Drug therapy

• Antipsychotic drugs- used to treat disorders (e.g Schizophrenia where they've lost touch from reality).

  • Conventional antipsychotics - Blocks dopamine by binding to the receptor and used to combat positive effects of schizophrenia (delusions and hallucinations).
  • Atypical antipsychotics - temporarily occupies dopamine receptor then rapidly disassociates for normal dopamine transmission to lower side effects.
• Anti Anxiety Drugs - Benzodiazepines:

  1. Slow the action of the CNS
  2. Enhances the action of GABA (natural form of anxiety relief) and reduces anxiety by altering neurotransmitters (reduces serotonin , therefore arousal and anxiety)
  3. BZ's increases GABA activity to decrease serotonin.
• Anti Anxiety Drugs - Beta Blockers: Reduce the activity of adrenaline and noradrenaline (part of sympathetic nervous system's response to stress). BB's bind to receptors in the heart and body reducing the autonomic nervous system's association with arousal.
• Antidepressants - SSRIs: Selectively inhibit the reuptake of serotonin into presynaptic neurons, increasing its availability at postsynaptic sites. This leads to increased activation of serotonergic synapses which improves mood.
• Chemotherapy is the use of psychoactive drugs to treat mental disorders. In 2009, a 1/4 of all drugs prescribed were psychoactive, aiming to return the body to a normal level of functioning.
• Drug therapy - Weaknesses:

  • Addiction
  • Ashton (1997) found that BZ's should only be used for 4 weeks
  • Ferguson (2005) found that people on SSRI's are twice as likely to commit suicide
  • Side effects of SSRI's Include: sweating, indigestion, nausea, headache, dry mouth and drowsiness
  • Drugs treat symptoms but not the cause, as soon as treatment stops, signs of stress return
• Drug therapy - Strengths:

  • Easy to use
  • Cheap and efficient (easy to administer)
  • Kahn et al (1986) followed 250 patients over 8 weeks and found BZ's superior to placebos
  • Real world applications (Beta Blockers reduce anxiety for musicians and sportsmen)
  • Drug treatments are proven to be effective (Soomro et al [2008] studied SSRI's with OCD and found them to be more effective than than placebos reducing symptoms up to 3 months after treatment)
• Drug Therapy - Ethical Considerations:

  • Use of placebos (deception) , nobody deserves inferior treatment
  • Physical harm - side effects considered harmful e.g increased tolerance, addiction
  • Patient information e.g valid consent- will not remember all side effects and GP may not always give info to exaggerate better option