Treatments - AP Psychology

"Atypical antipsychotics" are not typically utilized in treating depression; however, they can be effective for treating individuals with schizophrenia. All of the other answer choices are commonly prescribed antidepressants used to treat depressive symptomologies.

Stimulants are commonly prescribed to treat ADHD symptomology. Stimulants may be short-acting or long-acting; many individuals with ADHD require one stimulant from each category to get through a school and/or work day.

"Levodopa," commonly referred to as L-Dopa, is used to increase dopamine concentrations in the treatment of Parkinson's disease and dopamine resistant dystonia.

"Lithium" has been shown to be highly successful in treating the manic symptoms associated with bipolar disorder. It functions as an effective mood stabilizer for people with this disorder; furthermore, it has limited side effects in comparison to other common psychopharmacological treatments.

SSRIs are a class of antidepressant drugs that help to treat major depressive disorder and various anxiety disorders. At a cellular level, SSRIs prevent the reuptake of serotonin, which allows the body to maintain a higher level of serotonin.

Electroconvulsive therapy is the use of electric shock to produce convulsions and treat drug-resistant or particularly severe psychiatric disorders. It is frequently seen as a last resort.

Phototherapy is treatment with bright white fluorescent lights, generally used to treat seasonal disorders. Behavorial therapy is used to change maladaptive behaviors such as smoking or alcohol abuse. Cognitive therapy is used to remove negative thoughts that harm a person's emotional health. Psychotherapy is any means of treating psychiatric disorders by mental rather than pharmacological means.

While scientists are still unsure why it works, electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) is known to relieve symptoms in some people with depression. It involves sedating the patient and applying electrical shocks to the brain via electrodes that induce a brief seizure. Current beliefs suggest that this series of electrical shocks changes or somehow “resets” brain chemistry and firing patterns, which in turn lead to the alleviation of symptoms seen in patients. The negative symptoms (e.g. memory loss during treatment, headache, muscle pain, etc.) are often quite uncomfortable; therefore, ECT is only used in extreme cases where other treatments have failed. While ECT may seem primitive or even unethical, its proven results mean it is still in use today.

The SSRIs are a class of drugs used in the treatment of major depressive disorder. They work by blocking the re-uptake of serotonin by the pre-synaptic neuron in the synaptic cleft. By blocking re-uptake, they allow for serotonin to stay in the synaptic cleft for a longer period of time.

Humanistic psychology, pioneered by Carl Rogers and Abraham Maslow, is a psychological perspective that advocates the study of the whole person. Unconditional positive regard occurs when therapists support and accept the client wholeheartedly, regardless of the client's expressed views and behaviors.

Many approaches and treatments have found to be successful in reducing PTSD. Some of the most successful include eye movement desensitization and reprocessing, participation in rap or therapy groups, psychological debriefing, insight therapy, and behavioral exposure techniques.

Exposure treatments are some of the most effective treatments for phobias. Exposure treatments include systematic desensitization, flooding, relaxation training, and participant modeling. Avoidance is not a viable means of overcoming a phobia.

Dissociative identity disorder is highly disruptive due to the overarching presence of subpersonalities that are controlling different aspects of a person's life. The goal in therapy is to fuse all the personalities, not help them all obtain equal power and "face time" in the life of a person.

Seasonal affective disorder is a mood disorder associated with episodes of depression during the winter months, and appears to be related to a lack of sunshine causing increased melatonin production by the pineal gland. It can be helped by phototherapy with bright white fluorescent lights.

Behavorial therapy is used to change maladaptive behaviors such as smoking or alcohol abuse. Cognitive therapy is used to remove negative thoughts that harm a person's emotional health. Psychotherapy is any means of treating psychiatric disorders by mental rather than pharmacological means. Electroconvulsive therapy is the use of electric shock to produce convulsions and treat drug-resistant psychiatric disorders.

SSRIs, cognitive therapy, group therapy, and person-centered therapy are all treatments for depression; systematic desensitization is a therapy for anxiety disorders, especially phobias.

Free association, dream analysis, resistance, and transference are all aspects of psychodynamic/psychoanalytic therapy. Free association is when a patient talks in a relaxed and aimless way about anything that comes to mind so the therapist can try to determine any thoughts that might be repressed. Dream analysis is when the content of a patient's dreams is analyzed in order to understand the patient's unconscious, especially their wishes. Resistance is when a patient blocks memories from the conscious mind and/or becomes resistant to therapy when the therapist is getting near the heart of why the patient is in therapy. Transference is when the patient begins to react to the therapist in ways influenced by their childhood desires.

Unconditional positive regard is an aspect of person-centered humanistic therapy.

Though the amount of drug they must take increases, the types of effects of the drug are the same. Tolerance can eventually lead to withdrawal symptoms if the drug is not taken.

SSRIs CAN be, and are often, combined with cognitive talk therapy. In fact, it would be quite rare for a person to be prescribed anti-depressants without some element of talk therapy being used as a part of their course of treatment.

During surgical procedures, the brain tissue can be damaged or removed completely. This is known as an ablation.

There are many reasons why people may resist or not seek out treatment for a psychological disorder. Social stigma surrounds psychological disorders and their treatment; someone might be afraid of seeming "crazy" if he or she seeks treatment. In addition, some disorders, particularly personality disorders, are characterized by a lack of awareness, so people who have them might not realize they need help. Lastly, people might be overwhelmed at the thought of how/where to start treatment and worried that therapy and medication will be too costly.