Schizophrenia is a mental illness which is characterised by both positive symptoms such as delusions, hallucinations and disordered thinking, and negative symptoms such as a loss of normal emotional responses, speech and motivation. There are a range of treatments from biological to psychological treatments such as chemotherapy, electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) and cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT). Antipsychotics were originally developed to calm patients facing surgery, and they proved highly effective in reducing the incidence of death from surgical shock. Chlorpromazine and related phenothiazines were soon used in psychiatric patients, starting in the early 1950s. They revolutionised psychiatry by allowing the most disturbed schizophrenic patients live outside a psychiatric hospital, or reduce their average length of stay.
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.
Grilly had found people with Parkinson’s disease (low levels of dopamine) who were taking the drug L-dopa to raise their levels of dopamine were developing schizophrenic type symptoms. 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 then in fact weakens the support for the dopamine hypothesis.
CBT has many advantages in treating depression, such as helping patients recognize and address negative thoughts. However, there are limitations and CBT is not always accepted as a viable treatment option for some. This paper addresses the goals of CBT in treating depression, the advantages and limitations of CBT for depression and explains how the therapy works to treat depression. Depression and Cognitive Behavioral Therapy 1 Depression and Cognitive Behavioral Therapy “Since its introduction in the 1970s, cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) for depression has become one of the most widely investigated and practiced forms of therapy for depression” (Tang 2005). CBT is a psychological treatment that has been evaluated at length and shown to be effective in most cases of depression.
While the public has formed negative stereotypes due to misunderstanding methadone, methadone maintenance is the most effective form of substance abuse treatment for heroin and pain pill addiction. Methadone is a man made synthetic drug that is used to treat narcotic addicts in preventing withdraw and dependence of opiates. During World War II, German scientists invented Methadone due to the shortage of morphine. Methadone was first used in the United States for drug treatment in the 1960’s. “Two New York physicians, Vincent Dole, a metabolic specialist, and his colleague, Marie Nyswander, a psychiatrist, invented methadone maintenance.” (Velten, 1992) Methadone clinics are available in every state and the medication can be prescribed orally, as a tablet, or can be injected.
Most mental health experts agree that when depression is severe, medication can be helpful, even life saving. Other studies show that the benefits of depression medication have been exaggerated. When it comes to mild to moderate depression, antidepressants are only slightly more effective than Natural Cures. They altar chemicals in the brain like serotonin, dopamine, and norepinephrine causing the body to be more prone to side
The FDA's Drug Review Process: Ensuring Drugs Are Safe and Effective The path a drug travels from a lab to your medicine cabinet is usually long, and every drug takes a unique route. Often, a drug is developed to treat a specific disease. An important use of a drug may also be discovered by accident For example, Retrovir (zidovudine, also known as AZT) was first studied as an anti-cancer drug in the 1960s with disappointing results. It wasn't until the 1980s that researchers discovered the drug could treat AIDS, and the Food and Drug Administration approved the drug, manufactured by GlaxoSmithKline, for that purpose in 1987. Most drugs that undergo preclinical (animal) testing never even make it to human testing and review by the FDA.
Treatment During an episode of schizophrenia, you may need to stay in the hospital for safety reasons. MEDICATIONS Antipsychotic medications are the most effective treatment for schizophrenia. They change the balance of chemicals in the brain and can help control symptoms/ These medications are usually helpful, but they can cause side effects. Many of these side effects can be improved, and should not prevent people from seeking treatment for this serious condition. Common side effects from antipsychotics may include: •Sleepiness (sedation) •Dizziness •Weight gain •Increased chance of diabetes and high cholesterol •Feelings of restlessness or "jitters" •Slowed movements •Tremor Long-term use of antipsychotic medications may increase your risk for a movement disorder called tardive dyskinesia.
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
Lead researcher Dr. Phillip Shaw said, "If you have a certain variant of this gene, you have a greatly increased risk of having ADHD." In the second study, scientists found that ADHD is associated with lowered dopamine production. ADHD is a real disease, which can not be cured but only treated. According to Journal of Child and Adolescent Psychopharmacrology, scientist recorded a study after conducting research on the long usage of IR-MPH, which they found children who took the 10 month trial of the medicine showed decreased signs of ADHD symptoms. Jeffrey Newcorn’s scholarly journal about Pychopharmacrologic Tretment recognizes methylphenidate and detroamphetamine as both good medicines to help control the symptoms of ADHD.