The biological approach to treating OCD - Evaluation
- Created by: Rosiem2102
- Created on: 21-03-18 20:34
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- Evaluation
- Drug therapy is effective at tackling OCD symptoms
- Clear evidence that SSRIs reduce symptoms and increase quality of life
- Soomro et al. (2009) reviewed studies comparing SSRIs to placebos and concluded all studies showed significantly better results for SSRIs than placebo conditions
- Effectiveness is greatest when SSRIs are combined with psychological treatment (usually CBT)
- Symptoms decline significantly for around 70% of patients taking SSRIs
- Alternative treatments/combinations will be effective for some of the remaining 30%
- Drugs can help most patients with OCD
- Drugs are cost effective and non-disruptive
- Cheap compared to psychological treatments
- Good value for public health systems like the NHS
- Non-disruptive compared to psychological therapies
- You can simply take drugs until your symptoms decline and not engage in the hard work of psychological therapy
- Drugs can have side-effects
- A significant minority will get no benefit from taking drugs
- Some patients suffer side-effects such as indigestion, blurred vision and loss of sex drive (only usually temporary)
- Clomipramine - side effects are more common and can be more serious
- 1/10 suffer erection problems, tremors and weight gain
- 1/100 become aggressive and suffer disruption to blood pressure and heart rhythm
- Reduce effectiveness because people stop taking the medication
- Drug therapy is effective at tackling OCD symptoms
- Evaluation extra
- Unreliable evidence for drug treatment
- Some controversy attached
- Some psychologists believe the evidence favouring drug treatments is sponsored by drug companies who do not report all the evidence
- Some cases of OCD follow trauma
- OCD is widely believed to be biological in origin
- Makes sense that the standard treatment should be biological
- Acknowledged that OCD can have a range of other causes
- In some cases it is a response to a traumatic life event
- Unreliable evidence for drug treatment
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