Psychological Therapies 619show any effect, they are not as subject to abuse as the minor tranquilizers and have
fewer of the same side effects.
THINKING CRITICALLYAt what age do you think children and/or teenagers should be able to decide if they will take
medications to treat abnormal psychological functioning or behavior?
The response entered here will be saved to your notes and may be
collected by your instructor if he/she requires it.SubmitOverall, many psychological professionals today believe that combining psy-
chotherapy with medical therapies—particularly drug therapy—is a more effective
approach to treating many disorders. A person dealing with major depressive disorder
may be given an antidepressant drug to alleviate symptoms but may also still need to
talk about what it’s like to deal with their symptoms and with needing the medication.
Psychotherapy combined with antidepressant medication therapy is more effective in
treating major depressive disorder than medication therapy alone and possibly better
than psychotherapy alone (Craighead & Dunlop, 2014). However, cognitive- behavioral
therapy in combination with drug therapy may not be more effective, as it may have
a larger impact than some other approaches, leaving less room for improvement
(Craighead & Dunlop, 2014). Individuals with such disorders as schizophrenia also ben-
efit from combined approaches, with strategies ranging from family- and community
support-based programs to individual or group-based cognitive-behavioral therapy
proving to be valuable conjunctive therapies to psychopharmacological treatment (Stahl,
2013). However, at least for individuals with major depressive disorder, combined treat-
ment should not be the default, as some individuals may respond effectively to only
one treatment modality, and there are increased monetary costs for combined treatments
(Craighead & Dunlop, 2014).
Ect and Psychosurgery
- 11 Explain how electroconvulsive therapy and psychosurgery are used to
treat psychological disorders.
As addressed at the beginning of the chapter, psychological disorders have been treated
in a variety of ways, via a variety of medical means, and some treatments have been bet-
ter options than others. Unfortunately, some methods were used indiscriminately, were
ineffective, or caused more harm than good. That has changed, and current alternative
biomedical options are effective options when other strategies have not been successful,
and they are sometimes the best option.
ELECTROCONVULSIVE THERAPY Many people are—well—shocked to discover that
electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) is still in use to treat cases of severe depression. ECT
involves the delivery of an electric shock to either one side or both sides of a person’s
head, resulting in a seizure or convulsion of the body and the release of a flood of
neurotransmitters in the brain (American Psychiatric Association [APA] Committee on
Electroconvulsive Therapy, 2001). The result is an almost immediate improvement in
mood, and ECT is used not only in severe cases of depression that have not responded
to drug treatments or psychotherapy or where the side effects of medication are not
acceptable but also in the treatment of several other severe disorders, such as schizo-
phrenia and severe mania, that are not responding to alternate treatments (APA Com-
mittee on Electroconvulsive Therapy, 2001; Pompili et al., 2013).
In the 1930s, doctors actually were researching the possible uses of inducing sei-
zures in treating schizophrenia, although the seizures were induced through means of
electroconvulsive therapy (ECT)
form of biomedical therapy to treat
severe depression in which electrodes
are placed on either one or both sides
of a person’s head and an electric cur-
rent is passed through the electrodes
that is strong enough to cause a sei-
zure or convulsion.