Module #34 - Biomedical Therapies

Question 1

Biomedical therapies

Answer 1

The treatment of psychological disorders by changing the brain’s functioning by using prescribed drugs, electro convulsive therapy, or surgery.

Question 2

Deinstitutionalization

Answer 2

The release of patients from mental hospitals into the community.

Question 3

3 types of drug treatments

Answer 3

1. Antipsychotic medications for schizophrenia
2. Antianxiety medications for responding to stress
3. Antidepressant medications for mood disorders

Question 4

Antipsychotic drugs

Answer 4

A category of medications used primarily to treat schizophrenia. Drugs work by blocking dopamine.

Question 5

Thorazine

Answer 5

One of the first antipsychotic drugs (dopamine lowering). Side effects include dry mouth, blurred vision, constipation, tardive dyskinesia.

Question 6

Tardive dyskinesia

Answer 6

A permanent condition of muscle tremors

Question 7

Clozaril

Answer 7

Less side effects than Thorazine but can cause damage to white blood cells therefore patients need to be tested regularly. It’s expensive but considered the most effective treatment for schizophrenia.

Question 8

Antianxiety drugs

Answer 8

A category of medication used to treat people undergoing significant stress and can be helpful in treating people with anxiety disorders.

Question 9

Antidepressant drugs

Answer 9

A category of medications used primarily to boot serotonin levels in the brain. They can be helpful in treating major depression.
e.g. Prozac, Zoloft, Paxil (classified as SSRIs)

Question 10

Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors (SSRIs)

Answer 10

Classification of antidepressants which work by blocking the reuptake of serotonin after it has been released.

Question 11

Lithium

Answer 11

Medication used primarily to treat bipolar disorder.

It’s not known how or why lithium works but a large number of bipolar patients report improvement with the drug (70%).

Question 12

Therapeutic lag

Answer 12

Antidepressants must be taken for about a month before they become effective. Depression is cyclical; can make it difficult to determine if drug is working.

Question 13

How antidepressants work

Answer 13

1. They affect brain neurotransmitters.
2. They don’t work. People moods improve on the own because of the cyclical nature of depression.
3. They work because users expect them to work (the placebo effect).

Question 14

Electroconvulsive therapy

Answer 14

Therapy for major depression in which a brief electrical current is sent through the brain of an anesthetized patient.

Question 15

Insulin Therapy

Answer 15

Depressed patients are given an overdose of insulin to cause a convulsion. Replaced by ECT.

Question 16

Lobotomy

Answer 16

A now-rare form of psychosurgery once used to try to calm uncontrollably emotional or violent patients. The procedure cut the nerves that connect the frontal lobes of the brain to the deeper emotional centers.

Question 17

Repetitive Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation

Answer 17

Repeated pulses of magnetic energy using magnetic fields instead of electricity, and does not produce convulsions.
Painless, treat depression with rTMS

Question 18

Deep Stimulation

Answer 18

An experimental procedure which is administered by a pacemaker that controls implanted electrodes. The stimulation inhibits activity in a brain area that feeds negative emotions and thinking.

Question 19

Trepanation

Answer 19

Process of introducing holes into the skull (treatment of epilepsy and spiritual therapy).

Question 20

Cingulotomy

Answer 20

This procedure involves passing an electrode needle through two small holes in the skull and searing tiny lesion in the cingulum (nerve fibers linking emotional center to cortex).

Question 21

Phrenology

Answer 21

Study of the structure of the skull to determine a person’s character and mental capacity.