Critically evaluate the extent to which the placebo effect is just a nuisance variable to be controlled The placebo effect is a simulated or a useless treatment for a medical or mental condition which deceives the patient into thinking it is curing them. Usually, these patients will find their health and wellbeing will improve over time, whether it actually does or they just perceive it doesn’t matter, this is called the placebo effect. Common examples of placebos are sugar pills, homeopathy and ‘psychic surgery’. While it sounds as if the deception is the cause of the patient’s improved health, it has been shown that placebos can have a positive effect on a patient who knows they are being given a placebo, when compared with a control group who received a placebo but were not informed of the deception (Kaptchuk TJ, Friedlander E, Kelley JM, et al, 2010). The most common procedure for using a placebo is when a patient is given a useless pill and is told that the pill will improve their condition.
Many people choose Antidepressant medication as a treatment because that is the first thing their doctors suggest. Antidepressant medication may relieve some of your depression symptoms, but it also comes with significant side effects and dangers. What’s more, recent studies have raised questions about their effectiveness. Learning the facts about antidepressants can help you make an educated decision about what’s right for you. Most mental health experts agree that when depression is severe, medication can be helpful, even life saving.
In the treatment for alcohol and drug dependence, the goal of cognitive behavioral therapy is to teach the person to recognize situations in which they are most likely to drink or use drugs, avoid these circumstances if possible, and cope with other problems and behaviors which may lead to their substance abuse. Depression There is a very close relationship between depression and substance abuse in adults. The two conditions are highly comorbid, which is to say that they occur together in an extremely high percentage of individuals. There are a number of different ways that this occurs. Substance abuse can cause depression and depression can cause substance abuse.
Antidepressants on the other hand by balancing neurotransmitters such as serotonin and epinephrine witch can cause depression if not sufficiently balanced. Anxiolytic drugs are used to combat anxiety disorders one drug in this field is benzodiazepines (Bzs) they work by releasing more (GABA) witch slows down the nerve transmission calming people down. This drug is effective in areas such as phobias. Another biological therapy is ECT, it is a surgical based treatment commonly used on manic depressives who haven’t responded to antidepressants. This treatment is administrated to a patient by putting a patient into an unconscious state then passing a current of 0.6 amps through the brain.
The Effects of DBT on relapse in Bi-Polar Patients The Effects of DBT on Relapse in Bi-Polar Patients We chose to do our paper on The Effects of Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT) on relapse of Bi-Polar patients. DBT is a cognitive behavioral treatment that was originally developed to treat chronically suicidal individuals diagnosed with borderline personality disorder (BPD) and it is now recognized as the gold standard psychological treatment for this population. It has more recently been shown to work in other areas of mental health such as substance dependence, depression, and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), eating disorders and mood disorders such a Bi-Polar. DBT has a grouping of four as in there are four components : DBT
A problem of the diagnosis of schizophrenia known as co-morbidity this is when the symptoms of schizophrenia overlap with many other disorders, such as, depression and bipolar disorder. This is a problem because the patient may be misdiagnosed and given the wrong type of treatment which will not cure the symptoms they have and may cause another type of illness. This can be solved by multiple diagnosis this will also improve the inter rater reliability. Reliability is the extent in to which two or more medical specialists have consistent results in their diagnosis. The validity externally is very difficult as there are cultural barriers, as psychiatrists from different cultures interpret symptoms differently resulting in people being diagnosed schizophrenia in one culture but not in another.
Discuss psychological explanations of schizophrenia There are many different psychological approaches towards explaining schizophrenia which suggests that the development of schizophrenia is due to psychological factors rather than biological factors. One psychological approach to schizophrenia is the behavioural approach. Behavourists argue that schizophrenia is learnt through operant conditioning. This means that someone may do something that gets a positive reaction or reward from others which then encourages the person to repeat the behaviour and consequently reinforce that behaviour. For a schizophrenic this suggests that their behaviour is a consequence of faulty learning.
Didactic methods are also less costly than other sex offender treatments. This approach equips the sex offender with the skills needed to succeed after treatment ends as well. The educational aspects of didactic methods allow offenders to learn what their triggers are and come up with goals that will allow them to meet their needs. There are also some weaknesses that didactic treatment methods possess. It has been criticized to be too complex and sophisticated for some of the sex offender population.
PHILOSOPHICAL PRINCIPLES & KEY CONCEPTS Aaron T. Beck developed his approach known as Cognitive Behavioural Therapy as a result of his work and observations with depressed clients. C.B.T. is based on fundamental assumptions that our thoughts can and do determine how we feel and behave in relation to events in our everyday lives and our environment. Beck contends that psychological problems or dysfunctional behaviour can occur as a result of faulty or distorted thinking and through engaging and employing C.B.T. techniques we can change or modify the way we think, to cause us to feel and act better even if our external situations and events do not change.
They revolutionised psychiatry by allowing the most disturbed schizophrenic patients live outside a psychiatric hospital, or reduce their average length of stay. However, many critics have called these drugs pharmacological straitjackets. Some drugs are more effective in treating acute positive symptoms such s hallucination, thought disorder and delusions; they seem to work by blocking the D2 receptor of dopamine. There are two main two main drug categories; neuroleptic drugs which are the more traditional used drugs and the newer version atypical drugs. Common neuroleptic drugs such as Thorzine aim to block the activity of the neurotransmitter dopamine within 48 hours, which have proven to be effective.