Treatment of Psychological Disorders

8 Key excerpts on "Treatment of Psychological Disorders"

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  eBook - ePub

  Essential Abnormal and Clinical Psychology

  • Matt Field, Sam Cartwright-Hatton, Author(Authors)
  • 2015(Publication Date)
  • SAGE Publications Ltd

    (Publisher)

  2 How are Psychological Disorders Treated?

  General introduction

  Mental health professionals treat the symptoms of psychological disorders in a multitude of ways. This chapter will outline some of the most common ways in which they work. We will begin with a look at the debate surrounding the use of medication versus psychological techniques. After this cursory overview of the medical approach, we will then focus on approaches that are taken by psychologists (well this is a psychology book, after all). We will discuss preventative approaches, which have become an increasing focus in recent years (although still not nearly enough), and also discuss treatment approaches that are used when symptoms are already present. Within both prevention and treatment work there are many ways of working. Psychologists may work with individual clients or with groups. They may use a manual-based ‘package’, which is applied to the client with a minimum of tailoring, or they may use the gold-standard, formulation-based approach which is custom-built for each client. Psychologists also work from a number of theoretical perspectives, including cognitive-behavioural and psychodynamic. They may specialise in the treatment not just of adults, but also of children and adolescents, people with learning disabilities, older adults, and other specialist groups.

  This chapter will give a brief introduction to all of these approaches, but thenceforth both this chapter and the rest of the book will give most attention to what typically happens in clinics (as opposed to research trials). This is the individual treatment of one individual, using a selection of techniques that are hand-picked for that client, based on a thorough assessment of their needs. Because the bulk of the scientific evidence base is devoted to cognitive-behavioural theories and treatments, it is these that we will focus on in the rest of the book. Although there is now a growing literature on the treatment of children, families, couples, people with learning disabilities and older adults (amongst others), this chapter, and most of those that follow, will focus largely on the treatment of individual, non-disabled adults. We will also give some thought as to how researchers evaluate the usefulness of psychological therapies. Finally, we will examine the ethical framework within which all psychologists are expected to work.

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  eBook - PDF

  Psychology, 6th Australian and New Zealand Edition

  • Lorelle J. Burton, Drew Westen, Robin M. Kowalski(Authors)
  • 2022(Publication Date)
  • Wiley

    (Publisher)

  But how well do these treatments at the hands of health professionals work? Psychologists aim to help people to make and sustain successful Pdf_Folio:1011 CHAPTER 19 Treatment of Psychological Disorders 1011 changes in their behaviour, to alleviate problems and enjoy better health. Some of the key ingredients to facilitating successful behavioural change include: • building self-efficacy while recognising autonomy • identifying and facilitating readiness to change • facilitating motivation to change • helping to prevent and manage relapses • fostering a good working alliance • using evidence-based procedures • providing relevant information and advice • allowing sufficient time for change (Montgomery, 2006). The treatments of psychological disorders discussed in this chapter are summarised in table 19.2.

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  Culture and Psychology

  • David Matsumoto, Linda Juang(Authors)
  • 2016(Publication Date)
  • Cengage Learning EMEA

    (Publisher)

  310 13 Culture and Treatment for Psychological Disorders CHAPTER CONTENTS Culture and Psychotherapy Traditional Psychotherapy Contemporary Psychotherapy Cultural Limitations of Psychotherapy Psychotherapy in Diverse Cultures Psychotherapy in Diverse Cultures in the United States: An Example of Within Country Variation Summary Receiving Treatment and Barriers to Treatment Disparities in Receiving Treatment Barriers to Seeking Treatment Removing Barriers to Treatment Treatment Issues Culturally Competent Services Indigenous and Traditional Healing An Example of Blending Indigenous Healing Practices with Traditional Western-Based Treatment Approaches A Community Approach to Treatment Culture and Clinical Training CONCLUSION EXPLORATION AND DISCOVERY Why Does This Matter to Me? Suggestions for Further Exploration Copyright 2017 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it. Culture and Treatment for Psychological Disorders 311 One of the primary goals of psychology is to use the knowledge generated by research to help people improve their lives. In Chapter 12, we discussed the important role that culture plays in defining abnormality. Culture influences how disorders are expressed and our ability to reliably and validly assess and diagnose when abnor-malities have developed into psychopathology. The proper assessment and diagnosis of psychopathology is a necessary step toward helping people with mental disorders improve their lives. In this chapter, we discuss a common approach to addressing psychopathology—namely, psychotherapy.

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  eBook - ePub

  The SAGE Encyclopedia of Abnormal and Clinical Psychology

  • Amy Wenzel, Amy E. Wenzel(Authors)
  • 2017(Publication Date)
  • SAGE Publications, Inc

    (Publisher)

  Psychotherapy is one of the most important functions of clinical psychologists and a prominent feature of the study of abnormal behavior. Psychology as a science studies topics such as perception, learning, memory, thinking, and social behavior and focuses on those interacting biological, behavioral, and cognitive processes that produce human psychological functioning. As an applied science in the health care domain, clinical psychology attends to those processes in developing and applying treatments for the patterns of signs and symptoms associated with mental health disorders.

  Medical interventions also play an important part in the treatment of mental health disorders, and clinical psychologists typically obtain their psychotherapy clients’ authorization to contact and stay in touch with their other health care providers so as to be alert to pertinent physical health issues and to be familiar with clients’ regimens of prescribed medication. In their role as psychotherapists, clinical psychologists usually see their clients more often than other providers do and are in a position to monitor medication side effects and clients’ fidelity to dosage and scheduling protocols. In some jurisdictions in the United States, psychologists with specialized additional training are licensed to prescribe some of the medications used in mental health treatment.

  Traditions and Orientations in Psychotherapy

  In 1600, John Downame, a puritan minister in London, described the treatment of irrational anger by “spiritual physicke,” a form of counseling in which he tactfully accepted clients’ perspectives on life’s injustices and met their heated outbursts with what he described as silence, soft and mild answers, wholesome counsel, and good admonitions. Drawing from the ancient theory of humors, Downame believed that anger arose from an excess of yellow bile in the body and that treatment should be prescribed from the words of the Holy Scriptures. This early form of mental health treatment cited biological factors as the cause and psychological intervention as the treatment of a common and distressing disorder. Despite disagreements about causes and cures, many of today’s psychotherapists might recognize in Downame a kindred spirit who helped his clients take new perspectives on their problems and learn to make beneficial changes in their thoughts, feelings, and behavior.

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  Foundations of Professional Psychology

  The End of Theoretical Orientations and the Emergence of the Biopsychosocial Approach

  • Timothy P. Melchert(Author)
  • 2011(Publication Date)
  • Elsevier

    (Publisher)

  10. Treatment

  Though a variety of treatment formats and methods are important in psychological treatment from a biopsychosocial perspective, this chapter focuses on individual psychotherapy to keep the scope of the discussion manageable. Rather than focus solely on the research regarding the effectiveness of particular psychotherapies for treating particular disorders, this chapter also focuses on several additional questions about the effectiveness of psychotherapy that are critical in clinical practice. Topics included are whether the benefits of psychotherapy are clinically significant and long lasting, how the benefits of psychotherapy compare with psychiatric medications, whether psychotherapy works for all patients, the factors that account for its effectiveness, and strategies to increase the number of treatment successes and decrease the number of treatment failures. The ways that the biopsychosocial approach broadens psychological treatment are also discussed. The chapter ends with a case example of a biopsychosocial approach to psychological treatment.

  Key Words biopsychosocial approach, psychotherapy effectiveness, psychological treatment

  Behavioral health care from a biopsychosocial perspective is an involved, complicated process. As seen in the previous two chapters, the range of issues that falls under psychological assessment and treatment planning is extensive, and treatment from this approach consequently includes a wide variety of interventions and strategies as well. Not only do psychologists need to address patients’ presenting problems, but they might intervene regarding multiple biopsychosocial problem areas and build strengths in still other areas as part of a comprehensive, holistic approach to addressing problems and promoting biopsychosocial functioning in general. Broadening the focus of treatment to include functioning across the biopsychosocial domains means that treatment can be significantly more complicated than some traditional approaches that focus on offering a specific type of therapy for a proscribed set of issues, and largely leave other issues alone.

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  Psychopathology

  A Social Neuropsychological Perspective

  • Alison Lee, Robert Irwin(Authors)
  • 2018(Publication Date)
  • Cambridge University Press

    (Publisher)

  10 Psychological Therapies Introduction With over 400 different types of psychological therapy, it is unsurprising that no definition exists that adequately captures this diverse field of practice. Although modern psychological therapies have relatively short histories, the elements from which most are constituted are similar and date back many centuries (Jackson, 1999). For the purposes of this chapter, we use the term psychological therapy to refer to psychotherapy, counselling or any form of ‘talking treatment’ that aims to promote subjective well-being and mental health. This chapter aims to help you to think more critically about the claims made about psychological therapies. Firstly, we consider whether the practice of psychological therapy should be guided by diagnosis or formulation. This debate is, in part, about the extent to which the practice of psychological therapy can or should be decoupled from the medical model (Sanders, 2007; Deacon, 2013). In the next section, the focus shifts to how we can establish whether a psychological therapy works. Here we introduce and critique the concept of empirically supported therapies. Opinion within the field of psycho- logical therapy is generally divided as to which elements of therapy help to bring about change; some claim that it is therapeutic techniques and the theories that underpin them (the differential effectiveness position), while others argue that it is the quality of the therapeutic relationship and nonspecific factors (the common factors position). In the final part of the chapter, we consider some of the potential detrimental effects psychological therapy may have at an individual and societal level. 10.1 Diagnosis or Formulation? Whether practice should be guided by diagnosis or formulation is a moot point in the field of psychological therapy. In the therapeutic process, it is usually a diagno- sis or formulation that links assessment to therapeutic intervention or ‘treatment’.

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  Psychology

  • Ronald Comer, Elizabeth Gould, Adrian Furnham(Authors)
  • 2014(Publication Date)
  • Wiley

    (Publisher)

  CHAPTER 20 Treatment of Psychological Disorders 596 Formats of Therapy LEARNING OBJECTIVE 6 Describe commonly used formats of therapy. Individual therapy , or treatments con- ducted by individual therapists with indi- vidual clients, is the oldest of the modern therapy formats. Other formats include group therapy, family and couple therapy and community treatment. Therapists may apply their partic- ular approach in each of these formats and additional strate- gies have also been developed for use in the non-individual formats. Group Therapy In group therapy , a therapist sees several clients with psychological problems at the same time. Group therapy became a popular format for treating people with psychological difficulties after World War II, when growing demand for psychological services forced therapists throughout the United States and Europe to look for time-saving alternatives to individual therapy. Some therapists now specialize in group therapy, and many oth- ers conduct therapy groups as one aspect of their practice. A survey of clinical psychologists, for example, revealed that almost one-third of them practise group therapy to some degree (Norcross & Goldfried, 2005). Typically, group members meet with a therapist and dis- cuss the problems or concerns of one or more of the mem- bers (Burlingame & Baldwin, 2011). Groups are often created with particular client populations in mind. For example, there are groups for people with alcoholism, for people who are physically handicapped and for people who are divorced, abused or bereaved. Irvin Yalom, a group-therapy theorist, suggests that suc- cessful forms of group therapy share certain ‘curative’ fea- tures (Cox et al., 2008; Yalom & Leszcz, 2005): • Guidance. They usually provide information and advice for members. • Identification. They provide models of appropriate behaviour. • Group cohesiveness. They offer an atmosphere of soli- darity in which members can learn to take risks and accept criticism.

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  Introduction to Psychological Science

  Integrating Behavioral, Neuroscience and Evolutionary Perspectives

  • William J. Ray(Author)
  • 2021(Publication Date)
  • Routledge

    (Publisher)

  http://effectivechildtherapy.com/ ). This site is maintained by the Society of Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology section of the American Psychological Association.

  As researchers and clinicians began to focus more on approaches and principles for which there was scientific evidence that they were effective, there began a movement to develop effective treatments for particular disorders that used both biological and psychological treatment approaches. There has also been more willingness to integrate techniques from the different psychological approaches as well as from other perspectives. For example, in the discussion on personality disorders treatment, you will see that one of the most researched treatments—dialectical behavior therapy (DBT)—is based on techniques from each of the three approaches described in this chapter. This effective treatment uses aspects of cognitive behavioral techniques, dynamic techniques, and existential-humanistic techniques.

  Treatment for Anxiety Disorders

  Anxiety is a common experience of many individuals that they may report to many types of health professionals including psychologists, psychiatrists, and even their family physician. These individuals are often given medications such as benzodiazepines or offered one of the types of psychotherapy described previously. Studies using psychodynamic, existential-humanistic, and cognitive behavioral approaches have all reported reductions in anxiety. At this point, both medications and psychological treatments show similar reductions in generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) in the short term. However, only about 40% to 60% of those treated with either medication or psychological treatments show full improvement. This is in comparison with other anxiety disorders such as phobias, which show higher rates of improvement after treatment.

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