| This thesis will focus on how pharmacological interventions might possibility be interfering with psychotherapy. Researchers and scientist have come a long way in the treatment of mental illnesses, but with progression also have come problems. Researchers and clinicians have noticed that the pharmacological interventions are causing cognitive impairments in their patients and also have noticed difficulty learning therapeutic interventions. Cognitive impairments are often linked to antipsychotic medications, mainly that act on the neurotransmitter dopamine, which plays a role in learning. These medications are often found to disrupt cognition in six domains: attention-vigilance, motor dexterity, abstract thought, problem solving, memory, learning, and verbal behavior (Jerrell & Ramirez, 2008). Thus it makes sense that people on these medications are found to have decreased performance related to tasks that involve attention, memory, and executive functioning. Researchers believe that the antipsychotic medications directly affect dopamine and other learning centers in the brain, thus affecting the cognitive and learning process in therapy. Keeping the cognitive impairments in mind, researchers and scientists try to develop the most effective medications for patients with mental illness and continue to strive to make therapy effective. |
