Main -> Therapy in the News

Talk Doesn't Pay, So Psychiatry Turns Instead to Drug Therapy (NY Times, 3/5/2011)

"Like many of the nation’s 48,000 psychiatrists, Dr. Levin, in large part because of changes in how much insurance will pay, no longer provides talk therapy, the form of psychiatry popularized by Sigmund Freud that dominated the profession for decades. Instead, he prescribes medication, usually after a brief consultation with each patient."

Discussion question: Is the change in psychiatry to a drug-focused profession good or bad? Why or why not?

Spider Phobics Hold Big, Hairy Tarantula, Florence (ABC News, 5/21/2012)

"B.D., a 34-year-old with a lifelong fear of spiders, found his phobia intensified after a trip to Australia where he encountered the Huntsman variety, a hairy tarantula that scuttles out from behind curtains and is notorious for entering cars and scurrying across the dashboard. But today, after two hours of exposure therapy as part of a study at Northwestern University, B.D. finds spiders tame and amusing -- so much so that he allowed a hairy, Chilean rose tarantula named Florence to amble up his arm." It was like the ultimate extreme sport, a chance to face my fears in a very literal sense,"

Discussion question: What might be some of the concerns with exposure therapy -- relative to other methods that a clinician might use?