treatment of Abnormal Behavior ❮ 249or her future. Depressed individuals tend to have negative perceptions in all three areas. As
noted by Martin Seligman, depressed individuals tend to think they caused the negative
events, the negative events will affect everything they do, and the negative events will last
forever. Such thoughts and beliefs lead to low self-esteem, depression, and anxiety. The goal
of therapy is to help them change these irrationally negative beliefs into more positive and
realistic views so that failures are attributed to things outside their control and successes are
seen as personal accomplishments. Beck suggests specific tactics, including evaluating the
evidence the client has for and against automatic thoughts, reattributing the blame to situ-
ational factors rather than the client’s incompetence, and discussing alternative solutions
to the problem. For example, instead of blaming yourself for being stupid when the entire
class does poorly on a math exam, you might substitute the thought that you didn’t have
an adequate opportunity to study, and the test may not have been valid.
Cognitive therapies have been demonstrated to be effective in treating depressive dis-
orders, eating disorders, chronic pain, marital discord, and anxiety disorders (generalized
anxiety disorder, panic disorder, agoraphobia, and social phobia).Biological/Biomedical treatments
Biological psychologists believe that abnormal behavior results from neurochemical
imbalances, abnormalities in brain structures, or possibly some genetic predisposition.
Treatments, therefore, include psychopharmacotherapy (the use of psychotropic drugs
to treat mental disorders), electroconvulsive therapy, and psychosurgery. Medical doctors,
psychiatric nurse practitioners, and a limited number of clinical psychologists can prescribe
psychoactive drugs. Four major classifications of psychotropic drugs are anxiolytics (antianxiety
medications), antidepressants, stimulants, and neuroleptics (antipsychotics).Tranquilizers
Anxiolytics, also called tranquilizers and antianxiety drugs, include quick-acting benzodiaz-
epines such as the widely prescribed drugs Valium (diazepam), Librium (chlordiazepoxide),
and Xanax (alprazolam); and slow-acting BuSpar (buspirone). Benzodiazepines increase avail-
ability of the inhibitory neurotransmitter GABA to the limbic system and reticular activating
system where arousal is too high, reducing the anxiety felt by the patient. Other therapies
such as visualization, relaxation, and time management can be used in conjunction with drugs
so that the drugs may be tapered off over time, because patients can develop unpleasant side
effects and build up a tolerance to these compounds. Anxiolytics are helpful in the treat-
ment of post-traumatic stress disorder, panic disorder, agoraphobia, and generalized anxiety
disorder.Antidepressants
Antidepressant medications elevate mood by making monoamine neurotransmitters
including serotonin, norepinephrine, and/or dopamine more available at the synapse to
stimulate postsynaptic neurons. Types of antidepressants include monoamine oxidase
inhibitors (MAOIs), which inhibit the effects of chemicals that break down norepinephrine
and serotonin; tricyclics, which inhibit reuptake of serotonin; selective serotonin reuptake
inhibitors (SSRIs), which inhibit reuptake only of serotonin; and atypical antidepres-
sants (sometimes called non-SSRIs), some of which may inhibit reuptake of serotonin,
norepinephrine, and dopamine, or a combination of two of them. Commonly adver-
tised SSRls include paroxetine (Paxil), fluoxetine (Prozac), sertraline (Zoloft), citalopram