Drug Therapies
There are many unanswered questions about these
drugs. Even though their safety has improved over the
years, a number of risks must still be considered, including
the risk of physical and psychological side effects.
An extreme example of a psychological side effect is the
Vegetable like state into which some patients sink when
they have taken some of these drugs. Depending on the
drug employed, .other side effects may include
nightmares, reduced appetite, insomnia,
problem vision, and heart palpitations. On balance, however,
the psychoactive drugs have helped many people
live normal or almost normal lives.
Like those of psychological-therapies, the effects of
drug therapy are not always predictable. Factors such as
age, sex, and genetic background can influence a person's
response to a drug. The effectiveness of a particular
drug may also depend on how it is metabolized,
whether the patient takes it as prescribed, and whether
other drugs are being taken at the same time.
Drug Research Notes:
Physicians who prescribe drugs want to maximize their
therapeutic effects and minimize their undesirable con-
Types of Control Groups in Therapy Outcome Research
Untreated controls
Dropout/wait-list controls
Attention-placebo controls
"Crossover controls
Patients as own controls
A group that theoretically receives no treatment. No-treatment control groups are ethically
questionable if the subjects are people who have come to a clinic seeking help for personal
problems.
People who request treatment and either do not attend sessions or are offered treatment but only
after a waiting period.
Patients who see a therapist on the same schedule but receive a presumably inactive treatment.
For a set period, one group serves as the control while the other receives treatment; then the
conditions are reversed.
Changes in a patient's behavior during a baseline period of no treatment are contrasted with
behavioral changes occurring after treatment (see Box 17-1).
thought that the active ingredients in ECT are the electrical-
biochemical events that follow the seizures triggered
by the electrical impulses. The lack of precise
knowledge about how ECT works, together with its occasional
adverse effects and the availability of effective
drugs, has contributed to the decline in its use.
A psychiatrist who was treated with ECT has described
its positive effects on him.
After the first treatment in both series) I felt a
blunting of the acute sadness of the depression.
Whereas before treatment I became tearful with very
little provocation) and felt intensely sad out of all
proportion to the stimulus. After one single treatment
I was no longer crushed by any chance sadness. The
Trouble some symptom of irritability also subsided early
in the course of treatment. Before treatment) I was
very easily irritated by trifles and expressed) on more
than one occasion) an irrational belief that people
were doing stupid things intentionally to annoy me.
I hope that this account will help to dispel the
erroneous belief that ECT is a terrifying form of
treatment) crippling in its effects on the memory and
in other ways. The technique today is so refined that
the patient suffer~ a minimum of discomfort, und the
therapeutic benefits are so great in those cases when it
is indicated that it is a great pity to withhold it from
mistaken ideas of kindness to the patient.
A clinician who is considering the use of ECT
must perform a risk-benefit analysis. On the benefit side
is the likelihood of rapid improvement and, for depres-
sives, the reduced likelihood of death due to suicide. On
the risk side, however, are the possibility of death in the
course of receiving ECT (this risk is low, with an incidence
of about one in 10,000 treatments), the chance
of memory impairment (which is short-term and becomes
less noticeable with time), and the risk of spontaneous
seizures (which are infrequent). In weighing the
advantages against the risks, clinicians might reasonably
consider ECT when there is severe depression or a possibility
of suicide, or when drugs and other therapies are
ineffective or seem inappropriate.
drugs. Even though their safety has improved over the
years, a number of risks must still be considered, including
the risk of physical and psychological side effects.
An extreme example of a psychological side effect is the
Vegetable like state into which some patients sink when
they have taken some of these drugs. Depending on the
drug employed, .other side effects may include
nightmares, reduced appetite, insomnia,
problem vision, and heart palpitations. On balance, however,
the psychoactive drugs have helped many people
live normal or almost normal lives.
Like those of psychological-therapies, the effects of
drug therapy are not always predictable. Factors such as
age, sex, and genetic background can influence a person's
response to a drug. The effectiveness of a particular
drug may also depend on how it is metabolized,
whether the patient takes it as prescribed, and whether
other drugs are being taken at the same time.
Drug Research Notes:
Physicians who prescribe drugs want to maximize their
therapeutic effects and minimize their undesirable con-
Types of Control Groups in Therapy Outcome Research
Untreated controls
Dropout/wait-list controls
Attention-placebo controls
"Crossover controls
Patients as own controls
A group that theoretically receives no treatment. No-treatment control groups are ethically
questionable if the subjects are people who have come to a clinic seeking help for personal
problems.
People who request treatment and either do not attend sessions or are offered treatment but only
after a waiting period.
Patients who see a therapist on the same schedule but receive a presumably inactive treatment.
For a set period, one group serves as the control while the other receives treatment; then the
conditions are reversed.
Changes in a patient's behavior during a baseline period of no treatment are contrasted with
behavioral changes occurring after treatment (see Box 17-1).
thought that the active ingredients in ECT are the electrical-
biochemical events that follow the seizures triggered
by the electrical impulses. The lack of precise
knowledge about how ECT works, together with its occasional
adverse effects and the availability of effective
drugs, has contributed to the decline in its use.
A psychiatrist who was treated with ECT has described
its positive effects on him.
After the first treatment in both series) I felt a
blunting of the acute sadness of the depression.
Whereas before treatment I became tearful with very
little provocation) and felt intensely sad out of all
proportion to the stimulus. After one single treatment
I was no longer crushed by any chance sadness. The
Trouble some symptom of irritability also subsided early
in the course of treatment. Before treatment) I was
very easily irritated by trifles and expressed) on more
than one occasion) an irrational belief that people
were doing stupid things intentionally to annoy me.
I hope that this account will help to dispel the
erroneous belief that ECT is a terrifying form of
treatment) crippling in its effects on the memory and
in other ways. The technique today is so refined that
the patient suffer~ a minimum of discomfort, und the
therapeutic benefits are so great in those cases when it
is indicated that it is a great pity to withhold it from
mistaken ideas of kindness to the patient.
A clinician who is considering the use of ECT
must perform a risk-benefit analysis. On the benefit side
is the likelihood of rapid improvement and, for depres-
sives, the reduced likelihood of death due to suicide. On
the risk side, however, are the possibility of death in the
course of receiving ECT (this risk is low, with an incidence
of about one in 10,000 treatments), the chance
of memory impairment (which is short-term and becomes
less noticeable with time), and the risk of spontaneous
seizures (which are infrequent). In weighing the
advantages against the risks, clinicians might reasonably
consider ECT when there is severe depression or a possibility
of suicide, or when drugs and other therapies are
ineffective or seem inappropriate.
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If you are ready to schedule a FREE Consultation...
I encourage you to access this website
for the codependency treatment I recommend here:
http://www.TheLiberatorMethod.com/