Download Physiological Methods of Stress Management

Lesson 18
Learning Objectives

To understand biological methods of stress
management.
Success Criteria
1.
Produce evaluation notes about the use of drugs
to treat stress on page 20 of your booklet.
2.
Complete a practice question about biological
methods of stress management and hand it in at
the end of the lesson.
Challenge Criteria Create a drug flashcard to
help you remember the action of drugs



You each have a note stuck to your back. You
will play the yes/no game…
You will ask a series of questions to your
study buddy to try to guess the stress-related
key word/psychologist’s name/concept etc.
Your study buddy can only say “yes” or “no”!

Two sets of drugs are commonly used to
treat stress are:


Benzodiazepines (BZs)
Beta-blockers (BBs)
BZs (Librium and Valium) are the most
common drugs to treat stress and anxiety
 BZs slow down the activity of the CNS



These are the most common drugs to treat
stress and anxiety; they slow down the
activity of the CNS.
Nerve cells communicate by sending
chemicals (neurotransmitters) to the next
nerve cell.




One of the neurotransmitters
is called GABA.
40% of neurons in the brain
respond to GABA.
GABA gives relief from anxiety
by altering other
neurotransmitters; it reduces
serotonin (which reduces
arousal and anxiety).
Drugs interfere with this
process; benzodiazepines
increase the activity of GABA
in order to decrease serotonin
activity, which in turn reduces
arousal.





Beta-Blockers (BBs) reduce the activity of adrenaline and
noradrenaline which are part of the sympathomedullary
response to stress.
These do not enter the brain, instead BBs bind to the
receptors in the heart and other parts of the body that
are stimulated during arousal
This reduces the activity of the autonomic nervous
system associated with arousal, i.e. reducing heart-rate,
blood pressure and cortisol levels.
There is therefore less stress on the heart and the
person feels calmer and less anxious.
These are sometimes used by snooker + darts players
and musicians to reduce the negative effects on their
performance.
Stress
Arousal of the
sympathetic
nervous system
Raised blood
pressure
Increased heart
rate
Cardiovascular disorders
and reduced immune
system
Elevated levels
of cortisol

Complete the table on page 20 of your
booklet showing the strengths and
weaknesses of drug treatments.
Strengths of Biological Treatments
Weaknesses of Biological Treatments
•Effective at combating the effects of stress.
•To assess the effectiveness of drugs you give one
group of anxious patients a drug and the other group a
placebo. The patients do not know which drug they are
taking. This helps to determine whether the effects of
the drug are pharmacological or psychological.
•Kahn et al (1986) followed 250 patients for
eight weeks. BZs were far superior to the
placebo.
•Hildalgo et al (2001) carried out a meta-analysis
on social anxiety treatments and found that BZs
were superior to other anti-anxiety drugs, e.g.
antidepressants.
•Beta-blockers are more effective in reducing
anxiety in a variety of stressful situations, e.g.
among musicians and is sports where accuracy
is more important than stamina (e.g. golf or
snooker).
•Drugs are easy to use and require little effort – you
just have to remember to take the pill. This is easier
than the effort required for psychological treatments.
•BZs were introduced over 40 years ago and replaced
barbiturates which tended to be addictive (withdrawal
symptoms occurred). Recently addiction to BZs has
been noticed, especially low-dose dependence (i.e.
withdrawal symptoms occur with low doses). It is
therefore recommended that BZs are only taken for
four weeks (Ashton, 1997).
•Side effects of BZs include ‘paradoxical’ symptoms
(i.e. the opposite of what you would expect occurs) such
as increased aggressiveness and cognitive side effects
(impaired memory and not being able to store things in
LTM). Although most people do not experience side
effects, there has been a link with developmental
diabetes.
•Sometimes the effect of drugs only lasts as long as the
drugs are taken, as soon as they stop, the effectiveness
disappears. It may be that the problem has passed, but
in the case of chronic stress, it may be that it covers up
for the problem temporarily and the addiction poses an
additional problem – therefore psychological
treatments may be better as they deal with the
symptoms.

Discuss one or more biological methods of
stress management. [10 marks]