Module 30: Psychological Therapies

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Module 30 Psychological Therapies

• Chapter 13 Treatment of Psychological Disorders

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I. Psychotherapy Emotionally charged
interactions between a therapist and someone who
suffers from psychological difficulties

• Most therapists use an eclectic approach
  (various forms of therapy)

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A. Types of Psychotherapy

• 1. Psychoanalytic Sigmund Freud
• 2. Humanistic Carl Rogers
• a. Client-Centered Therapy the therapist asks
  clients to paraphrase and clarify their feelings

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3. Behavioral Therapy

• Applies learning principles to the elimination of
  unwanted behaviors

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a. Systematic Desensitization

• A type of counter-conditioning that associates a
  pleasant, relaxed state with gradually
  increasing, anxiety-triggering stimuli
• Usually used to treat phobias
• Example fear of flying

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Systematic Desensitization
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b. Aversive Conditioning

• A type of counter-conditioning that associates an
  unpleasant state (such as nausea) with an
  unwanted behavior

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Example Adding a nausea-producing drug to
alcohol in order to treat alcoholism
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c. Token Economy

• Giving tokens (rewards), which can be exchanged
  for various privileges or treats, to reinforce
  desired behaviors
• Example Nurses give a schizophrenic patient
  small plastic coins for talking to others. The
  coins can be used at the hospital gift shop or
  snack bar.

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4. Cognitive Therapy

• Teaches people new, more adaptive ways of
  thinking and acting
• Example Advising a depressed student to take
  pride in her successes, to attribute the good
  grade to her hard work.

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a. Cognitive-Behavior Therapy

• Cognitive therapy
• (changing self-defeating thinking)
• Behavior therapy
• (encouraging positive behaviors)

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A. Drug Therapy Using medications to treat
psychological disorders The development of drug
therapies led to an 80 decline in the number of
hospitalized mental patients from 1950 to 2000.

• Module 31
• II. Biomedical Therapies

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1. Deinstitutionalization The release of
patients from mental hospitals to the community

• Led to increased homeless population.

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2. Types of Drugs

• Anti-Psychotics A category of medications used
  primarily to treat schizophrenia by blocking the
  activity of dopamine

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EXAMPLE Thorazine

• One of the first antipsychotic drugs
• Side effects include dry mouth, blurred vision,
  constipation, and tardive dyskinesia (a permanent
  condition of muscle tremors)

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b. Anti-anxiety Drugs

• Treat anxiety by boosting GABA levels (a
  neurotransmitter)
• Include Valium, Xanax
• Side effects Dependency Can cause death if
  mixed with alcohol

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c. Anti-depressant Drugs

• Treat depression by making more serotonin
  available in the brain
• Includes SSRIs selective serotonin reuptake
  inhibitors (Prozac, Zoloft, and Paxil)

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d. Mood Stabilizers

• Lithium medication used primarily to treat
  bipolar disorder
• Not known how or why it works

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B. Electroconvulsive Therapy (ECT) A therapy
for major depression in which a brief electrical
current is sent through the brain of an
anesthetized patient, causing convulsions

• Replaced insulin therapy, where patients were
  given an overdose of insulin to induce shock or
  convulsions

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a. Controversy over ECT

• Psychologists dont understand exactly why it
  works
• ECT can cause memory disruption

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ECT
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C. Psychosurgery

• Module 31 Biomedical Therapies

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1. Lobotomy

• Cutting the nerves between the frontal lobes of
  the brain and the emotional centers
• Used to try to calm uncontrollably emotional or
  violent patients before antipsychotic drugs were
  discovered
• Rarely used today

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The End