Module 46: The Biomedical Therapies and Preventing Psychological Disorders Flashcards
Biomedical Therapy
Prescribed medications or procedures that act directly on the person’s physiology.
- Can change the brain’s chemistry with drugs
- Affect its circuitry with electrical stimulation, magnetic impulses, or psychosurgery
- Influence its response with lifestyle changes
Psychopharmacology
The study of the effect of drugs on mind and behavior.
Antipsychotic Drugs
Drugs used to treat schizophrenia and other forms of severe thought disorder.
- Calms hallucinations or delusions
- – More help with positive symptoms than negative
- Chlorpromazine ( Thorazine )
- – Lessens responsiveness to irrelevant stimuli
Whats in Antipsychotic Drugs?
- Molecules in this drug similar to dopamine
- – Occupy its receptor sites and block its activity
- Schizophrenia —> overactive dopamine system
Antianxiety Drugs
Drugs used to control anxiety and agitation.
- Xanax and Ativan
- – Depress central nervous system
- Critics fear these reduce symptoms without resolving underlying problems.
- – Relief reinforces person’s tendency to take drugs when anxious
Antidepressant Drugs
Drugs uses to treat depression, anxiety, OCD, and PTSD. ( Several widely used antidepressant drugs are selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors - SSRIs )
What is in Antidepressant Drugs?
- Increasing availability of neurotransmitters —> norepinephrine or serotonin
- – Elevate arousal and mood
- Prozac, Zoloft, Paxil
- – Block reuptake
Mood - Stabilizing Medications
- Depakote
- – Effective in controlling manic episodes
- Lithium
- – Levels the emotional highs and lows of bipolar
Electroconvulsive Therapy ( ECT )
A biomedical therapy for severely depressed patients in which a brief electric current is sent through the brain of an anesthetized patient.
- Triggers a quick seizure
Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation ( tDCS )
Weak electrical current to scalp
Repetitive Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation ( rTMS )
The application of repeated pulses of magnetic energy to the brain; used to stimulate or suppress brain activity.
Deep Brain Stimulation
Stimulates electrodes implanted in “sadness centers” to calm those areas.
Psychosurgery
Surgery that removes or destroys brain tissue in an effort to change behavior.
Lobotomy
A psychosurgical procedure once used to calm uncontrollably emotional or violent patients. The procedure cut the nerves connecting the frontal lobes to the emotion - controlling centers of the inner brain.
Resilience
The personal strength that helps most people cope with stress and recover from adversity and even trauma.
