Outline and Evaluate Biological Treatments for Phobic Disorders (8 and 16 marks)

One Biological Treatment for Phobic disorders is Drugs. There are many types of drugs used to treat phobic disorders but the three main types are Benzodiazepines, Beta-blockers and Anti-depressants. Benzodiazepines work by slowing down you central nervous system by enhancing a neurotransmitter called GABA, Beta-blockers reduce levels and effects of adrenalin and noradrenaline so that thesympathomedullary pathway is less active and Anti-depressants reduce anxiety and increase serotonin which regulates mood and anxiety levels.

​All of these are used as a treatment of the symptoms and not the cause of the phobia and should therefore be used in addition to psychological therapies and only in the short term whilst the causes are being treated. They are cheap compared to other treatments which make them a good option for a lot of people however they are highly addictive, especially Benzodiazepines, and can have a lot of side effects includingoften extensive and long term memory loss memory loss in Benzodiazepines and dizziness, blurred vision and increased suicide rates in Anti-depressants.

​Kindt et al (2009) did a study to support the use of Beta-blockers by conditioning people to have a fear of spiders using electric shock and then giving half a Beta-blocker and half a placebo. 24 hours later those who had had the Beta-blocker showed a reduced fear response whereas those given the placebos did not. This supports the use of Beta-blockers as a treatment for Phobic disorders as it did reduce the fear response the participants had to spider when the placebo didn’t suggesting it was actually the Beta-blocker that had reduced this fear and not another variable.

​There are some ethical issues involved in Kindt’s study as there is an issue of informed consent as most participants were not informed of the comparative success of the Beta-blockers verses placebos and therefore expose themselves to possible side effects unknowingly.

​Another Biological treatment of Phobic Disorders is Psychosurgery. This is a type of surgery done on the brain to treat mental health problems such as phobic disorders and usually involves severing connections between areas of the brain to encourage it to create new pathways. It is used as a last resort when all other means of treatment have been tried but had no effect and has had some success on patients for whom all else has failed and whose mental health condition is life threatening. However the surgery is very dangerous and can cause memory loss and therefore is only used in extreme cases.

​Ruck et al (2003) did a study to support psychosurgery where he gave psychosurgery to 26 people who had been suffering from non-obsessive anxiety disorders for more than 5 years and who had tried various other treatments. A year later 25 out of 26 of the people had dropped from an average of 22.0 to an average of 4.6 on the brief anxiety scale. This would support psychosurgery as a treatment for phobic disorders as it worked as a last resort for 95% of the participants.

However although this study seems to support psychosurgery one year after treatment 7 of the participants had tried to commit suicide and 2 had epileptic fits. This suggests that although psychosurgery may be a working treatment it also carries lots of risks, especially of side effects that must be thought about before taking part in the procedure.

There are a lot of ethical issues involved in psychosurgery as it is totally irreversible. Also informed consent is very hard to get as people can never really be fully informed on the effects of psychosurgery as it is different in each individual case.