Treatments For Schizophrenia

1. Treatments For Schizophrenia

2. Biological Approach Electro-convulsive therapy • Involves inducing convulsive seizure • Introduced by Cerletti 1935/6 and based on the idea hat schizophrenic and epilepsy do not occur in the sane person so if one can induce an epileptic fit in a schizophrenic person the patient would be cured.

3. Process • 1. Preparation - A medical examination is carried out and the patient is not allowed to eat 6 hours before treatment. The patient is put to sleep and also given muscle relaxant and oxygen. • 2. Administration – Two electrodes are attached to the patients head and a current is given from 65 to 140V through the patients brain for half a second. This causes a convulsion which lasts from 25 seconds to several minutes. • 3. Recovery – Patients awakens about 10 minutes after the current was applied.

4. Evaluation Weaknesses • Not ethical (Harm and not consent) • Often over used and abused • STM loss Strengths • 60% - 90% success rate • Effective when anti-depressant drugs fail.

5. Learning Approach Systematic desensitization • Ellis 1991 • Based on the principle of incompatible responses i.e. the idea that you can’t be anxious and relaxed at the same time. • The treatment assumes that the phobia can be removed by teaching someone to relax when in contact with the phobic object.

6. Process • 1. Functional analysis – questioning to find the nature of the anxiety and triggers. • 2. Anxiety hierarchy – client and therapist come up with some anxiety provoking situations from least to most fearful. • 3. Relaxation training – client taught to relax using well suited methods. • 4. Gradual exposure – phobic object slowly introduced.

7. Effectiveness • With simple phobias. • More ethical than Aversion therapy. • Goals are clearly specified so outcomes are easily measured. • Complex phobias have high relapse rates. • Doesn’t deal with other underlying issues that may be the causes.

8. Cognitive Approach Rational Emotive Therapy • Based on the idea that early experiences may cause a dysfunctional belief or faulty schema. This then leads to incorrect information processing and RET aims to change irrational thinking patterns into rational ones.

9. Process • Therapy sessions • The client is asked about the activating event to try and make them aware of the negative beliefs. • Devise experiments as role-plays so that clients recognize the consequences. • The client and therapist devise new goals to enable more realistic beliefs.

10. Evaluation • Effective in producing behavior change amongst those who are self demanding and who feel guilty for not living up to their own high standards. Faulty thinking is subjective. What the therapist may identify may not be foolish in the patients own experiences.

11. Social Approach Care in the community • Mental disorders can be triggered by factors in the environment. • Caring for patients in the community to avoid institutionalization. • The programmes aim to rehabilitate the patients ensuring that they can function as normally as possible in society. • Sheltered accommodation with 24 hour care.

12. Evaluation • Community care seems to be better than hospital when properly funded. • Less severe symptoms • Underfunding • Where you live also has a impact on the quality of the care in the community.

13. Psychodynamic Approach Dream analysis • Access patients unconscious mind. When we sleep our ego’s defenses are more relaxed, so material that normally stays in our unconscious enters our conscious in the form of a dream.

14. Evaluation • 88% of clients preferred the therapist to interpret their dreams • Subjective • Self report unreliable