Biomedical Therapy

1
Biomedical Therapy

• (Module 42)

2
What is it?

• Biomedical therapy is a way of treating
  psychological disorders by altering the chemical
  balance in the brain.

3
How is it done?

• Typically drugs are prescribed by psychiatrists,
  the brain circuits are overloaded with
  electroconvulsive shock, or they are disconnected
  through psychosurgery.

4
Background

• Biomedical therapy in the form of medication or
  drugs was first introduced in the 1950s. It
  reduced over hundreds of thousands of people in
  need of psychosurgery and/or released those who
  had been in hospital confinement. Earlier
  practices consisted of ECT and psychosurgery.

5
Antipsychotic Drugs

• The revolution of drug therapy began on
  accident when certain drugs helped to calm
  psychotic patients with schizophrenia.
• Antipsychotic drugs, such as Thorazine, weaken
  responsiveness to irrelevant stimuli. This helps
  rid any auditory paranoia or hallucinations. It
  works in a similar way as the neurotransmitter
  dopamine by occupying receptor sites and blocks
  most activity.

6
Antianxiety Drugs

• Some examples of antianxiety drugs are Xanax and
  Valium. These work similar to alcohol by
  depressing the central nervous systems activity.
  Usually if someone is taking any antianxiety
  drugs they are taken with other therapy that
  helps them learn how to cope with fear-triggering
  stimuli. The main problem with these drugs is
  that after people stop taking them if they were
  heavily dependent on them they usually experience
  worse anxiety and insomnia.

7
Antidepressant Drugs

• The most commonly used antidepressant is Prozac.
  They do the opposite as the antianxiety drugs do.
  Instead of calming people down, they lift peoples
  moods up. Most of these pills increase the
  amounts of the neurotransmitters norepinephrine
  and serotonin which are both known to raise
  arousal levels by slowing the process of reuptake.

8
Electroconvulsive Therapy (ECT)

• One of the most controversial procedures done on
  the brain is electroconvulsive therapy. It was
  first used back in 1938 and was practiced on a
  wide awake person who was strapped to a table.
  They would then shock the person with 100 volts
  of electricity to the brain. Now, it is only done
  on people who suffer from severe depression and
  is more humane. The person is under anesthetics
  and wakes up not remembering a thing. It takes
  three sessions of this within two-four weeks
  apart. One major side effect that they have
  minimized over time is memory loss.

9
Psychosurgery

• The riskiest form of biomedical therapy is
  psychotherapy because the effects are
  irreversible and usually created other behavioral
  problems. This surgery consists of either
  destroying or removal of the brain tissue. The
  best known operation is the lobotomy.

10
History and Death of the Lobotomy

• 1930s The lobotomy was created by Egas Moniz.
  The process consisted of shocking the patient
  into a coma and then a neurosurgeon would hammer
  an icepicklike instrument through each eye
  socket so it would hit the brain and wiggle it
  around. This would sever connections throughout
  the brain. The process took less than ten
  minutes.
• 1940s and early 1950s By these decades over
  35,000 people who had been considered severely
  disturbed had received the cruel lobotomy and
  Moniz had been honored with a Nobel prize for his
  discovery.
• Late 1950s Calming drugs such as the earlier
  mentioned ones had been discovered and ceased the
  need for lobotomies and other forms of
  psychosurgery.
• Today Psychosurgery is rarely- if ever -used
  today due to all of the new forms of helping
  people suffering from a psychological disorder.

11
The importance behind all of the biomedical
therapies is that everything psychological and
biological can be related.
12
Important Terms to Know

• Psychopharmacology the study of the effects of
  drugs on mind and behavior
• Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) operation where
  electric currents are sent through the brain of
  an anesthetized patient who suffers from severe
  depression
• Psychosurgery a surgery that removes or destroys
  brain tissue in order to change behavior
• Lobotomy a procedure where the nerves inside the
  brain were disconnected in the frontal lobe by
  inserting an instrument through the eye and
  twisting it inside the brain the goal was to
  destroy the emotion-controlling area

13
Important Drug Names to Know

• Antipsychotic Thorazine, Clorazil
• Antianxiety Xanax, Valium,
• Antidepressant Prozac, Lithium, Zoloft, Paxil