Psychotherapy
Electroshock
Hypnosis
Drug Therapy
Many disorders and mental problems need a psychological solution. The treatments
of mental problems are called Psychological treatments, which mainly consist
of different sessions of therapy and different types of drugs. Although there
may be drugs involved in therapy it isn't a likely choice, by psychologists.
Most psychologists will try to work with therapy alone and then if that does
not have any significant affect then they will move on to medical treatments.
Psychotherapy is one of the most common forms to help patients or clients.
There are a number of reasons people go to psychotherapy but the most common
and most talked about is, depression. Many people that are depressed find that
just by talking to someone makes them feel better and most people want positive
feedback so they head to a therapist. But a psychiatrist is not the only person
that can help you in your mental situation. There are counseling psychologists,
clinical psychologists, psychiatrists, clinical social workers and pastoral
counselors. All of the types of counselors will listen to the client's problems
and try and help them with a logical, problem solving solution.
One major type of therapy for epileptics in earlier times, which is quite primitive now considering the pharmacological drugs used today, was electroshock therapy. This involved the passage of an electrical current through the brain of the patient inducing a major epileptic seizure or grand mal. This could either be done by placing the two electrodes over both temples (bilateral shock) or over one side of the head (unilateral shock). The shock produces an electrical storm over the patterns in the brain, which obliterates thinking patterns shown as the EEG needle moves violently in strong jagged swings. This period of extreme electrical bursts of energy usually causes a briefer period of absolutely no brain waves or activity, called the isoelectric phase. This is the exact same as in brain death and this may be when cell death takes place. Back when not many pharmacological drugs were administered patients involved in electroshock therapy would undergo severe muscle spasms so violent at times they were known to crack vertebrae and limb bones. These shock-induced seizures were typically far more severe than any of those suffered by spontaneous epilepsy.
Throughout history hypnosis was always seen as a trick of magic and titled
as something evil or wrong. In the late 1700's however, it was finally introduced
as a specific technique used to "speak" to the person's subconscious.
This technique of hypnosis was first presented by Franz Anton Mesmer, in which
he called Mesmerism. Over time the idea of hypnotism as a psychological technique
grew and more people then learned and slowly refined the ways of hypnosis.
Basically, all hypnosis is, is putting the person's conscious mind into a "free"
or passive state to where it does not "edit" the person's ideas, memories,
etc. Usually this is done by putting the mind into a very relaxed position through
some form of relaxation and visualization exercises. Once the person's mind
reaches this dreamlike yet conscious state, the individual becomes more susceptible
to their unconscious impressions or so-called hypnotic suggestions. Hypnosis
is said to hold several therapeutic applications. Hypnosis is sometimes used
to modify or change a certain aspect of a person's personality or behavior like
smoking, over eating, or phobias for example. This type of hypnosis however,
does not "program" a person's behavior but rather encourages an already
desired change in their behavior. In this sense, hypnosis is said to have its
limitations. Usually, in practice, people are told that they cannot be hypnotized
to do anything they do not want to do. But, in some studies, hypnosis has been
used to compel very persuasive people to put themselves in harmful or embarrassing
situations. As with polygraph machines, hypnosis usually depends on what the
person believes of it.
In the treatment of schizophrenia, there is little else out there that treats the disease better than chlorpromazine. Chlorpromazine is a type of phenothiazine compound which was discovered that helped stabilize the stress response centrally, blocking the autonomic nervous system's reflection of the brain's interpretation of the response. The drug had such a profound effect of relieving stress in studies that it was quickly adopted for the treatment of patient suffering from anxieties arising from real or imagined stressor in their lives. It was a major tranquilizer. Over the years a fairly large number of phenothiazine compounds were introduced to clinics although none of them comparing to the chlorpromazine effects of stress relief for patients. This mode of action of these compounds being introduced to patient research gave rise to determining that the main idea of treatment for schizophrenic patients was the blocking of dopamine receptors. This idea that schizophrenia is related to a dysfunction of the brain's dopamine system is consistent with several types of observations of drug actions. Chlorpromazine and it's related compounds seem to act specifically to the primary symptoms of schizophrenia rather than the secondary symptoms. These drugs that are most effective in treating the primary symptoms also tend to be most likely to produce side effects similar to Parkinson's disease, a movement disorder that has been attributed to a deficiency in dopamine in certain brain areas.
Homes - Int. of Dreams - Mental Disorders - Mind Control - Impt. Psychologists - Richard's Bio - Josh's Bio - Bibliography