Effective Therapies for Teenage Mental Health Issues

Major Depression in a Teenager

I will use psychotherapy which is frequently used in the treatment for childhood and adolescent depression. It helps people by helping them to understand the behavior and emotions that contribute to their issues and how to benefit from them, helping them to come out of the stress and mental blocks caused by traumatic events. The most important part is helping them to learn coping techniques and problem-solving skills. The advantages of this treatment are that there are fewer side effects, it develops skills to improve relationships, and it helps the patient to understand himself and his personal goals better. The most important disadvantages of this therapy are that it takes longer than drug therapy to produce benefit. This is why I will combine the psychotherapy with antidepressants, for example, I will prescribe Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors (SSRIs). Also, major depression is hard to treat and just using psychotherapy by itself wouldn't be enough or it would take too long. Another disadvantage of psychotherapy is that in some cases it can't respond to actual crisis situations.

The Most Effective Treatment for OCD

The treatment found to be the most effective in successfully tackling Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD) is a special form of talking therapy called Cognitive Behavioural Therapy. The principal aim of this treatment is to enable the person to become their own therapist and to provide them with the knowledge and tools to continue working in order to recover from OCD. At the beginning of the treatment, the patient should describe the obsessions and compulsions and rank them with the most severe ones at the top, and the least severe at the bottom. Then, they should gently start to overcome those obsessions. Taking some minutes to think that what they are feeling or fearing is not real or keep notes of everyday and write can be really helpful. Some of the advantages are that CBT promotes a more independent effort on the part of the client and it can be completed in a relatively short period of time compared to other talking therapies. Disadvantages of this treatment are that you need to commit yourself to the process and attending regular CBT sessions and carrying out any extra work between sessions can take up a lot of your time.

Schizophrenia Treatment

Schizophrenia: I will use a somatic therapy, that is a drug therapy or psychopharmacology. Schizophrenia is generally treated by antipsychotic drugs such as Thorazine and Haldol. These drugs generally function by blocking receptor sites for dopamine. The advantages of this treatment are that medication can provide quick relief from symptoms, some disorders don't respond to therapy, and medication is cheaper and less time-consuming than therapy. The disadvantages are that the drugs can have unpleasant side effects and many drugs are ineffective in the long term if taken regularly.