HSC 4201 Chapter Notes - Chapter 11: Alternating Current, Psychodynamic Psychotherapy, Suicidal Ideation
Document Summary
This approach to treatment regards mental disorders as medical illnesses just like hypothyroidism or diabetes, and as such treatable with drugs. Conditions for which medications exist are: schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, major depression, anxiety, panic disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder. Although not everyone who has these disorders responds to medication, this reflects both shortcomings of the diagnostic process and our limited understanding of the biological basis of mental disorders. Because some of these drugs have serious side effects, and because the nature of mental illness itself, almost half of patients may not cooperate fully in taking their medications. Another form of biomedical therapy is ect : an alternating electric current passes through the brain to produce unconsciousness and a convulsive seizure. Overwhelming suicide ideation, especially when the need for treatment is as urgent: contemporary ect methods use low doses of electric shock to the brain and general anesthetics to reduce the unpleasant side effects. There are numerous approaches to psychotherapy, including:
