Therapies & Biological therapies
PART B:
OTHER MEDICAL THERAPIES FOR
PSYCHOLOGICAL DISORDERS
By Konstantinos Geros
THE BIOMEDICAL APPROACH
Biomedical therapies seek to treat psychological disorders by changing the brain's chemistry with drugs, its circuitry with surgery, or its patterns of activity with pulses of electricity or powerful magnetic fields
Biomedical therapies assume an organic basis for mental illnesses and treats them as diseases.
HISTORICAL TRIVIA
The Phineas Gage incident
He survived the extensive destruction of crucial part of the brain but the damage caused a personality change.
PSYCHOSURGERY
Severing connections between parts of the brain or by removing small sections of the brain
Method of last resort
“The stone of folly”, for cases of madness
Prefrontal lobotomy
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Developed by psychiatrist Egas Moniz
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Severance of certain nerve fibers, connecting the frontal lobes with deep brain structures, especially with those of the thalamus and hypothalamus PSYCHOSURGERY
Results of prefrontal lobotomy
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Dramatic reduction in agitation and anxiety
Side effects
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Inability to plan ahead
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Indiffirence to others opinions
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Childlike behavior
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Loss of interest in well being, surroundings
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Destroys permanently basic aspects of personality
Intellectual and emotional flatness
Era of lobotomy came to a close at the 1950s with the rise of antipsychotic drug therapies
The only kind still done is the “split-brain” operation
BRAIN-STIMULATION THERAPIES
Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT)
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Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS)
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Treatment induces a convulsion by applying an electric current to a patient's temples briefly
Directs high-powered magnetic stimulation to specific parts of the brain
Deep Brain Stimulation
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Implantation of a