Treatments for depression

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  • Created by: Nadine
  • Created on: 31-05-13 12:36

Introduction

- Depression is a mood disorder, characterized by a low emotional state

- 1 in 3 people get depression, putting pressure for treatments to be fast, effective and consistant

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Paragraph 1 - ECT

- Electroconvusive treatment (ECT) is generally used in severe cases of depression when all other treatments did not work or extreme symptom reduction is required e.g. risk of suicide

- An electric current is passed through two scalp electrodes, given a barbiturate so they are unconscious and nerve blocking agent to prevent fractures

- A seizure is produced lasting around a minute that will effect the entire brain

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Paragraph 2 - ECT AO2

- Controversial because noone really knows how it works, Heather (1976) said it's like "kicking a TV box because it's not working" <------- LOVE this quote haha :') 

- BPS called for it to only be used in extreme cases with the patients fully informed consent

- There are side effects to consider, the most important being memory loss, at least 1 in 3 patients complain of persistant memory loss

- However memory loss is cumalitive, so treatment can be stopped before too much damage is done

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paragraph 3 - CBT

- Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) emphasises the effects of maladaptive thoughts and beieifs in the development and maintenance of depression

- The aim of CBT is to identify and correct the maladaptive thoughts/beliefs that turn into dysfunctional behaviour

- Many ingredients to CBT including: 

*Thought catching: making the patient realise what their thoughts have an effect on thier feelings/ behaviour

*Behaviour activation: joining clubs etc

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Paragraph 4 CBT AO2

-Measuring the effectiveness of CBT is difficult because patients usually receive CBT along with another treatment

- Although somepeople beleive that medication allows the access to the benefits of CBT

- Kulpers et al noted that there is higher pateint satisfaction and lower patient drop out in CBT

- Patient may become dependent on there therapist

-CBT is not suitable for people with high levels of dysfunctional thinking and resistant to change

- CBT also appears to less suitable where high levels of stress in the individual reflect realistic stressors in the persons life that therapy cant resolve.

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Conclusion

- Both have a plave in physiological/ psychological therapies, although limited

-They should not be used as sole treatments but are very effective when given along with another treatment such as antipsychotic medication

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