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Module 54:The Biomedical Therapies
TherapyUnit 14
Drug Therapies
• Biomedical Therapy: Using drugs or psychosurgery to alter the brain’s functioning.
• Psychopharmacology: the study of drug effects on mind and behavior.
• Four types of drugs:–Antipsychotic Drugs–Antianxiety Drugs–Antidepressant Drugs–Mood Stabilizing Drugs
Drug Therapies
Antipsychotic Drugs• Drugs that help block irrelevant
stimuli. (Thorazine, Clozapine, etc.)• Helps schizophrenics block
hallucinations and paranoia.• Works by blocking dopamine. Too
much dopamine contributes to schizophrenia.
Drug Therapies
Antipsychotic Drugs• Long term use can produce tardive
dyskinesia.• Tardive Dyskinesia: problems with
walking, drooling, and involuntary muscle spasms.
• These problems can cause patients to stop taking medication, resulting in a return of psychotic symptoms.
Drug Therapies
Antianxiety Drugs• Drugs, such as Xanax, slows down
the central nervous system.• Combined with therapy, can help a
patient learn to cope with anxiety causing situations.
• Popularity has increased, but taking them too much can cause dependence.
Drug Therapies
Antidepressant Drugs• Drugs that lift people from a state of
depression.• Increases serotonin, which is
involved with mood and arousal.• Prozac, Zoloft, and Paxil are most
popular form.• Side effects include dry mouth,
weight gain, dizzy spells, etc.
Drug Therapies
Mood Stabilizing Drugs• Lithium is a drug that stabilizes
mood.• It is used mainly for patients with
bipolar disorder.• Effective for 70% of people with
bipolar disorder.• Depakote is another mood
stabilizing drug that works!
Brain Stimulation
Electroconvulsive Therapy (ECT)• ECT: shocking the brain with
electricity!• Used to treat severe depression.• Surprisingly high success rate of
treating depression.• Reduces suicidal thoughts.• rTMS is an alternative that uses
powerful magnets instead of shock.
Psychosurgery
Psychosurgery• Surgery that removes or destroys
brain tissue to change behavior.• Last resort, least used biomedical
treatment.• Lobotomy: cutting nerves
connecting frontal lobes with emotion centers of the inner brain.
• Used on violent patients.
Psychosurgery
Lobotomy• Founded by Egas Moniz.• Surgeon would hammer a steel rod
through the eye socket into the brain.
• Next they would wiggle the rod to sever connections to the frontal lobe.
• Moniz won a Nobel Prize for this.
Psychosurgery
Lobotomy• Produced a permanent zombielike
personality.• In the 1950s, about 35,000 people
were lobotomized in the US. • No longer used, but other
psychosurgery for illnesses like epilepsy are still used, though rarely.
• Lobotomy Video
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