Psychology

Write as a freshman in
college

Week 6 Assignment:
Mental Health Disorder
Paper

Due Sunday by 11:59pm
Points 50
Submitting a text entry box or a file upload
Available Dec 1 at 12am – Dec 10 at 11:59pm

Compose a 2- to 3-page paper that reviews a mental health disorder and addresses the
following points:

● Introduce and describe the disorder from a psychological perspective.
● What is the DSM-5 diagnosis and code?
● Review the history of the disorder.
● Explain how the disorder may affect the person in today’s society.
● Review the stigma of the disorder.
● Describe if there is a recommended treatment for this disorder.

Your paper should include and incorporate 3 scholarly sources. Your paper must be in
APA Style and include in-text citations and a reference list. Your textbook can be one of
the sources.

Rubric
PSYC_160_OL – Paper Rubric (2)

Criteria Ratings Pts

This
criterion
is linked
to a
Learning
Outcome

Content

25 to >22.25 ptsMeets or Exceeds ExpectationsThe writer clearly and
effectively responds to the assignment with details and specific examples.
Content fully addresses all aspects of the assignment. Main ideas are clear and
are well supported by detailed and accurate information. All content is accurate.
All opinions are thoroughly supported.

22.25 to >18.75 ptsMostly Meets ExpectationsThe response to the assignment
is generally adequate, but may not be thorough. May be lacking some details and
explanations. Main ideas are clear but are not well supported by detailed
information. Content addresses, or partially addresses, most aspects of the
assignment. Most content is accurate. Most opinions are supported in some way.

18.75 to >14.75 ptsBelow ExpectationsThe response to the assignment is
vague and/ or inaccurate. May be lacking several details and explanations. Main
ideas are not always clear or supported. Content addresses few aspects of the
assignment. Much of the content is inaccurate in some way. Few opinions are
supported.

14.75 to >0 ptsDoes Not Meet ExpectationsThe writer does not respond to the
assignment or the response is far outside the parameters of the assignment. The
topic and main ideas are not clear. Most content is inaccurate.

25
pts

This
criterion
is linked
to a
Learning
Outcome

Organiza
tion

15 to >13.35 ptsMeets or Exceeds ExpectationsInformation is relevant and
presented in a logical order. Writing and integration of source materials is
eloquent and skillful. Connections among topics are clear without being repetitive
or redundant.

13.35 to >11.25 ptsMostly Meets ExpectationsWriting and integration of source
materials is adequate with lapses in structure. Most connections among topics
are clear without being repetitive or redundant.

11.25 to >8.85 ptsBelow ExpectationsWriting and integration of source
materials is awkward or confusing. Few connections among topics are clear.
There is some repetitiveness or redundancy.

8.85 to >0 ptsDoes Not Meet ExpectationsThere is no clear , structure. Writing
lacks skill. Sources are not present. Connections among topics are not evident.

15
pts

This
criterion
is linked
to a
Learning
Outcome

Mechani
cs and
APA

10 to >8.9 ptsMeets or Exceeds ExpectationsThe assignment consistently
follows current APA Style and is free from errors in formatting, citation, and
references. No grammatical, spelling, or punctuation errors. All sources are cited
and referenced correctly. The paper meets all assignment criteria in length,
structure, and source criteria.

8.9 to >7.5 ptsMostly Meets ExpectationsThe assignment consistently follows
current APA Stylet with only isolated and inconsistent mistakes and/or has a few
grammatical, spelling, or punctuation errors. Most sources are cited and
referenced correctly. The paper meets most of the assignment criteria in length,
structure, and source criteria.

7.5 to >5.9 ptsBelow ExpectationsThe assignment occasionally follows current
or outdated APA Style with multiple mistakes and/or grammatical, spelling, or
punctuation errors. Few sources are cited and referenced correctly. The paper
meets some of the assignment criteria in length, structure, and source criteria.

5.9 to >0 ptsDoes Not Meet ExpectationsThe assignment does not follow
current APA Style and/or has many grammatical, spelling, or punctuation errors.
Many sources are cited and referenced incorrectly, or citations and references are
missing. The paper meets few of the assignment criteria in length, structure, and
source criteria.

10
pts

Total Points: 50

Module 42
Biomedical Therapy: Biological Approaches to Treatment
LEARNING OUTCOME
LO 42-1 How are pharmaceutical drugs, electroconvulsive therapies, and psychosurgical
techniques used today in the treatment of psychological disorders?

If you get a kidney infection, your doctor gives you an antibiotic; with luck, your kidneys should
be as good as new about a week later. If your appendix becomes inflamed, a surgeon removes
it, and your body functions normally once more. Could a comparable approach that focuses on
the body’s physiology be effective for psychological disturbances?

According to biological approaches to treatment, the answer is yes. Therapists routinely use
biomedical therapies that rely on drugs and medical procedures to improve psychological
functioning.

The biomedical approach focuses treatment directly on altering brain chemistry or other
neurological factors rather than concentrating on a patient’s psychological conflicts, past
traumas, or other issues of daily life that may produce psychological disorder. To do this,
therapists provide treatment with drugs, electric shock, or surgery, as we will discuss.

Drug Therapy
Drug therapy is the treatment of psychological disorders using medication. Drug therapy works
by altering the operation of neurons and neurotransmitters in the brain.

Some drugs operate by inhibiting neurotransmitters or receptor neurons, which reduces activity
at particular synapses. (Recall from our discussion of neurons in the neuroscience chapter that
synapses are the gaps where nerve impulses travel from one neuron to another.) Thus,
particular neurons are inhibited from firing.

Other drugs do just the opposite: They increase the activity of certain neurotransmitters or
neurons, which allows particular neurons to fire more frequently (see Figure 1).

FIGURE 1 The major classes of drugs used to treat psychological disorders have different
effects on the brain and nervous system.

Table Summary: A table titled, drug treatment, summarizes the effects, primary action, and
examples of 4 classes of drug listed in column 1. The row for antidepressant drugs is divided
into 3 columns showing 3 drugs. The row for mood stabilizers shows 1 drug, lithium.
Drug Treatments
Class of Drug Effects of Drug Primary Action of Drug Examples
Antipsychotic Drugs Reduction in loss of touch with reality, agitation Block dopamine
receptors Antipsychotic: chlorpromazine (Thorazine), clozapine (Clozaril), haloperidol
(Haldol) Atypical antipsychotic: risperidone, olanzapine
Antidepressant Drugs

Tricyclic antidepressants Reduction in depression Permit rise in neurotransmitters such
as norepinepherine Trazodone (Desyrel), amitriptyline (Elavil), desipramine (Norpamin)
MAO inhibitors Reduction in depression Prevent MAO from breaking down
neurotransmitters Phenelzine (Nardil), tranylcypromine (Parnate)
Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) Reduction in depression Inhibit
reuptake of serotonin Fluoxetine (Prozac), Luvox, Paxil, Celexa, Zoloft, nefazodone (Serzone)
Mood Stabilizers
Lithium Mood stabilization Can alter transmission of impulses within neurons Lithium
(Lithonate), Depakote, Tegretol
Antianxiety Drugs Reduction in anxiety Increase activity of neurotransmitter GABA
Benzodiazepines (Valium, Xanax)
Page 518
ANTIPSYCHOTIC DRUGS
Probably no greater change has occurred in mental hospitals than the successful introduction in
the mid-1950s of antipsychotic drugs—drugs used to reduce severe symptoms of disturbance,
such as loss of touch with reality and agitation. Previously, the typical mental hospital wasn’t
very different from the stereotypical 19th-century insane asylum; it gave mainly custodial care to
screaming, moaning, clawing patients who displayed bizarre behaviors. However, in just a
matter of days after hospital staff members administered antipsychotic drugs, the wards became
considerably calmer environments in which professionals could do more than just try to get
patients through the day without causing serious harm to themselves or others.

This dramatic change came about through the introduction of the drug chlorpromazine. Along
with other similar drugs, chlorpromazine rapidly became the most popular and successful
treatment for schizophrenia. Today, drug therapy is typically the preferred treatment for most
cases of severely abnormal behavior and is used for most patients hospitalized with
psychological disorders. The newest generation of antipsychotics, referred to as atypical
antipsychotics, have fewer side effects; they include risperidone, olanzapine, and paliperidone
(Hattori et al., 2017; Henshall et al., 2019; Tendilla-Beltrán et al., 2021).

How do antipsychotic drugs work? Most block dopamine receptors at the brain’s synapses, the
space between pairs of neurons that communicate via chemical messengers. Atypical
antipsychotics affect both serotonin and dopamine levels in the brain, particularly those related
to planning and goal-directed activity (Fantegrossi et al., 2018; Seeman, 2021; Stroup et al.,
2022).

Despite the effectiveness of antipsychotic drugs, they do not produce a “cure” in the same way
that, say, penicillin cures an infection. Most of the time, the symptoms reappear when the drug is
withdrawn. Furthermore, such drugs can have long-term side effects, such as dryness of the
mouth and throat, dizziness, and sometimes tremors and loss of muscle control, which may
continue after drug treatments are stopped (Pijnenborg et al., 2015; Ali et al., 2021).

ANTIDEPRESSANT DRUGS

As their name suggests, antidepressant drugs are a class of medications used in cases of
severe depression to improve a patient’s mood and feeling of well-being. They are also
sometimes used for other disorders, such as anxiety disorders and bulimia (Hedges et al., 2007;
Deacon & Spielmans, 2017; McElroy et al., 2019).

Study Alert

To help organize your study of different drugs used in therapy, review Figure 1, which classifies
them according to the categories of antipsychotic, antidepressant, mood-stabilizing, and
antianxiety drugs.

Most antidepressant drugs work by changing the concentration of specific neurotransmitters in
the brain. For example, tricyclic drugs increase the availability of norepinephrine at the
synapses of neurons, whereas MAO inhibitors prevent the enzyme monoamine oxidase (MAO)
from breaking down neurotransmitters. Newer antidepressants—such as Lexapro—are selective
serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs). SSRIs target the neurotransmitter serotonin and permit it
to linger at the synapse. Some antidepressants produce a combination of effects. For instance,
nefazodone (Serzone) blocks serotonin at some receptor sites but not others, whereas
bupropion (Wellbutrin and Zyban) affects the norepinephrine and dopamine systems (Harmer et
al., 2017; Jarończyk & Walory, 2022; see Figure 2).

FIGURE 2 In (a), selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) reduce depression by
permitting the neurotransmitter serotonin to remain in the synapse. In (b), a newer
antidepressant, nefazodone (Serzone), operates more selectively to block serotonin at some
sites but not others, which helps to reduce the side effects of the drug.

Overall, the success rates of antidepressant drugs are quite good. In fact, antidepressants can
produce lasting, long-term recovery from depression. In many cases, even after patients stop
taking the drugs, their depression does not return. On the other hand, antidepressant drugs may
produce side effects such as drowsiness and cognitive deficits such as memory loss. Evidence
also suggests that SSRI antidepressants can increase the risk of suicide in children and
adolescents—clearly a significant concern (Shehab et al., 2016; Forsman et al., 2019; Chen et
al., 2021).

The drug fluoxetine, commonly known as Prozac, is a widely prescribed antidepressant.

Jill Braaten/McGraw Hill

Consumers spend billions of dollars each year on antidepressant drugs. More than 13% of
Americans have taken them in the past 30 days, and for women over 60 years old, the figure is
24%. In particular, the antidepressant fluoxetine, sold under the trade name Prozac, has been

highlighted on magazine covers and has been the topic of best-selling books (Rabin, 2013;
Brody & Gu, 2020).

Page 519
Does Prozac deserve its acclaim? In some respects, yes. It is effective and has relatively few
side effects. Furthermore, many people who do not respond to other types of antidepressants
do well on Prozac. On the other hand, 20–30% of users report experiencing nausea and
diarrhea, and a smaller number report sexual dysfunctions (Jha et al., 2018; Sadowsky, 2021).

Another substance that has received considerable publicity is St. John’s wort, an herb that some
have called a “natural” antidepressant. Although it is widely used in Europe for the treatment of
depression, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration considers it a dietary supplement, and
therefore, the substance is available here without a prescription.

Despite the popularity of St. John’s wort, definitive clinical tests have found that the herb is
ineffective in the treatment of depression. However, because some research shows that the
herb successfully reduces certain psychological symptoms, some proponents argue that using it
is reasonable. In any case, people should not use St. John’s wort to medicate themselves
without consulting a mental health-care professional (Ng et al., 2017; Forsdike & Pirotta, 2019).

MOOD STABILIZERS
Mood stabilizers are used to treat mood disorders characterized by intense mood swings,
especially manic episodes in bipolar disorder. For example, the drug lithium, a form of mineral
salts, has been used very successfully in patients with bipolar disorders. Although no one knows
definitely why, lithium and other mood stabilizers such as divalproex sodium (Depakote) and
carbamazepine (Tegretol) effectively reduce manic episodes. However, they do not effectively
treat depressive phases of bipolar disorder, so antidepressants are usually prescribed during
those phases (Inoue et al., 2011; Baritoli et al., 2018; Kishi et al., 2021).

Lithium and similar drugs have a quality that sets them apart from other drug treatments: They
can be a preventive treatment that blocks future episodes of manic depression. Often, people
who have had episodes of bipolar disorder can take a daily dose of lithium to prevent a
recurrence of their symptoms. Most other drugs are useful only when symptoms of
psychological disturbance occur.

ANTIANXIETY DRUGS
As the name implies, antianxiety drugs reduce the level of anxiety a person experiences and
increase feelings of well-being. They are prescribed not only to reduce general tension in people
who are experiencing temporary difficulties but also to aid in the treatment of more serious
anxiety disorders.

Antianxiety drugs such as alprazolam and Valium are among the medications physicians most
frequently prescribe. In fact, more than half of all U.S. families have someone who has taken
such a drug at one time or another.