Drug Therapy AO3

• Soomro (2008) reviewed 17 studies that used SSRIs with OCD patients and found them to be more effective than placebos in reducing symptoms for up to 3 months
• Little effort is needed to take the pills and it is not time consuming like talking therapies. It is also cheaper to mass produce compared to psychological treatment
• How long do SSRIs take to start working fully? (disadvantage)

  2 months and many people experience side effects during this time. As a result, patients may stop using the drugs which reduces its effectiveness
• Drug therapy is a short term fix as patients can relapse if they stop taking medication
• Drug therapy doesn’t treat the underlying cause of OCD. Therefore, alternative treatments are needed such as exposure therapy and CBT
• Drug therapy is reductionist as it assumes all human behvaiour is controlled by neurotransmitters which removes elements of cognition or external stimuli on behaviour and ignores how complex humans can be
• Why might there be publication bias?


  Studies which show a positive correlation between drug and OCD symptoms decreasing are more likely to be published than those that don’t.
• Publication bias


  Research is funded by drug companies who want their drugs to look successful. This impacts doctor’s judgement and prescription