NRNP 6645 DISCUSSION 1

NRNP 6645 DISCUSSION 1 Post an explanation of whether psychotherapy has a biological basis. Psychotherapy has a biological basis. According to Javanbakht & Alberini (2019), unlike pharmacological drugs, psychotherapy doesn't target just one receptor, neurotransmitter, or modulators; it engages biological regulations underlying complex brain responses, including emotional, cognitive, and regulation processes. Specifically, psychotherapy mediates the connection and reintegration of maladaptive neural networks associated with adverse life events and fosters new constructive pathways, thus facilitating the brain's healing. In other words, psychotherapy repairs and disengages maladaptive adaptations of the brain and replaces them with new positive pathways. The brain maps the memories and experiences using neuronal pathways. Negative experiences produce defective mappings associated with psychiatric symptoms such as anxiety, depression, stress, and post-traumatic disorders. Replacing these maladaptive mappings via psychotherapy has a healing effect on patients. Brain imaging studies have found that psychotherapeutic treatments such as cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) produce brain responses similar to those produced by medication that reduce the levels of glucose metabolism (Tryon, 2016). Another study found that the use of eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR) in treating PTSD found that this psychotherapy approach caused changes in the amygdala, orbitofrontal cortex (OFC), and superior temporal sulcus (STS), which are associated with emotions and memory thus alleviating PTSD (Amano & Toichi, 2016). Explain how culture, religion, and socioeconomics might influence one's perspective on the value of psychotherapy treatments. Cultural beliefs can influence a person's perception of the effectiveness of psychotherapy. For instance, negative cultural thoughts such as trusting those symptoms will be resolved with family support or remit without treatment can be barriers to treatment. Other cultural aspects that may affect the individual's perception of psychotherapy including the belief that psychotherapy is linked to shame, curses, punishment, and stigmatization. Such cultural beliefs may assume that mental problems can only be treated through divine interventions rather than psychotherapy (Wegner & Rhoda, 2015). Additionally, the religious belief that mental issues can be resolved through prayers and divine healing may cause one to believe that interventions such as psychotherapy are ineffective. For example, Hindus, Muslims, and Christians believe that the most effective way to cope with mental problems such as trauma is through divine healing from God rather than psychotherapy (Gonçalves et al., 2015). Regarding socio-economic factors, low- income individuals are unlikely to seek psychotherapy interventions compared to high-income individuals (Sripada et al., 2015).