From psychiatry and psychology, two main types of treatments are provided for improving mental health: treatments with psychoactive drugs and treatments with psychological therapies.
In response to mental health problems, many people turn to drug intervention. The 2017 ENSE National Health Survey observed that 1 in 10 people take some tranquilizer/anxiolytic and 1 in 20 antidepressants. These treatments offer practical solutions in many cases that help reduce the problems associated with many problems. For example, they favor more balanced mental states, facilitate sleep conciliation, reduce activation levels, etc.
In addition to psychoactive drugs, mental health professionals can provide us access to psychological treatments, but what do they add concerning psychoactive drugs?
The Advantages Of Drugs And Psychological Treatments
- They Are Effective
When we think about psychological therapy, one of the questions that may come to mind is whether it is beneficial and whether or not it will help us solve our problems. In this regard, scientific evidence indicates that psychological treatments are effective.
Psychotherapy is a practical support to reduce chronic problems such as depression, anxiety, substance use, or bipolar disorder. Psychological and pharmacological treatment offer similar effectiveness in reducing discomfort related to many problems, such as depression or bipolar disorder. However, in specific problems, such as in many cases of anxiety, the effectiveness of psychological treatments is even higher than pharmacological treatments.
- They Reduce The Probability Of Relapses
Psychological treatment offers a higher success rate than pharmacological treatment in relapse prevention. This means that a person who has overcome a mental problem with psychological treatment is less likely to re-experience previous difficulties than someone who has overcome it with psychotropic drugs.
- They Have A Long-Term Effect
The successes we achieve with psychotherapy are maintained over time. While the effect of the drugs is as long as we continue the treatment, the effect of psychotherapy extends beyond the end of the sessions. With psychological treatments, people learn new ways of behaving that help us manage our lives more adaptively and are useful after therapy in new situations.
- They Do Not Generate Addiction
One of the advantages of psychological therapy is that it does not generate addiction problems. On the contrary, some psychoactive drugs, such as anxiolytics and hypnotics, generate significant levels of dependency, making many people need them to face their day-to-day. Faced with this situation, psychological treatments do not generate these addiction problems but rather make us more autonomous by providing us with skills that make us more independent.
- They Have No Side Effects
Psychological treatments have less impact on the organism than psychoactive drugs. While medications can cause adverse effects, one of the advantages of psychotherapy is intervention without harmful side effects for the body.
- They Can Be Combined With Psychotropic Drugs
Psychological interventions can be combined with psychotropic drugs. For some people, this combination of psychological and pharmacological treatment is the most effective treatment.
In the case of treatment for schizophrenia, the combination of psychotropic drugs with psychological therapy reduces hospitalization periods, psychotic episodes, the amount of medication, etc.
In mood problems, antidepressants facilitate our brain’s ability to change, adapt, and learn new things. Combining this with psychotherapy would make it easier for this fertile ground to bear fruit by providing direction and driving change.…