How do biomedical therapies treat psychological disorders?
• Psychopharmacology, the study of how drugs affect the mind and behavior, has led to the development of a wide array of psychoactive medications. • Antipsychotic drugs treat disorders such as schizophrenia. Typical antipsychotics (chlorpromazine and haloperidol) treat positive symptoms by decreasing dopamine activity. Atypical antipsychotics treat negative symptoms. • Antidepressants alleviate depression by altering how neurotransmitters are circulated throughout the brain, usually serotonin and norepinephrine. • Benzodiazepines treat anxiety disorders by slowing down the central nervous system, while lithium controls bipolar mood swings for many sufferers.
