Question

Recently in the news, we hear more and more about mental illness either with the news talking about guns or healthcare with insurance coverage. Many people may have various symptoms but go untreated. There are many options for treating mental illness. For this week’s discussion question, select a mental disorder and discuss 2-3 options you would expect a patient’s treatment to include and explain your choices in detail.

Answer 1

Mental Disorder

An illness of the mind that can affect the thoughts, feelings and behaviors of a person, preventing him or her from leading a happy, healthful, and productive life.

Mental disorder - Phobia is strong and irrational fear of something specific.

Treatment options :-

- systematic desensitization :-

fear hierarchy (what fear makes next fear) x relaxation training (keeping calm through hierarchy) --> reciprocal inhibition

- modeling :-

observing interaction with phobic item

- exposure :-

subjective units of distress (SUDs); allow self to be exposed to stimulus to reduce anxiety overtime (exposure therapy); must interact with anxiety stimulus --> learning to deal with anxiety: NOT avoidance; virtual reality (virtual exposure to train to actual exposure) & applied tension (tensing body to avoid passing out)

- Medications :-

none really; surprising role of D-cycloserine (DCS): facilitates extinction process; beta blockers for social phobias (control/suppress heartrate)