What Is Biomedical Therapy and How Can It Help With Recovery?

Healing your mental health is a lot like adding tools to a toolbox, ready to grab and use as symptoms come and go. A common and effective tool in many people’s toolbox is biomedical therapy, which includes medications and some medical procedures.

Treatment centers with biomedical therapy can help with addiction and mental health concerns. Biomedical therapy can be especially important and effective for severe mental illnesses and addiction, but people with all types of needs can benefit.

What Is Biomedical Therapy?

Biomedical therapy uses medications or medical procedures to reduce symptoms of psychological disorders and addiction.¹ From a biomedical perspective, mental health conditions are brain diseases with chemical and biological causes.²

Biomedical therapy is very similar to how doctors treat physical diseases, using medicine to both reduce your symptoms and correct the cause of the disease. Biomedical therapy differs from psychotherapy because it focuses on the biological causes of conditions. Psychotherapy, on the other hand, weighs how your environment, relationships, childhood, and more have influenced your mental health.

It’s common for your treatment plan to include biomedical therapies in addition to other types of therapy.³ So you may take certain medications while also regularly going to one-on-one therapy sessions, like cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT).

Types of Biomedical Therapy

How Pharmacotherapy Helps Treatment

Psychiatric medications, also called pharmacotherapy, treats the symptoms of mental health conditions by stabilizing or supplementing neurotransmitters like serotonin and dopamine.⁴

Some conditions like bipolar disorder may require long-term medication use to manage symptoms. But it’s also common for your doctor to prescribe them long enough to ease your symptoms so you can focus on the rest of your therapies while in treatment.

Studies show that medications can enhance psychotherapy by reducing distracting symptoms.⁵ Dr. Thomas Gazda, Medical Director at Soberman’s Estate, explains:

Medications can work with psychotherapy. In fact, patients whose depression has lifted or have their severe anxiety under control can do better in psychotherapy. They’re able to focus, concentrate and delve into their psyche much better when they’re stable.

Thomas GazdaMedical Director, Soberman's Estate

There are 5 types of medications that are common in mental health treatment:⁶

• Antidepressants, including selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) like Zoloft, can treat depression, anxiety, chronic pain, or insomnia.
• Anti-anxiety medications, like SSRIs or benzodiazepines, can help people with generalized anxiety disorder, panic disorder, or social anxiety disorder.
• Stimulants are common in treating attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) or narcolepsy.
• Antipsychotics can help people with schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, severe depression, or other conditions that cause delusions or hallucinations, including some addictions.
• Mood stabilizers, like lithium, reduce the symptoms of depression, bipolar disorder, or schizoaffective disorder, usually in addition to antidepressants.

It’s common for people to try a few different medications before finding one that works best for them.⁷ But, it’s important to do these drug therapy trials with a medical professional. They’ll be able to give guidance and address any concerns about side effects.

Medical Procedures for Mental Health Conditions

While pharmacotherapy is the most popular form of biomedical therapy, doctors also use certain medical procedures to address mental health conditions like depression.

In the past, invasive and life-altering surgeries like lobotomies or electroshock therapy were more common. Now, the practice of psychosurgery is much safer thanks to improvements in technique.⁸ Still, these surgeries are not very common. Doctors will typically only consider them an option after exhausting all other treatment options.

Beyond surgery, treatment providers use other types of medical procedures to treat mental health conditions. Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) is one example.⁹ In ECT, a doctor passes electrical currents through your brain, causing a small seizure while you’re under general anesthesia. This stimulates your brain and can quickly change chemical imbalances that may be causing your mental health issues. It’s one of the most effective treatment options for people with treatment-resistant depression, but people with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder may also benefit.

Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) is a biomedical therapy method that’s becoming more popular. While ECT uses an electric current, TMS uses magnetic waves sent into targeted areas of the brain. It’s non-invasive and can help treat treatment-resistant depression, obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and even some addictions. Jerry Vaccaro, president of All Points North Lodge, speaks to the distinct benefits of TMS:

People find that TMS is easy to do, it takes very little time, side effects are minimal, and the results are quite good.

Jerry VaccaroPresident, All Points North Lodge

Like pharmacotherapy treatment options, your treatment team, therapist, or primary care physician can help you determine if any of these medical procedures are right for you.

How Does Biomedical Therapy Work?

Some biomedical therapies require a medical doctor to supervise. For example, in some states like California, only a psychiatrist or physician can prescribe mental health medications, not therapists.¹⁰ In others, a technician or nurse practitioner can prescribe.

In most cases, biomedical therapies are available in both inpatient and outpatient settings. A psychiatrist can prescribe you antidepressants to take both during and after residential treatment. ECT and TMS are also both available as outpatient procedures, but you can also receive them in rehabs that have the necessary staff and equipment. The only type of biomedical therapy that typically requires hospitalization is psychosurgery.

The length of biomedical treatment also depends on the specific therapy and the severity of your condition. For instance, people with moderate depression who respond well to medication will usually only take antidepressants for 4-9 months.¹¹ But many people with schizophrenia may have to take medications for the rest of their lives to manage symptoms.¹²

What Disorders Does Biomedical Therapy Treat?

In the last 30 years in the U.S., the biomedical treatment model has been the dominant approach to mental health.¹³ This means a large body of research has been focused on biomedical therapy options for some of the most prevalent mental health conditions.

Depression

Antidepressants are very common in depression treatment. They’re most effective in treating moderate to severe depression. The goal of antidepressants is to alleviate your symptoms long enough for you to build coping skills.¹⁴ The most effective treatment plan for depression is a combination of biomedical psychiatry and psychotherapy.¹⁵

ECT and TMS are also effective in treating depression.¹⁶ Most of the benefits of ECT and TMS come quickly and help people feel better right away, but research hasn’t yet proven these changes are always permanent.

Anxiety

For people with anxiety disorders, medication can be an effective tool in treatment.¹⁷ SSRIs and serotonin norepinephrine reuptake inhibitors (SNRIs) are usually the first options for anxiety treatment. You may take them for as little as 3 months or as long as multiple years, depending on your symptoms.

Several new pharmacological options for anxiety, including ketamine and psychedelics, have been found to be effective. But these are less common and research is still quite new.

Schizophrenia

Antipsychotic medications are a pillar in most treatment plans for schizophrenia. After a psychotic episode, your doctor will most likely prescribe an antipsychotic medication immediately to prevent major changes in your brain and help you return to your regular functioning.¹⁸

It’s also common for mental health providers to continue to prescribe medications even months after an episode. This type of maintenance therapy can help prevent relapse and help you experience more stability in your mood and relationships.

Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder

Studies show that 70% of people with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) experience reduced symptoms after taking appropriate medications.¹⁹ SSRIs are the most common prescription for people with OCD, but doctors may also prescribe other types depending on your symptoms.

Initial research also shows that TMS may be effective in reducing OCD symptoms.²⁰ TMS requires a psychiatrist’s referral and with such new research, it may not be widely available to people with OCD just yet.

People with very severe and treatment-resistant OCD have also found success with psychosurgery.²¹ However, this is usually only an option for people who have exhausted all others.

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder

From the biomedical psychiatry perspective, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is caused by a biological change in how you perceive fear. And studies show that people with PTSD have a few key imbalances in the brain related to the “fight or flight” response.²² PTSD may also have physical symptoms like high blood pressure, which hints at the biological link.

With these imbalances in mind, pharmacotherapy is an effective treatment method for PTSD.²³ And psychiatrists will consider your symptoms when prescribing your specific medications. For example, you may take an SSRI to reduce symptoms like re-experiencing, avoidance, and hyperarousal, while other medications can help prevent PTSD-related nightmares. Your treatment team will be able to map out the most effective medications for your symptoms and lifestyle.

Trauma therapies like eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR) are also vital in PTSD recovery. As with any mental illness or addiction, therapy and biomedical care work best combined.

Bipolar Disorder

Biomedical therapy can also help treat bipolar disorder. Doctors commonly prescribe medications like lithium or antidepressants like Prozac. These types of medications help stabilize your brain chemistry and prevent harmful highs and lows, which makes it easier to both attend and make the most of talk therapy.²⁴ Researchers have also found TMS to be effective for reducing depressive symptoms in people with bipolar disorder.²⁵

In some cases, medications or TMS can trigger depressive or manic episodes, so it’s crucial to have open lines of communication with your mental health provider to prevent those swings.²⁶

Biomedical Therapy for Addiction

Dr. Nora Volkow, Director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse, explains that much like mental health issues, addiction is also “a brain disease because drugs change the brain — they change its structure and how it works.”²⁷ And because of those brain changes, biomedical psychiatry can be beneficial for treating addiction.

Medications for Addiction Recovery

Medications can help through all stages of addiction recovery. During detox, many providers use medications to reduce the severity of symptoms and prevent serious complications. For example, if you’re detoxing from alcohol, your doctor may prescribe a benzodiazepine to manage withdrawal symptoms.

Once you’ve detoxed and you’re in rehab, your treatment team may also suggest taking medications to ease both withdrawal and mental health symptoms to allow you to focus on other forms of therapy.²⁸ They can also prevent cravings and help you relax more in treatment.

Other pharmacotherapy treatments are longer term. If you’re recovering from opioid addiction, you may use medications like methadone or buprenorphine to prevent relapses and manage your symptoms.²⁹ In fact, the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) advises that “medication should be the first line of treatment” for opioid addiction.³⁰

Plus, for people with co-occurring disorders like depression or anxiety in addition to addiction, medications can play an important role in treatment.³¹ You might take antidepressants to reduce depressive fatigue, for example, so you have more energy for your group therapy sessions.

Supervision from a medical professional is vital, especially for co-occurring disorders. Some medications commonly used for treating addiction can have dangerous interactions with anxiety medications.³² A treatment provider that specializes in treating co-occurring disorders will understand those risks and adjust your treatment plan accordingly.

Discover a Path to Healing

Biomedical therapy can complete your toolkit, especially if you’re experiencing treatment-resistant conditions, addiction, or chronic mental illnesses like schizophrenia. New ways to heal offer fresh hope.

Use Recovery.com to find a treatment provider that offers biomedical therapy. Filter by your insurance, location, levels of care, and more to find the best treatment for you.