Chapter 15

This chapter is about psychological therapies, and although there are various topics in the chapter, this blog will be mainly about psychopharmacology, which is the use of drugs to control or relieve the symptoms of various psychological disorders, and although these drugs are sometimes used alone, they are usually combined with some sort of psychotherapy. The combination of both tends to be the most successful. 

So the question that I'm going to answer is: What are the various types of drugs used to treat psychological disorders? 

There are 2 kinds of antipsychotics and 3 kinds of antidepressants, along with antimanic and antianxiety drugs. 

The antipsychotics are broken up depending on if a typical neuroleptic or an atypical neuroleptic is being treated. For the typical one, drugs like chloropromazine, droperidol, and haloperidol are used. These treat symptoms like delusions and hallucinations. For atypical neuroleptics, drugs like clozapine, risperidone, and aripiprazole are prescribed. These treat the same previous symptoms along with symptoms of psychoses. 

Antidepressants are broken up into MAOIs, Tricyclics, and SSRIs. These are all just different categories for how the various drugs works once consumed. They all treat depression and have possible minor side effects that vary depending on which drug was consumed. 

Antimanics are drugs like lithium and a number of anticonvulsant drugs that are all used to treat manic behavior, such as excessive excitement, energy, elation, or irritability. The side effects include potential for toxic buildup. 

Antianxiety drugs are generally minor tranquilizers and include drugs like alprazolam, lorazepam, and diazepam. These drugs help treat all symptoms of anxiety along with any phobia-related reactions. The down side includes a possible dependence on the drug and a slight sedative effect.