5. Psychological Treatments

About this Lecture

Lecture

In this lecture, we think about the psychological treatments available to those who suffer from schizophrenia, focusing in particular on: (i) family therapy and how the different treatments offered under this umbrella, including psychoeducation, relative groups therapy and personal therapy, can benefit schizophrenia sufferers; (ii) cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) as a treatment that can help schizophrenia sufferers make sense of their deluded thoughts and hallucinations; (iii) token economies as a behavioural approach to treating schizophrenia which aims to alleviate symptoms by rewarding patients for desired behaviours.

Course

In this course, Mr Kevin Silber (University of Derby) explores different aspects of the severe mental health condition schizophrenia, including its characteristics, causes and available treatments. In the first lecture, we consider the positive and negative symptoms of schizophrenia and debunk some common myths about the illness. In the second lecture, we think about the possible biological causes of schizophrenia. In the third lecture, we explore the psychological aspects of the condition. Next, we take a closer look at the different drug treatments that have been used to help those suffering from schizophrenia. In the fifth lecture, we consider psychological treatments, such as family therapy, CBT and token economies. In the sixth and final lecture, we think about the ‘interactionist approach’ to schizophrenia as an approach which takes account of both biological and psychological factors in understanding and treating the illness.

Lecturer

Mr Kevin Silber is a senior lecturer at the University of Derby where he primarily teaches biological psychology modules. Mr Silber is also an AQA A-Level examiner and is involved in authoring texts for A-Level psychology. Having started life as a neuroscientist, Mr Silber’s research interests still lie in biologically oriented topics. However, his main research interest is now focused on body image. Some of Mr Silber’s recent publications include ‘Working memory in children: A developmental approach to the phonological coding of pictorial material’ (2011) and ‘Sexual orientation and the sleep-wake cycle: A preliminary investigation’ (2000).