PSYC 111 Chapter Notes - Chapter 16.5, 16.6: Tardive Dyskinesia, Electroconvulsive Therapy, Spontaneous Remission
16.5: Is Psychotherapy Effective?
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• Meta-analysis- statistical method that helps researchers interpret large bodies of
psychological literature
• Dodo Bird Verdict- From Alice in Wonderland, “everybody has won and all must have
prizes.” Refers to the conclusion that all therapies are equivalent in their effects. Not all
investigators accept this verdict.
• Socioeconomic status, gender, race, ethnicity, and age typically have no bearing on
outcome of therapy
• Empirically supported treatment (EST)- intervention for specific disorders supported by
high quality scientific evidence
• Reasons bogus therapists gain a public following
o Spontaneous remission of client (“ups and downs”)
o The placebo affect
o Self-serving biases- people who have put in a lot of time, money, and energy into
therapy can persuade themselves they have been helped so they dont have to
face the idea of it all being a waste of time
o Retrospective rewriting of the past- we remember our initial wellbeing as worse
than it actually was, so we see ourselves as better
o Regression to the mean- people tend to get more average. (If come in super
depressed, likely to even out a bit.)
16.6: Biomedical Treatments: Medications, Electrical Stimulation, and Surgery
• Electroconvulsive therapy (shock therapy)- delivers small electric shocks to lift moods.
• Psychopharmacotherapy- use of medications to treat psychological problems
o Not a cure
o Almost all have side effects but most go away after medication is cut off
▪ However, not with Tardive Dyskinesia (TD) that can arise when treating
schizophrenia and includes muscle twitches
o Weight, age, and even race can affect drug response
o Criticism that medication is easily overprescribed, or that too are prescribed at
the same time without it being carefully monitored enough (polypharmacy).
Also, don’t help patients cope with conflict so they will typically relapse when
taken off the medication.
• Many say that disorders that are biological (schizophrenia) should be treated with
medication, while disorders that are environmental (specific phobia) should be treated
with psychotherapy.
• Personalized medicine- medical practice that customizes interventions to maximize
success in treating patients with specific psychological or medical disorders and
conditions.
• If psychotherapy alone hasn’t worked for a 2-month period, adding medication is
justified.
