Psy 202: Chapter 15 Treating psychological disorders How are psychological disorders treated? - No instant cures for psychological disorders, managed over time through treatment - The choice of treatment depends on the type and severity of symptoms as well as the diagnosis - Two categories of techniques to treat mental disorders, biological and psychological - Psychotherapy: the generic name given to formal psychological treatment o All forms of psychotherapy involve interactions between a practitioner and a patient - Biological therapies: reflect medical approaches and treatment to illness and to disease o Based on the notion that mental disorders result from abnormalities in the neural and bodilyprocesses o Biological treatments range from drugs to electrical stimulation of brain regions to surgical intervention - Psychopharmacology: the use of medication that affect brain or body functions, can be particularly effective for some disorders, at least short term - One limitation of biological therapies is that the long-term success may require the person to continue treatment - Nonbiological treatments are more effective for some disorders in the long run - Also, focus on combining biological therapies with other approaches to find the best treatment - The best treatment for autism is based on behavioral, not biological principals - When a patient loses their parents, the therapist might favor drugs to cure the depression for the short term basis because this biological treatment was not caused by biological factors Psychotherapy is based on psychological principles: - Generally aimed at changing patterns of thought or of behavior - More than 400 approaches to treatment - Eclectic: using a variety of techniques that seem appropriate for a given client - Good factor of therapy: maintaining a good relationship between the therapist and the client because a good relationship can foster an expectation of receiving help Psychodynamic therapy focuses on insight: - Sigmund Freud: first to develop psychological treatments for mental disorders o Believed that such disorders were caused by prior experiences, particularly early traumatic experiences o Josef Breuer: pioneered the method of psychoanalysis - Early forms of psychoanalysis: client would lie on the couch and the therapist would be out of view. This method was meant to reduce the client’s inhibitions and allow freer access to unconscious thought processes - Involved uncovering unconscious feelings and drives that gave rise to maladaptive thoughts and behaviors - Free association: client would say whatever cam to mind and the therapist would look for signs of unconscious conflict - Dream analysis: the therapist would interpret the hidden meaning of the client’s dreams - Goal of psychoanalysis is to increase the client’s awareness of his or her own unconscious psychological processes and see how they would effect daily function (insight definition)- By gaining insight, the client is freed from these unconscious influences - Client’s symptoms diminish as a result of reducing unconscious conflicts - Psychodynamic therapy: adaptions to Freud’s ideas… in this approach, a therapist aims to help a patient examine the patient’s needs, defenses and motives as a way of understanding why the patient is distressed - Feature of psychodynamic therapy is exploring the client’s avoidance of distressing thoughts, looking for reoccurring themes and patterns in thoughts and feelings, discussing early trauma, focusing on interpersonal relationships, childhood attachment and exploring fantasies, dreams and wishes- Some features, such as focusing on interpersonal relationships and patterns in thoughts and feelings are common to most forms of psychotherapy and thus they do not distinguish psychodynamic therapy from other types of treatment - Psychodynamic therapy has become increasingly controversial (expensive and time-consuming) - Weak evidence for its effectiveness in treating more psychological disorders - Minimal empirical evidence for much of Freudian theorizing and it is not surprising that treatments based on those theories are largely ineffective - New approach: consists of offering fewer sessions and focusing more on current relationships than on early-childhood experiences - Believed that ppl have underlying conflicts that need to be resolved (same as Freud) - This short term psychodynamic therapy can be useful for treating certain disorders, including depression, eating disorders and substance abuse - It is not clear whether the psychodynamic aspects are superior to other brief forms of therapy, such as simply talking about personal problems- The opportunity to talk about one’s problems to someone who will listen plays a role in all therapeutic relationships Health benefits of talking and expressing emotion: - Researchers have found positive health effects for ppl who disclose emotional events- When ppl reveal intimate and highly emotional material, they go into a trancelike state o Pitch of voice does down, rates of speech speed up, lose track of time and place - Reveal that talking or writing about emotionally charged events reduces blood pleasure, muscle tension and skin conduction during the disclosure and immediately after - Over the long term, writing about emotional events improves immune functioning, even with ppl whohave HIV - Talking about emotions may help intercept the event in less threatening ways - Such reinterpretation is a central component of many cognitive therapies Humanistic therapies focus on the whole person: - The goal of humanistic therapy is to treat the person as a whole, not as a collection of behaviors or a repository of repressed thoughts - Client centered therapy: encourages ppl to fulfill their individual potentials for personal growth through greater self understanding - Also to create a safe and comforting environment for clients to access their true feelings - Motivational interviewing: a client centered approach over a very short period of time (1 or 2 interviews) - Motivational interviewing has proved a valuable treatment for drug and alcohol abuse Cognitive and behavioral therapies target thoughts and behavior:- Many of the most successful therapies involve trying to change ppl’s cognition and behavior directly - Insight based therapies consider maladaptive behavior the result of an underlying problem, behavioral and cognitive therapies treat the thoughts and behaviors as the