How to approach my essay question!!?

Question

I have an essay to do, but am unsure as the best way to approach it as it is so broad. The question is:-

Discuss the view that for the treatment of most mental disorders, psychological approaches are more effective than the use of medication.

Please only answer if you have knowledge of psychological theories/therapies.

By the way this essay is for my clinical psychology module.

This question requires a discussion of various psychological therapies, not just one. And these therapies need to be discussed and evealuated in relation to various mental disorders. And the psychological therapies need to be discussed and evaluated in comparison to medications.

Answer 1

That is a lot to cover! I'd look at the main groups of mental illnesses - mood disorders, personality disorders and psychotic disorders and the main therapeutic schools, i.e CBD and psychoanalytical. Remember all psych essays must be structured and referenced. Here's an outline of the direction I would take.

Intro : In this essay I aim to compare and contrast the efficacy of psychotherapy and medication in the treatment of mental illness. I will begin by examining........ List what you're going to write about.

Body: Mood disorders are easy. You need medication for a depressed person to be motivated to change their negative thought processes. SSRI's are very effective in the short term. Discuss how therapy is necessary in a long term case as the patients cognitive processes need to be changed. Cite references on success of CBD in depression. Long term side effects of meds.

To the best of my knowledge, medication is not very effective in the treatment of personality disorders. It can control some of the negative behaviours and any co-morbidities but does not cure the patient. Cite how psychopaths cannot be treated (See Robert Hare). Look at anger management for anti-social PD, 12 step group therapy for addiction etc.

Psychosis - again quite a lot to work with here. Anti-psychotics have been used effectively in the treatment of schizophrenia but they often have little effect on type 2 schizophrenia. Explore negative side of medication - side effects, parkinsonism, tardive dyskenesia etc. Psychotherapy is effective in individuals who are not experiencing symptoms and can help a patient reconnect with the world and understand their condition. Simple emotional support should not be underestimated

Conclusion - Medication should work in harmony with psychotherapy. Excellent short term solution but not always practical in the long term due to side effects. Detail problems with therapy, time, expense etc. Perhaps end with suggestion that patients are treated as individual cases?

Bibliography. Cite all references! See APA format.

That should do it, as long as you back everything up with a citation.

Good luck!

Answer 2

Geez-I don't envy you!!! :-) I think if I had to tackle this question the first thing I'd do is select a few mental disorders that can be treated with both psychological therapies and medicine (depression may be a good place to start, and possibly anxiety disorders...). Next, research the treatments most commonly used for these disorders (fluoxetine capsules, cognitive behaviour therapy...) and choose a small selection from both the psychological and medicinal therapies to focus on. Next (and possibly the hardest part!) you need to find studies which show the effectiveness of all of your chosen therapies on your chosen disorders. This is very difficult as these studies are most likely going to be on a clinical rather than experimental basis (due to ethics and so on) but there still should be a good few out there. Another problem may also be that often both psychological and medicinal therapies are used at the same time and these studies are no use-obviously you need studies where only one has been used to treat an individual.
You may even find that the studies you read actually say that the medicinal therapies are more effective than psychological ones, and so almost disagree with your essay question. This is fine, so long as you can show in your argument why this is, by analysing the appropriate studies.
In short, you need to choose disorders, choose specific treatments, find evidence to their effectiveness and critically analyse these studies to support whatever argument you go for (that either psychological or medicinal therapies are most effective). GOOD LUCK! x

Answer 3

I'm under the assumption that "most" mental disorders these days are too quick to be treated with medications rather than with psychological therapy. Medication is the "easy fix", but in fact, I think it is a guessing game. Medications have proven negative side affects.

If more cognative therapy was used to treat mild mental disorders, then that would give the patient much more in the way of coping with the disorder and perhaps a "recovery" of sorts. Medications are like a band-aid to mask the symptoms.

Cognative therapy teaches techniques, which are to become habits when experiencing depression, anxiety, anger, panic, etc. It only makes sense to me to equip a person to help themselves rather than giving them pills. I'm not saying that cognative therapy always works and that all medication is bad. It really depends on the individual case.

Answer 4

Medications treat symptoms and, although this approach can be helpful, the causes usually remain there, festering away below the surface. Unfortunately many psychotropic (psychoactive) drugs take a while (perhaps a week or two) to have any real effect.
Medications also have the potential for unwanted side-effects depending on the drug taken, the dose, length of time...etc. (Watch the programme on BBC TV this evening on Seroxat and the harmful effects on children/teenagers).

Sometimes it can be helpful for the person to use a drug temporarily e.g. for a few weeks to help them over a difficult period AND to have a psychological therapy as well. They need to be treated for as long as necessary rather than just for e.g. six sessions because that's all the NHS can afford. Also, the type of therapy neeeds to be appropriate to the person and their problem, rather than a 'one size fits all' approach.

The NHS and mental health charities are full of people who have never been treated successfully because of 'lack of money'. Is it really better to keep people going along for ineffective treatment and being on benefits and not working (not paying taxes etc), rather than treating them properly in the first place? Cheap, short-termism is the name of the game in most places.

Sorry - getting carried away there! You may have guessed I have worked for a mental health organisation but I won't say whether it's a charity or NHS. This is a REAL problem and it's political/economic.
Long term and appropriate treatments are needed. People with mental health problems don't have much of a voice.

Good luck with your essay! ~RJS

Answer 5

Basically, you first need to draw up a table on the pro's and cons for each method... medicinal and phsycological approaches....

Give references to actual cases and disorders, talk about how talking about a problem, confronting it and conquering it works much better than tricking the mind into believing everything is all good!

Hope this helps... im no physciatrist but i've seen a few... they say im cheeky?

Answer 6

destroy down the criminal question in to its needed factors, or factors. evaluate each and every component in accordance to previous judgements beginning from customary to the more desirable particular. grant sufficient transitional paragraphs and words that draw some pertinent conclusions, and grant sufficient creation/heritage for following topics. you should go with to grant nearing the end of the essay, some conflicting topics, per chance unresolved topics, faults and/or deficiencies in applicability, and then your precis arguments depending on the logical sequence of the case, AND in a fashion favored through your instructor.

Answer 7

Write about CBT ... it is a very effective therapy.

Answer 8

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