Psychological Disorders

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Psychological Disorders

• Some statistics
• 1 in 6 Americans suffers clinically significant
  mental disorders
• The incidences of mental disorders doubles for
  those below the poverty line
• Over 75 of all sufferers experience their first
  symptoms by the age of 24

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Psychological Therapies
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• With the development of drugs in the 1950s, the
  major push was to localize therapy and to
  deinstitutionalize patients

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• There are over 250 identifiable types of
  psychotherapy, though the most influential are
• Psychodynamic Therapies
• Humanistic Therapies
• Behavior Therapies
• Cognitive Therapies
• Group and Family Therapies
• Bio-Medical Therapies
• Any therapist who uses a combination of therapies
  is said to be using an eclectic approach to
  therapy

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• Psychoanalysis

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• Aims
• Psychoanalysis assumes that many psychological
  problems are fueled by the childhood repression
  of impulses and conflicts

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• It is the job of a psychoanalyst to
• bring repressed feelings into conscious
  awareness

• have the patient work through the feelings
• release the negative, repressed energy

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• Methods
• Free Association
• Resistance
• Interpretation
• Transference
• Dream Association
• Latent Content

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• Humanistic Therapies

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• The humanistic therapists goal is to boost
  self-fulfillment
• Humanists hope to accomplish their goals by
• Focusing on the present and the future, rather
  than the past
• Exploring feelings as they occur, rather than
  repressed, past feelings
• Dealing with conscious thoughts, rather than the
  unconscious FREE WILL!

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• Methods
• Carl Rogers Client-Centered Therapy is a
  widely used humanistic technique.

HI! Remember Me?

• Focuses on a therapists ability to exhibit
  genuineness, acceptance, and empathy for their
  clients.
• empathy is also called unconditional positive
  regard).
• ACTIVE LISTENING

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• Behavior Therapies

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• Aims
• Behaviorists believe that problem behaviors are
  the problem, and the goal is not to figure out
  the meanings behind them, but instead to simply
  eliminate or unlearn the problem behavior
• Classical and Operant Conditioning

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• If a claustrophobic fear of elevators is a
  learned aversion to confined spaces, then a
  behaviorist would put something relaxing in the
  elevator to alleviate the fear response
  (soothing, classical music?).

Associating the trigger (enclosed spaces) with a
new, less fearful response (relaxation) is
called counter conditioning.
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• Systematic Desensitization
• IE. Billy is afraid of rabbits and other furry
  creatures. Rabbits Fear.
• Billy enjoys eating. Eating Happy.
• Billys therapist wants to eliminate Billys fear
  of rabbits. His therapist will attempt to
  associate the fear-inducing rabbits with
  something that makes Billy happy, like dinner
  time.

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• Systematic Desensitization is also known as
  exposure therapy. A therapist is attempting to
  gradually substitute a positive response for a
  negative response to a harmless stimulus.

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• Systematic Desensitization
• US CS UR
• Dinner Rabbit Relaxed
• After Counter-Conditioning
• CS CR
• Rabbit Relaxed

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• Aversive Conditioning

• In aversive conditioning, a therapist tries to
  replace a positive response to a harmful stimulus
  with a negative response.

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• US UR
• Thumb Sucking Enjoyment
• US UR
• Hot Peppers Sickness
• A therapist wants to eliminate the enjoyment
  derived from thumb sucking.

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• Aversive Conditioning
• US CS UR
• Hot Peppers Thumb Sickness
• After Reconditioning
• CS CR
• Thumb Sucking Sickness

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• Methods
• Behavior therapists who use operant counter
  conditioning
• Use positive reinforcers to shape behavior in a
  step-by-step manner by rewarding closer and
  closer approximations of the desired behavior
• Withhold reinforcement, or punish, for undesired
  behaviors

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• Methods
• The rewards used to modify behavior vary, from
  praise to food, depending on the individual,
  their disorder, and the therapist

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• Methods
• In some cases, a token economy is set up. A
  token economy is one in which a therapist rewards
  patients for displaying appropriate behaviors by
  giving them a token, such as a ticket or a
  plastic coin, that they can later exchange for
  prizes or gifts.

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• Cognitive Therapies

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• Aims
• Generally used for depression and anxiety
  disorders
• Cognitive therapists attempt to teach people new,
  more adaptive ways of thinking and acting

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• Aims
• The belief is that our thinking and
  interpretation of external events is what causes
  depression and anxiety, not the events
  themselves. A therapist wants to change the
  thought processes of patients from negative to
  positive to alleviate disorder symptoms.

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• Methods
• A variation of this therapy is called
  cognitive-behavior therapy. This therapy aims to
  alter the way people act and to alter the way
  they think.

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• Group and Family Therapies

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• Aims
• Group therapy is generally for people
  experiencing family conflicts or those whose
  behavior is distressing to others.

• Benefits
• others have same disorder
• share therapy ideas
• receive feedback
• you are not alone

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• Methods
• Usually groups of six to ten individuals
• Averaging up to 90 minutes per week

• Family Therapy promotes the idea that families
  are a unit that depends on each member to be
  positive and to communicate

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• Alternative Therapies

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Therapeutic Touch

• A practitioner moves their hands a few inches
  from a patients body, purportedly pushing
  energy fields into balance

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Eye Movement Desensitization Reprocessing (EMDR)

• Usually for disorders associated with trauma and
  anxiety.
• A patient is asked to close their eyes and to
  think about a traumatic scene from their life.
• A therapist waves their hand in front of their
  eyes as they are thinking, causing rapid eye
  movement

Does this resemble the stress-less REM of sleep?

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Light Exposure Therapy

• Especially for seasonal affective disorder, or
  depression brought on seasonal changes from
  summer to winter (less light). The therapy
  includes timed doses of intense light in light
  boxes.

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Electroconvulsive Therapy

• Patients brains are given momentary shock
  treatments, generally for about 30 seconds.

• Patients are given an anesthetic so that they are
  not conscious, and a muscle relaxant to prevent
  any injuries that may occur from convulsions.

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• Psychosurgery
• Surgery that removes or destroys brain tissue in
  an effort to change behavior.
• Once popular, but no more, a lobotomy cuts the
  nerves that connect the frontal lobe to the
  emotion-controlling centers in the inner-brain.

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• Psychopharmacology
• The study of the effects of drugs on the mind and
  behavior
• Introduced in the 1950s
• Greatly reduced those confined to a hospital
• currently applied to just about anything

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• Careful
• The normal recovery rate from drug therapy isnt
  100
• The placebo effect may skew results meaning,
  patients assume that because they are taking a
  pill, they must be getting better
• so the pill isnt necessarily effective, but the
  belief in it is

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• Antipsychotic Drugs
• Drugs used for the purpose of calming psychotic
  patients those patients with fundamental mental
  derangement (such as schizophrenia) characterized
  by defective or lost contact with reality (ie.
  hallucinations, paranoia, apathy, withdrawal)
• IE. Thorazine, Clozaril, Haldol

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• Antipsychotic drugs work by attaching themselves
  to receptor sites for dopamine, thus blocking
  their transmission from neuron to neuron.
  Excessive dopamine in the bodys system is linked
  to schizophrenia.

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• Antianxiety Drugs
• Are used for the purpose of alleviating the
  symptoms stemming from frightening situations and
  fear-inducing stimuli
• IE. Xanax, Valium

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• Antianxiety drugs work by depressing the central
  nervous system activity

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• Antidepressant Drugs
• The purpose is to lift people up from a state of
  depression
• IE. Prozac, Paxil, Zoloft

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• Antidepressant drugs work by increasing the
  availability of norepinephrine and/or serotonin,
  which elevate arousal and mood

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• These drugs are often called reuptake-inhibitors
• They block the reuptake of neurotransmitters
• Therefore more of the neurotransmitter is left
  in the synapse and its effects are felt for
  longer periods of time

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• Lithium is an anti-depressant used mainly for
  manic-depressives (bipolar)

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Some Criticisms of Drug Therapy

• Doesnt address the root causes of behavior
  disorders
• May cause addiction
• Increased risks for suicide with some drugs?
• May cause other symptoms, disorders or diseases