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