Psychotherapy

Everyone has been sick before, in some way or another. Perhaps you were struck down with chickenpox as a child, received a bout of flu as an adult or endured the tortuous consequences of food poisoning. Maybe you've been through something more serious. A cancer diagnosis. Life with a chronic disease. Disability.

If you have been in such a situation, you will understand the will and desire to get better. To find something, anything, that could make the pain, suffering and the sickness itself go away because only then can life get back to normal. Most things pass, others don't, and for those illnesses that continue to pervade the lives of those they afflict, the patient is left hoping for a cure, one that could instantly and effortlessly remedy the situation.

Can you imagine then, how it must be for someone suffering with a mental illness? Unlike many physical afflictions in which a definitive course of medical action can lead one on the road to recovery, a one-stop-shop cure for mental illness does not exist. Furthermore, the treatment options available are almost as wide and variable as the number of psychiatric disorders themselves. Indeed for someone with a diagnosis of mental illness, the road to recovery can often look bleak with little hope for a way out.

There exists medications for certain mental conditions that have certainly shown some benefit. Take for instance the introduction of selective-serotonin re-uptake inhibitors (SSRIs), which are often used to treat depression. Although they have the capacity to improve symptoms in some individuals, SSRIs, like many other drugs used to treat psychiatric disorders, are not without their side-effects. It is no wonder then that non-pharmacological therapies such as psychotherapy are increasingly being recognised as an effective and important treatment option in the management of many mental disorders.

Psychotherapy can be defined as the use of psychological methods to enable a person to change and overcome problems they face in desired ways through regular personal interaction with a therapist. One type of psychotherapy that is commonly used in the treatment of a variety of mental illnesses Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT). CBT is a type of behavioural therapy in which maladaptive pattterns of behaviour are changed in order to improve emotional responses, cognitions and interpersonal interactions. It involves focussing the patient on constructing and re-constructing their cognitions, emotions and behaviours so that they are able to recognise and deal with any self-destructive or problematic ways of thinking. Many studies have validated the effectiveness of CBT in the treatment of generalised anxiety, obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD), phobias, depression and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

Isn't it interesting that psychotherapies, which are essentially "talking therapies" have the power to improve symptoms of many mental disorders? Why do you think that is?

References

Vaswani M, Linda FK, Ramesh S. Role of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors in psychiatric disorders: a comprehensive review. Prog Neuropsychopharmacol Biol Psychiatry [Internet]. 2003 [cited 2016 Jan 31];27(1):85-102. Available from: PubMed

Butler AC, Chapman JE, Forman EM, Beck AT. The empirical status of cognitive-behavioral therapy: a review of meta-analyses. Clin Psychol Rev [Internet]. 2006 [cited 2016 Jan 31];26(1):17-31. Available from: PubMed