Biological Therapies to Psychopathology

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A method of physical treatments to change the brain's electrochemical state.

It targets the neurochemistry as you can't reconstruct the anatomy or genes.

The use of Drugs

1) Antipsychotics (Treat SZ)

Mode of action: Dopamine antagonist. 

2) Anti-depressants (Treat Depression)

Mode of action: Serotonin agonist.

3) Anxidytic (Treat Anxiety)

Mode of action: Serotonin antagonist.

Hypothesis: If you change the chemistry, you can change the behaviour.

4) Mood Stabilisers (Treat Bipolar)

E.g. lithium, in this disorder periods of depression are followed by periods of mania.

The synapses block the reuptake for different amounts of serotonin in the synaptic cleft. Overactive dopamine can cause SZ.

All these drug treatments will have negative side-effects. Physically it can cause tardive dyskinevia - a person can't stop

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