So again strongly suggests that low activity noradrenaline, is a factor contributing to the cause of depression. Support for this explanation has also come from research studies. Findings from psychologists , have led to the idea that depression is caused by a depletion of these naimes , especially serotonin and noradrenaline (in which I have discussed), however this idea is too simplistic, when infact its more complex than that. A example of why it is more complex is from the original theory, is that anti depressants do
Electroconvulsive therapy, formerly known as electroshock, is a psychiatric treatment in which seizures are electrically induced in anesthetized patients for therapeutic effect. Today, ECT is most often recommended for use as a treatment for severe depression that has not responded to other treatment, and is also used in the treatment of mania and catatonia. It was first used in Hungary by neuro-psychiatrists as treatment for schizophrenia and epilepsy as they were mistakenly believed to be antagonistic disorders; it gained widespread use as a form of treatment in the 1940s and 1950s. The aim of ECT is to induce a therapeutic seizure (a seizure where the person loses consciousness and has convulsions) lasting for at least 15 seconds. Although
Stephen Barlas reports in Psychiatric Times that antidepressants are found to cause “possible suicidal ideation and suicide attempts as side effects” (2006). With these possible side effects, parents are looking at other treatment options to help their children, including the combination of antidepressants with cognitive behavioral therapy. When researching about various antidepressants, fluoxetine, also known as Prozac, offered the most relevant and conclusive data concerning its effects on adolescents, and it was the most noted antidepressant combined with cognitive behavioral therapy. This paper will examine the symptoms of adolescent depression, how using the antidepressant fluoxetine affects depression in adolescents, and the results of studies using the combination of fluoxetine and cognitive behavioral therapy to treat major depression in
Many prescription drugs have been released onto the market that effectively target the levels of certain hormones which in turn enable one to counteract the symptoms of ADHD (3). Adderall is a cocktail of several active ingredients that include amphetamine salts, an active ingredient in many ADHD medications. These amphetamines are thought to treat ADHD by blocking the reuptake of dopamine from the neural synapses and increasing the uptake into subsequent neurons. The increased dopamine flow in the frontal cortex then allows the brain to carry on its executive functions as a normal brain would, thus counteracting the effects of ADHD(4). So, as a stressed out college student striving to succeed in school and boost my GPA, I sit here wondering how much faster and more efficiently I could have written this paper had I been taking Adderall.
Critical Point 3: There is a flaw with one of the key pieces of evidence to support the dopamine hypothesis. The drugs used to treat schizophrenia by blocking the dopamine receptors can actually increases it as neurons struggle to compensate for the sudden deficiency. Haracz, in a review of post-mortem studies of schizophrenics, found that most of those studied who showed elevated dopamine levels had received antipsychotic drugs shortly before death, unlike post-mortem of schizophrenics who hadn’t received medication these results showed that these individuals had normal levels of dopamine. Therefore, this evidence weakens the support for the dopamine
Medication will not cure the disorder, but it can intervene to help the person suffering from the disorder to feel better (National Institute of Mental Health). Antipsychotic medications are used to treat schizophrenia and schizophrenia-related disorders. Antipsychotic medications are also known as neuroleptics. Some of the typical antipsychotic medications in their trade names are Thorazine, Prolixin, Stelazine, Mellaril, Navane, and Haldol. These medications were commonly used during the 1950’s.
In a patient with paranoid schizophrenia, they may be suffering with positive symptoms such as command auditory hallucinations of an aggressive nature, increasing the likely risk of becoming violent (Balaratnasingam, 2011). Many different tools are used to formulate a risk assessment. Different services may have different policies and procedures to formulate a risk assessment. Risk assessments are utilised to focus on the patient’s individual needs. Risk assessments are also designed to manage and identify areas of concern, either to the patient or health professional’s involved in the care of the patient.
While in the early stages of the deinstitutionalization the methods were radical and released patients from hospitals most programs were not well thought out or implemented. The hope was to give more hope to the mentally ill than the harm they were experiencing. Although this process created havoc and concern for society, it has evolved through the years and involves more than simply changing the locus of care for people. The today’s treatment involves a more tailored need to each individual, hospital care to those who need it, services culturally relevant,
Such therapies became widely used because doctors and nurses wanted to offer patients cutting-edge treatment. ECT and lobotomy, however, reinforced an old and persistent image of asylums as intimidating places of last resort. Many mental hospitals closed in the 1970s and 1980s. This was due to pressure from the antipsychiatry movement, feminist criticism, ex-patient activism and political suspicion of large, unaccountable institutions. Other mental hospitals were converted to ‘short-stay’ treatment centres - a policy enabled by new psychiatric drugs.
With the medication treatment the patient is giving antipsychotic drugs, is usually the most common in treating schizophrenia. Some of these medications include: Chlorpromazine (Thorazine), Haloperidol (Haldol), Perphenazine (Etrafon, Trilafon), Fluphenazine (Prolixin) and Risperdal (Dryden-Edwards, 2011). Although they seem to be effective in suppressing the disorder, sometimes the side effects can be worse than the disease itself. The antipsychotic drugs can sometimes leave patients in an almost “zombie-like” state, most common with Thorazine. It leaves the patient fairly lethargic, and sometimes can even heighten the original symptoms.