Is psychotherapy better than drugs?

Is psychotherapy better than drugs?

'Does
Psychotherapy
work better
than Drugs?'

Nicola Bradshaw-Further Study
Skills-Presentation

‘Does Psychotherapy work better than drugs?’

 
Its available in a chewable form for puppies with ‘Canine
separation anxiety’ and prescribed for zoo animals with
symptoms of OCD and aggression, kids as young as two are
popping ‘happy pills’, and the World Health organisation (WHO)
tell us that mental health is the leading cause of disability
worldwide. Its not an epidemic that’s improving either, with
fifty million prescriptions in the UK for Anti Depressants alone
last year-the highest number recorded, and an increase of 7.5
percent from the year before, at a cost of £270 billion every
year(BBC Uk), are we missing a more affordable, healthy and
effective solution?

The UK Government has invested four hundred million pounds over the next few years
working with the (IAPT) -Improving Access to Psychological Therapies to improve access
and official guidance from (NICE)-National institute for Health and Care excellence
encourages GPs to treat mild to moderate depression with psychotherapy, using
medication only for severe depression.
With evidence from trials suggesting that the use of psychotherapy corrects thought
patterns in the brain with higher long term recovery rates than antidepressants, ' Does

Psychotherapy work better than Drugs?'
 
 

Perhaps in the near future,
diagnosis and appropriate
treatment may be as simple as a
brain scan for the patient to
identify which treatment will work
better..?

According to recent evidence from a trial conducted by Dr
Helen Mayberg published in JAMA psychiatry, Mayberg, a
professor of psychiatry at Emory university identified a
potential biomarker in the brain that could predict whether a
depressed patient would respond better to an antidepressant
or cognitive behaviour therapy or both.
Using PET scans,Mayberg randomised a group of depressed
patients to either twelve weeks of...

Similar Essays