How does biomedical therapy differ from psychotherapy in its approach?

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

Biomedical therapies are physiological interventions for psychological problems. They assume that disorders are caused, at least in part, by biological malfunctions. Biomedical treatments involve interventions into a person's biological functioning. They include drug treatments and ECT. Drugs used to treat psychological disorders fall into three major categories: antianxiety, antipsychotic, and antidepressant. Drug therapies can be quite effective, but they have their drawbacks: these drugs do not solve personal or social problems. Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) is a biomedical treatment in which electric shock is used to produce a cortical seizure accompanied by convulsions. While the use of ECT peaked in the 1940s and 1950s, there has been a recent resurgence in this therapy.

Psychotherapy encompasses many treatment methods including discussion, advice, emotional support, persuasion, conditioning procedures, relaxation training, role-playing, and group therapy. Insight therapies are "talk" therapy in which therapists encourage clients to engage in verbal interactions designed to generate increased insight regarding the nature of the client's difficulties. Examples include psychoanalysis, client-centered therapy, and group therapy. Behavior therapies are another form of psychotherapy based on the principles of learning where instead of emphasizing personal insight, the behavior therapist will make direct efforts to alter problematic overt behavior. Psychotherapeutic approaches do not involve the use of physical intervention and are noninvasive.