(a) In group therapy, the therapist acts as a , an individual who mediates
between members of the group, allows everyone a chance to participate, and keeps the
group on track.
(b) Group therapy during World War II was often used to treat what condition related to the
stress of combat?
(c) Groups that aim at fostering one’s potentialities and personal growth are called
groups.
Answers: (a) facilitator; (b) Battle fatigue; (c) encounter.
Drug Therapy: A Revolution in Psychiatry
Drug therapy has revolutionized psychiatry in the past forty years. Before the advent
of effective psychiatric drugs in the 1960s, one of the principal treatments used with
severely disturbed mental patients—patients with disorders such as schizophrenia or
major depressive episode—was electroconvulsive therapy. Electroconvulsive ther-
apy (ECT)passes a mild electric current through the frontal lobes of the brain,
inducing a seizure similar to a grand mal seizurein epilepsy. The therapy is some-
times effective; research suggests that it temporarily increases the level of certain of
the nervous system’s neurotransmitters, particularly norepinephrine. Although ECT
is still sometimes employed, it has by and large given way to drug therapy.
Four categories of psychiatric drugs are: (1) antipsychotic agents, (2) antianxiety
agents, (3) antidepressent agents, and (4) mood-stabilizing agents.
Antipsychotic agentsare drugs that treat mental disorders characterized by
a loss of touch with reality. The principal disorder treated with antipsychotic
agents is schizophrenia. Delusions, hallucinations, and agitation tend to be either
eliminated or reduced in intensity when patients use antipsychotic agents. The
term major tranquilizersis sometimes also employed to classify these drugs.
One of the ways in which antipsychotic agents work is by regulating the activity
of the neurotransmitter dopamine.
Psychiatric drugs, like drugs in general, have a generic name and a trade name.
Only the trade name of the drug is capitalized. A trade name for chlorpromazine
is Thorazine. A trade name for haloperidol is Haldol. A trade name for clozapine
is Clozaril. There are a number of other antipsychotic agents.
Antianxiety agentsare used to treat the irrational anxiety associated with
such disorders as generalized anxiety disorder, phobic disorder, and obsessive-
compulsive disorder (OCD). Patients who take the agents usually report that they
have fewer problems with chronic worry and related symptoms. These drugs have
a sedative-hypnotic action. They lower central nervous system arousal. The term
minor tranquilizersis sometimes employed to classify these drugs.
Therapy: Helping Troubled People 241
