A03 of disorders- psychopathology

what is a strength of the genetic explanation for OCD

there is research support from Taylor- he conducted a genetic analysis of individuals with OCD and found 230 candiate genes assosiated with the disorder- all linked to functioning of neurotransmitters like the COMPT and SERT GENE

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HOWEVER

this is too many candate genes to sucesfylly pinpoint a genetic cause of OCD- having each candiate gene(genetic variation) only increased vulnrbaility to a very small extent- genetic basis for ocd is not clear enough- can never be of any predictive value

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There is good supporting evidience from twin studies

a variety of sources using twin studies have suggested that individuals are more vulnrable to OCD if they have a genetic basis for it- like having the COMPT gene-

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what did nesdadt do?

he reviewed twin studies and found that 68% of identical twins share OCD as opposed to 31% of non identical twins- twins both grow up in very similar enviroments- suggests that increased genetic vulnrability is the result of increased concordance.

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however, not 100% of identical twins shared OCD

suggests enviromental factors must play a role- diathesis stress model may be more appropiate in explaining origins and cause of disorder- cromer supported this idea...

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what did he find?

54% of OCD patients had a traumtic event in the past, those that had most sevre forms of OCD had multiple- sugggesting that OCD is triggered by env factors- may be more benefical to focus on enviromental causes- as we can actually do something about these

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strength of neural explanations

there is evidience from PET SCANS to support the worry circuit, orbifrontal cortex and candiate nuclues were found to be hypereactive at rest and when symptons were occuring

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however this evidience is correltaional

as we dont know whether the symptons cause the hypereactive structures or the other way round

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strength of SSRIS- research support from meta analysis

In a meta analysis of 13 studies, soomro combined data from over 13 studies which compared the effectiveness of SSRIs to placebos- he found that SSRIs were more effective between 6-13 weeks post treatment- effective in ST

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however, drug therapy has side effects

soomro as part of his meta analysis found that patients prefer CBT cos SSRIs cause side effects like insominia, nausea, headaches- takes 4 months to be effective so can lead to drug depency, CBT dont have side effects

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drugs are inexpensive and less time consuming than CBT

so have more widespread use in NHS-

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treat symptons not cause..

not ideal- as diathesis stress would suggest its triggered by a traumatic event and cromer founf support for this

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issues with pharmetical companies

they have financial intrest in SSRIS- file drawer problem may not reveal negative effects and effectiveness as its in their intrests to present them as effective- make MONEY

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strength of cogntive therapies

there is research support for BECKS negtative triad- that faulty negative thinking results in depression. Grazoli acsessed the thinking styles of of 65 pregnant women before birth and 6 weeks after birth

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what did grazoli found

the women who had negative thinking styles before birth were most likely to develop post pregnant depression espically in the infants which had difficult tempremant. Supports idea that faulty thinking links to depression

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but also

diathesis stress model may be relevant, negative thinking styles is a vulnrability that can be triggered by averse life experiences like motherhood.

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Practical application IN CBT

its very effective and works on basis of becks explanation- shows it must be relevant- march showed that CBT had an effectiveness of 81% after 36 weeks- treatments work on basis of CBT

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cogntive explanations dont explain all symptons of depression

loweresed self esteem, dwelling on negative- cannot explain behavioural characterics like deep anger and in some cases delusions and hallunications.

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ellis is a partial explanation- only explains depression which results from an activating event or thinking styles

reactive depression, but several other types of depression can arise out of no where- without an obvious cause, cogntive explanations assume its caused by fauluty cogntive thinking

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support for the effectiveness of CBT

march randomly assigned 327 patients to 1/3 groups- either used CBT or drug therapy or a combination, after 36 weeks CBT had an effectiveness of 81% and also led to a reduction in sucide rates- best results were when a combination of both was used

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too focused on present

many patients with depression have had traumatic experiences in the past so may want to explore them rather than the present, might be caused by something other than irrational beliefs and negative thinking- like releationship breakdown

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not avalible for everyone

in the most sevre cases cant get outta bed to attend seshions- cant be used as a widespread treatment

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CBT has no side effects,

patients prefer it, more in long term- treats root causes meaning people can reintergrate into the economy and work/ education- benefical.

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strength of the two process model

weyners research support from little albert- showed a rat no response, when paired with noise of large metal pole hit behind his head- produced response of fear- after a while he j saw rat and other similar objects/ stimuli- produced condituioned response

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incomplete explanation(Bohnton)

evolutionary factors also play a role, the most common phobias are things that have would have been dangerous to our ancestors, like animals- suggesting phobias are adaptive- survival function, selingman prepardness biological-

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carry on

we have an innate predisposition to develop phobias that would have been dangerous to our ancestirs- why we arent scared of cars etc..

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application to behavioural therapies which have been effective

yay

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avoidance behaviour isnt always done to reduce anxiety

may be done not for pleasure of reducing anxiety, but may be done for a drive for saftey- may believe a stimulus is DANGEROUS- so try and be safe- nogt cos they assosiate it with

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ignores cogntive aspects of phobias like irrational thoughts and beliefs as well as reduced cogntive capacity

the two processes model is overly focused on behavioural aspects- incomplete explanation

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sometimes phobias arise out of no where- not from an experience or learning

develop a phobia without having experienced anything bad- suggesting may theres a genetic aspect to it... diathesis stress model may be relevant here.

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whats a strength of systematic desenstitsation

suitable for a diverse range of patients- those with learning difficuluties and health conditions espcially

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another strength

generally is the preffered treatment- as it doesnt cause the same degree of trauma that flooding does- and includes pleasent relexation techniques that help to reduce anxiety

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weakness of SD

time consuming- can take up to 12 2 hour long seshions, and results may be limited to a controlled enviorment in that of the researchers office- only treats certain types of phobias like object related phobias.

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strength of flooding

is that is cost effective and quicker- free of symptons as possible and its cheaper

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treatment is traumatic

not that it is unethical but problem is that patients cannot see it through to the end- high refusal and drop out rates- time is wasted when they start and then refuse.

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less effective for some types of phobias like social phobias

because of the cogntive aspects involved- unpleasent thoughts instead of an anxiety response- these phobias may benefit more so from altenratibe treatments like cogntive treatments that aim to tackle cogntive aspects- thinking

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A03 of disorders- psychopathology

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