Conventional and Atypical Antipsychotic Drug Therapies

Created by: Emma Kwiecinska
Created on: 28-02-14 09:50


	Conventional and Atypical Antipsychotic Drug Therapies
	Similarities Combat the positive symptoms of SZ (such as hallucinations and delusions) Side effects can cause a patient to stop taking the drug, as it reduces their quality of life/can make symptoms worse Both come with ethical issues, mainly informed consent. This is an issue because if patients are in a psychotic state the cannot give true informed consent. Responsibility is also an issue, medication may lower a pps motivation to seek other forms of treatment, and become reliant on the drug.	Differences Conventional anti-psychs are DP antagonists, they bind to dopamine receptors without stimulating them, and so block the action of the receptor, dopamine cannot bind to them!. Atypical anti-psychs tackle negative symptoms as well as positive ones. Atypical anti-psychs block the activity of DP in the mesolimbic pathway (and so are DP antagonists), especially at D2 receptors, and are also thought to block serotonin receptors (this increases DP levels in the frontal cortex, alleviating negative symptoms.) Atypical anti-psychs produce fewer motor side effects than conventional anti-psychs. They have different side effects as atypical anti-psychs bind to the D2 receptors rather than the D1 ones that conventional anti-psychs bind to.
	Overall comparison Overall, SGAs seem to be more effective than FGAs, as they tackle more of the symptoms of SZ. Drug treatment is also considered one of the most effective forms of therapy for SZ, they are quick to target symptoms and allow the pp to live a normal life as they are not a time consuming treatment that needs motivation to undergo. But they also come with potentially serious side effects which should be seriously considered before starting treatment. Aswell as this, they only suppress the symptoms of SZ rather than dealing with the mental thought processes, they don't fully eliminate the disorder. (e.g disordered thinking.) Clearly drug treatments all err on the nature/nativist side of the nature/nurture debate and are so are biologically determinist. This is because the main assumption of taking antipsychotic medication is that by targeting the physical causes, the disorder can be 'cured' without a need for analysis of the persons life/therapy/family/background etc. and does not have any cognitive grounding.

Conventional and Atypical Antipsychotic Drug Therapies

Similarities

Combat the positive symptoms of SZ (such as hallucinations and delusions)
Side effects can cause a patient to stop taking the drug, as it reduces their quality of life/can make symptoms worse
Both come with ethical issues, mainly informed consent. This is an issue because if patients are in a psychotic state the cannot give true informed consent. Responsibility is also an issue, medication may lower a pps motivation to seek other forms of treatment, and become reliant on the drug.

Differences

Conventional anti-psychs are DP antagonists, they bind to dopamine receptors without stimulating them, and so block the action of the receptor, dopamine cannot bind to them!.
Atypical anti-psychs tackle negative symptoms as well as positive ones.
Atypical anti-psychs block the activity of DP in the mesolimbic pathway (and so are DP antagonists), especially at D2 receptors, and are also thought to block serotonin receptors (this increases DP levels in the frontal cortex, alleviating negative symptoms.)
Atypical anti-psychs produce fewer motor side effects than conventional anti-psychs. They have different side effects as atypical anti-psychs bind to the D2 receptors rather than the D1 ones that conventional anti-psychs bind to.

Overall comparison

Overall, SGAs seem to be more effective than FGAs, as they tackle more of the symptoms of SZ. Drug treatment is also considered one of the most effective forms of therapy for SZ, they are quick to target symptoms and allow the pp to live a normal life as they are not a time consuming treatment that needs motivation to undergo. But they also come with potentially serious side effects which should be seriously considered before starting treatment. Aswell as this, they only suppress the symptoms of SZ rather than dealing with the mental thought processes, they don't fully eliminate the disorder. (e.g disordered thinking.) Clearly drug treatments all err on the nature/nativist side of the nature/nurture debate and are so are biologically determinist. This is because the main assumption of taking antipsychotic medication is that by targeting the physical causes, the disorder can be 'cured' without a need for analysis of the persons life/therapy/family/background etc. and does not have any cognitive grounding.

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Conventional and Atypical Antipsychotic Drug Therapies