Biological Methods of Stress Management

1. Biological Methods of Stress Management

2. Definition • Stress management is the attempt to cope with negative effects of stress through the reduction of the stress response • Biological stress management is aimed at reducing the biological effects of stress • E.g. reducing the fight or flight response through the use of drug therapies

3. Drawing • Use page 136 of your textbook to draw a picture of a synapse in the square box of your booklet

4. Beta Blockers (BBs) • Reduce activity of adrenaline and noradrenaline which cause increased heart rate and blood pressure • Bind to receptors on the heart and other parts of the body stimulated during the sympathetic nervous system • Therefore it becomes harder to stimulate cells • As a result the heart beats slower, blood pressure is reduced and a person becomes less anxious

5. Benzodiazepines (BZ’s) • These are most commonly used to treat anxiety and stress • E.g. Valiumand Librium slow the activity of the central nervous system • GABA is a form of natural anxiety relief • BZ’s enhance the action of GABA so excitatory neurotransmitters • This makes a person calmer • BZ’s also reduce serotonin activity

6. Strength or Weakness? • Effective in combating the effects of stress One way that effectiveness is assessed is through comparing outcomes e.g. One group is given a drug and another is given a placebo This enables us to determine whether the effectiveness of a drug is due to pharmacological properties or something psychological

7. Strength or Weakness? • Treating the symptom rather than the problem The effects of drugs only last while a person takes a drug – as soon as they stop the effectiveness stops This is not useful for chronic stress, therefore it may be better to seek a treatment that addressed the problem itself

8. Strength or Weakness? • Addiction BZs have more recently been identified with problems of addiction Patients taking low doses of BZs show marked withdrawal symptoms when they stop taking them Therefore there is a recommendation that BZ use should be limited to a maximum of 4 weeks (Ashton, 1997)

9. Strength or Weakness? • Ease of Use A benefit of using drugs for stress is that the therapy requires little effort from the user Only have to take pills which is less time consuming and less effort compared to psychological methods

10. Strength or Weakness? • Supporting Research Kahn et al (1986) followed nearly 250 patients over 8 weeks and found that BZs were significantly superior to a placebo Hildago et al (2001) in a meta-analysis of studies found that BZs were more effective at reducing anxiety than other drugs

11. Strength or Weakness? • Side Effects Side effects of BZs include increased aggressiveness, impairment of memory especially in terms of long-term memory Beta blockers tend not to have side effects