The issue of distinguishing and treating mental illnesses has been a major concern for many doctors around the world. Deciding how the illness should be treated to best help the patient has caused many debates on what is best for everyone involved. Doctors have found that some medications can do more harm than good when treating mental illnesses and have started looking for a new treatment. One of the treatment methods for a mental health disorder such as Alzheimer’s is behavioral therapy. Cognitive behavioral therapy can be used to treat mental health disorders like Alzheimer’s in a way that will progressively help the person manage the symptoms.
There are four main types of behavioral therapy and a doctors’ first …show more content…
The process of CBT begins with discussing the end goal and what to expect from the treatment. The therapist and the patient get together and decide what they are going to expect from the therapy and how to go about it (“Cognitive Behavioral Therapy” 2016). Then, the therapist will start treatments and identify what does and does not work with the patient. At this point, the therapist will talk with the caregiver and teach them the best ways to communicate with and understand the patients’ needs (Scott 2017). Learning about the condition will help the people involved to understand what needs to happen to make the patient more comfortable and how-to manage the …show more content…
The overall goal at the end of the treatment for caregivers is for the caregiver to know how to properly deal with all symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease. This knowledge will hopefully help to lessen the burden on the caregivers and provide the patient with the care they need when they need it. The goal for the patient, when using CBT as a treatment, is to lessen depression, improve cognitive function, and stabilize behavioral symptoms. Due to the fact that many of the symptoms of Alzheimer’s are treated on their own with CBT, the goals are very similar to those used for other treatments (Forstmeir, Maercker, Savaskan, & Roth 2015). The main goal, however, is for the primary doctor of the patient with Alzheimer’s to decide that the therapy is enough to manage the behavioral symptoms of the disease and take the patient off of antipsychotic medications. These medications have been found to stop working as effectively over time and are possibly worsening the disease with the more medication that is taken (“Effects of Behavioral Therapy on Alzheimer’s” 2015). The hope of this treatment is to make the patient more comfortable and to manage the symptoms for as long as possible. Cognitive behavioral therapy is being used to help Alzheimer’s patients manage the disease and make life easier. With CBT, the patient can maintain normal behaviors for a longer amount of