
X– risk of him due to the side effects causing distress
X– lack of valid consent as the patients weren’t in the right frame of mind
X– real drugs vs placebo- no patient should be given an inferior drug when there is an effective drug available. Placebos should be used as a control when testing new drugs
X–Medical professionals may hold information on the lack of benefits of a drug and not state any other alternative for it
Why is drug therapy better over the other therapies?
- cheaper for the patient (for the UK we have free health care because of the NHS)
- less time consuming for the practitioner and the patient
- easiest to administer
