Spotlight Post- #3

--Original published at RachelsCollegeBlog

There are two different types of treatment for major depressive disorder. These two treatments are psychotherapy, which is counseling or therapy, or medication to help with the illness. Depression is very common in the United States and both treatments have been used and both work effectively.

“Psychotherapy vs. Medications: The Verdict Is In” is one of the articles that I found that supports psychotherapy as the better treatment option for mental illnesses. Though, antidepressants and antianxiety medications have the highest rate of prescription around the world. Most studies show that there is an advantage of not taking the drugs and going straight to the therapy. There is also concern that drugs may not treat the illness and can also add to it unfavorable side effects. This article is credible as the author is Susan Krauss Whitbourne, and she has a Ph. D. in this area of study

Another source that I found was “Are Antidepressants and psychotherapy equally effective in treating depression?” which is written by Michael A. Sugarman. This is a credible source as it was published in Issue 6 of the Journal of Mental Health. This research showed that psychotherapy is the better long-term treatment. The medication had positive short-term effects, but psychotherapy had better long-term effects. People who did go with the treatment of medicine, have a great chance of relapse following the medicated treatment.

Another source that I came across was “Cognitive Therapy vs Medication in the Treatment of Moderate to Severe Depression”. The authors/researchers of this study consisted of people all containing a Ph.D. making the information for this source reliable. This source did a study on the effects of both medication and psychotherapy. This study expressed that, after a second analysis of the study, people who were more severely depressed had better outcomes when they used medication to treat their illness. This finding has led to the recommendation, for people who have moderate to severe depression, to use medication for a treatment first before trying to use psychotherapy.

The final source that I came across was “Comparative Efficiency and Acceptability of 21 Antidepressant Drugs for the Acute Treatment of Adults with Major Depressive Disorder.” This is a reliable source as it was a study published in volume 391 of The Lancet. It is a study conducted by people who have obtained there Ph.D. or MD. This was a recent study on the efficiency of antidepressants. The results were able to conclude that antidepressants were very effective, when it came to treating major depressive disorder in adults. Though, the efficiency slightly varied going across different age groups as well as the cause for depression for someone. Though, some antidepressants are more efficient them others are. Sertraline and Paroxetine are just a couple that the article mentioned that had one of the higher responses when treating depression.

I think that psychotherapy is the better treatment for depression. Though, antidepressants and other medications can help someone struggling with depression, it is often not a permanent solution. People that go through psychotherapy, take a bit longer to get to a less depressive state, but they are less likely to relapse and go back into a severe depressive state, as they are often given different techniques that they are able to use to help them deal with their illness.

Citations

Whitbourne, S. K., Ph.D. (2015, July 21). Psychotherapy vs. Medications: The Verdict Is In.Retrieved December 2, 2018, from https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/fulfillment-any-age/201507/psychotherapy-vs-medications-the-verdict-is-in

DeRubeis, R. J. (2005, April 01). Cognitive Therapy vs Medications in the Treatment ofModerate to Severe Depression. Retrieved from https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamapsychiatry/fullarticle/208460

Sugarman, M. A. (2016). Are antidepressants and psychotherapy equally effective intreating depression? A critical commentary. Journal of Mental Health,25(6), 475-478. doi:10.3109/09638237.2016.1139071

Cipriani, A., Frurkawa, T., Salanti, G., Chaimani, A., Atkinson, L., … & Ogawa, Y., (2018).Comparative efficacy and acceptability of 21 antidepressant drugs for the acute treatment of adults with major depressive disorders: a systematic review and network meta-analysis. The Lancet. 391(10128), 1357-1366. doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(17)32802-7

Media Production Project

--Original published at RachelsCollegeBlog

Project

Diffuse intrinsic pontin glioma (DIPG), spreads through and around the brainstem. It is also the leading cause of cancer death for children. The reason it is so deadly is because of the difficulty of getting the needed medicine through the blood brain barrier, while not causing the medicine to go through the entire body causing toxicity in the body. A new technique, however, is being developed. This technique is a focused ultrasound combined with microbubble-mediated intranasal delivery (FUSIN). This technique utilizes nerve pathways in the nose, olfactory and trigeminal nerve, which allows for medicine to pass through the blood brain barrier as it also uses a focused ultrasound to better localize the medicine.

The technique is still in the testing stages as they are experimenting the technique on mice. The mice are distributed into five groups, each testing a different technique, and also looking at the consequences of each. The sample groups are researching the distribution of the solution after the administration of the medicines, comparing the localization abilities of intravenous, which is the techniques being used today which give the medicine through a vein in the arm, and intranasal techniques which is being utilized in FUSIN. They are also looking at the short-term effects of the techniques and how feasible it is to utilize the techniques.

The results of the experiments expressed that FUSIN did a better job with localizing the medicine than either intranasally by itself and intravenously. They also found that when using the technique of intranasally injecting medicine, that there was no vascular or tissue damage. This means that FUSIN did not cause any short-term consequences or safety concerns. They were able to determine the localization ability by measuring the radioactivity of the body using folds. They also injected fluorescence into the brain stem and nasal nerve pathways, this showed the effect that the medicine may have had on the brain and nerve pathways. The researchers measured the intensity of the fluorescence using arbitrary unit.

There are however, some limitations of this study. The study has not looked at the long-term effects of the research as they only have tested for the impacts just one hour after the study was conducted. The parameters that were used when testing FUSIN were from a previous experiment, so they could be a little off. They also have a lack of data evaluating the level of toxicity of the injection of the solutions. They are also, right now, only able to make these conclusions for mice because that is their sample population.

References

Washington University in St. Louis. (2018, September 4). Focused delivery for brain cancers:Imaging, aerosols and pediatric neuro oncology come together to fight tumors. ScienceDaily. Retrieved October 25, 2018 from www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/09/180904164645.htm

Dezhuang Ye, Xiaohui Zhang, Yimei Yue, Ramesh Raliya, Pratim Biswas, Sara Taylor, Yuan-chuan,Tai, Joshua B. Rubin, Yongjian Liu, Hong Chen., (2018). Focused Ultrasound Combined with Microbubble-mediated Intranasal Delivery of Gold Nanoclusters to the Brain. Journal of Controlled Release, 286: 145

Links

www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/09/180904164645.htm

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0168365918304140

Reflection of Project

It was not very difficult to write my summary, and I did not have to leave out any information because my original article was long. I was able to answer some of the five critical questions, including the how they operationalized their variables, radioactivity and fluorescence. There population was randomly selected because they are mice from a breeder and they are randomly sent from a group of other mice. I also talked about the population generalization. Though, the scholarly article did not talk about random assignment, and there was not enough information because there is a lack of information on the method of assignment to groups.

Some similarities that are occurring between my article and the original article was summarizing the experiment as well as give a small background of the experiment. Both my article and the original article talks about the main reason for the experiment, cure DIPG. My article states, the limitations of the study while the original article did not. The pop culture article only answered one of the five critical questions and that was random selection. In my article, however, I included three of the critical questions. The original article included so quotes from the primary researcher and mine did not.

I learned that through this process that writing about psychology research can be a very difficult task. The pop culture article can depend on the scholarly article, when it comes to the amount of information used. My scholarly article was not written the best as it did not include all five of the critical questions, but it gave specific information. The pop culture article was given at least three of the critical questions, but the writer did not use them. Every piece of writing will include all of the scientific information but doesn’t not describe the experiment. My article was fairly easy to write because of all of the background information and the other two articles. This tells me that every piece of writing has its own difficultly and you may not be able to include all of the needed information.

Extra Credit-Johari Window Post

--Original published at RachelsCollegeBlog

The process of going through the Johari Window was very eye opening. It was very difficult to only pick 5 words that described me, though I was able to distinguish some. I saw myself as someone who is caring, dependable, friendly, and trustworthy. Though, the words that were picked the most to described me only included one of the words that I thought described me the best. The words top three words that were chosen to describe me included energetic, extroverted, and friendly.

I think this is a pretty valid personality test because those that took it were people that I am around almost every day and they know me pretty well. The words that were given were not very specific, so people were able to describe someone one in a wide variety of ways. Though there are some words that are also very similar in meaning that may make the survey a little confusing. Some of these words included cheerful and happy. When I read these words, I think of the same thing and some others might as well.

The thing that I am proud of the most is that almost all of descriptions are positive and that it expresses that I am a social person. I have not always been like that so seeing that other people are seeing that in me makes me feel great. I was also happy to see that they saw me as happy and cheerful, because I always try to cheer everyone up that is around me. Though, nothing really stood out to me that was surprising.

Spotlight post #2

--Original published at RachelsCollegeBlog

There are multiple things or events that can cause someone stress, these are called stressors. Some stressors include, daily hassles, traumatic events, and different life changes. There are many strategies that people can participate in to relieve stress. Everybody is unique, and one strategy may work for one person but not for another.

The first site that I came across provided stress management tips for athletes. Some of the stress management tips that they provided included, have a support system, have a positive attitude and participate in other physical activities. Most of the strategies that were provided have a possibility of being successful. A support system is a coping strategy that has been shown to have a positive effect on decreasing stress levels. Sometimes you just need a hug or someone to talk to. Having a support system will allow for you to have hope for the future and confidence in your own abilities. Having a positive attitude or being more optimistic is a good stress management strategy as well. When someone is optimistic they are able to better cope with stress and stressful situations as well as have better health in both eh short and long term. Those that are optimistic also have smaller increases in their blood pressure during times of stress. Finally, participating in other recreational activities can help manage stress as well. Regular physical activities have been shown to have a positive impact on both mental and physical health. Exercise reduces stress as well as mild depression. Aerobic activities have also been shown to put people in a better mood, as people who participate in aerobic activities express more self-confidence and a decrease in fatigue.

The second site that I found was directed towards college students. Obtain emotional support, get enough sleep, and breathe were a few stress management strategies that the website referenced. Emotional support is a good stress management strategy, as it allows you to talk about what is stressing you out. This is a constructive strategy called emotion-focused coping. The strategy is when you focus on the feelings that are involved in what is stressing you, the emotional support them comes from family and friends. This allows you to get what is causing you stress off of your chest. People who sleep do not leave enough time to sleep, end up being fatigued and lack alertness. This increases the amount of stress that a person may be under. When getting a decent night’s sleep, you are allowing yourself to be less fatigued allowing you to be more productive during the day, decreasing the amount of stress you are under. Breathing is a large part of relaxation and relaxation techniques that reduce stress. Those who have used relaxation techniques have been shown to have less stress. Breathing techniques have also been shown to reduce suffering and improve compassion and insight.

The third sight that I found was directed towards teachers. Some of the stress management tips that they provided included keeping a journal, make time for faith, and make time for physical affection. Keeping is a strategy that allows you to write down your stresses, allowing you to get the issue off of your chest. Faith is a something that allows people to destress themselves. Lack of control is a large factor that plays into stress, which is why religion is a technique that can be used to manage stress. Religion allows you to have control over yourself, which is something that allows you to reduce stress because you have control over something. In most religions you also have a support group, as people in religious groups are there for one another. Physical affection is also something that the website mentioned to be a technique to manage stress. This is something that may help for some, as it provides support both positive physically and emotionally support.

https://www.recruitingrealities.com/blog/5-stress-management-tips-for-student-athletes

https://www.everydayhealth.com/college-health/college-life-10-ways-to-reduce-stress.aspx

http://www.coolcatteacher.com/manage-teaching-stress/

First Impression Post-Chapter 9

--Original published at RachelsCollegeBlog

Throughout my school career there have been multiple teachers and staff that have affected my life in many ways and most of the time in a positive manner. Teachers were the ones who were fighting to make me love learning as much as they enjoyed teaching it as well as fighting for me to reach my fullest potential. My educators are the reason that I was success in not only my educational career but also in my life after high school on my own. They allowed me to build up a sense of independence and that has made me who I am today.

Though there are always some aspects of the school system that can change to help improve a student’s performance in the classroom. One thing that I would change about the school system would be the little amount of time that a student has outside of the classroom during the school day to receive extra help from the teacher if they are not understanding a concept. There were many times in high school that I was lost in a class or multiple classes and was unsure what was going on. We did have a little break in between classes for a study hall but that only lasted about 30 minutes which was not enough time to visit all of the classes that I needed help in. More time would allow the gaining a clearer understanding as well as allow students to visit more teachers so I they are not as far behind in classes

Another aspect of the school system that I would change would be the lack of freedom in classrooms. There were times in classrooms that I was silent the entire class because the teacher was continuous teaching and I felt as though the questions that I want to ask were non-intelligent and I would be made fun of for asking them. Students should not feel as though they cannot ask questions to gain clarity on topics. Classrooms should be more of a comfortable space that students feel comfortable and not judged.

First Impression Post-Chapter 10

--Original published at RachelsCollegeBlog

“Can’t feel my face” by The Weeknd may at first glance seem like a love song but it is actually about his bad habit or addiction to drugs. He personifies the drug as a she, making it seem as though he is in a relationship with a woman when in reality he is talking about the effects the drugs have on him. These effects include him dying of overdose, the pain he goes through when he is not using the drug, and his knowledge of the damage that has yet to come to him due to his drug use.

He says, “we both know we can’t go without it,” which is inferring his addiction to the drug that he is currently using and him not being able to function when he is not using. He also says, “And I know she’ll be the death of me,” expressing his knowledge that his usage could end up with him dead, from an overdose. Yet even, though he knows the side effects he repeatedly says, “but I love it.” He also knows the side effects after the high that he gets as he says, “all the misery was necessary when we’re deep in love.” The Weeknd realizes the side effects to his drug addiction and all of the negatives to the usage yet still talks about how much he loves the high.

The song may at first come off as a love song, that he is unable to express how much he loves this girl. When in reality the true meaning behind the song is his drug usage.

First Impression Post (Chapter 2)

--Original published at RachelsCollegeBlog

My current stress level is a little high as I have a lot of work I need to complete out of the classroom as well as study the material for all of my classes. My current stress management strategies are helping me however and allows me to not freak-out about my work load. Some of my strategies right now is making sure I am not procrastinating, keeping an agenda with due dates on hand at all times, and organizing my notes in a way that I am able to retain them to the best of my ability when it comes time to start studying for an exam my notes are organized and I know what I am reading. I am normally a big procrastinator, so I have started to complete my work about two days before it is due so that I am not getting behind and I am able to not have to stress because I didn’t get work done for a class that is due the next day. Getting work done early and not waiting to the last minute has been working really well for me as it is stopping the extra amount of stress that would be added to the assignment that should not have to be there. Keeping an agenda is also working really well for me, as I am able sit down and have everything that is going to be due in front of me, so I am able to prioritize things that need to get completed. This allows me to get my work done as well as complete it to the best of my ability and not just throw words onto papers because I am rushing.

I used to be play sports all through school. There was never a time that I wasn’t on a field or a court and that relieved a lot of my stress. It was a place that I was able to release built up stress and have fun. I could incorporate this into my routine by visiting the gym more, lacing up my cleats and going to kick a ball around may also help as well. I think that just by doing more physical activity I will be able to relieve more stress.

Spotlight Post 1- Learning

--Original published at RachelsCollegeBlog

When I was growing up, I remember multiple times when I was given a survey and at the end the results would tell me the best way for me to retain information. I was labeled with two, visual and kinesthetic, so I was given different ways to study using which way I learned best. My teachers would also try and incorporate some of the styles into class, with reading out loud, showing pictures, or make us get up and move around while learning. However, there are many different studies on learning techniques and whether or not they help with success.

The Center for Teaching and Learning at Yale gives evidence that learning styles are a myth as it calls learning styles a neuromyth. Students have not reported learning better when using study methods given in their learning style category. The website also given some recommendations to replace learning styles with strategies and resources that will help them to better learn and understand concepts. This resource is credible as it is written by a well named university as well as includes many resources to better their argument.

Another source I found also refutes that idea that learning styles help those to better retain information. SAGE journals, has an article published that gives evidence that learning styles are not beneficial to students. There is “no adequate evidence” to express that learning styles needs to be integrated into educational systems and classrooms. This article is credible as it gives examples of true experiments that include random assignment to groups as well as multiple scholarly articles.

However, there is some data that supports the use of learning styles when it comes to retaining information and studying. There was a study conducted by the Productivity Environmental Preference Survey, that produced results expressing that those who studied using strategies from their learning style after being exposed to the information, did significantly better than those who barely or did not at all use the strategies of their learning style. This study is credible as they included a 2-control group and two sets of treatment groups, two treatment groups for each control group. The article was published on a credible site, American Psychological Association.

Another study that shows that learning styles are good to pay attention and should be included in a student’s life. This is another journal that was published on the American Psychological Association website. They assigned 104 nursing students to an experimental group. This group was given homework that was based on their learning style, while the other group of was just given the normal homework. These groups were equal when it came to SAT scores. They were given three periodic test and by the end of the year it showed that the experimental group who received treatment had higher grade and GPAs, and “lower anxiety and anger scores”. This expressing that those who utilize their learning styles will have less stress and better retain information allowing them to do better in classes. This study included control groups and

Based on my findings I would concluded that learning styles should not be payed attention to. There is not a lot of evidence that supports that learning styles are important and should be incorporated into students learning. I had a difficult time finding evidence that supports learning styles but found an abundant amount of evidence suggesting that learning styles do not make a big difference in the retaining of information for most students, as most of the time test scores didn’t not change when a certain learning style was incorporated into their education.

References

Learning Styles as a Myth | Center for Teaching and Learning. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://ctl.yale.edu/LearningStylesMyth

Pashler, H., Mcdaniel, M., Rohrer, D., & Bjork, R. (2008). Learning Styles. Psychological Science in the Public Interest,9(3), 105-119. doi:10.1111/j.1539-6053.2009.01038.x

Nelson, B., Dunn, R., Griggs, S. A., Primavera, L., et al. (1993). Effects of learning style intervention on college students retention and achievement. Journal of College Student Development, 34(5), 364-369.

Lenehan, M. C., Dunn, R., Ingham, J., Signer, B., et al. (1994). Effects of learning-style intervention on college students’ achievement, anxiety, anger, and curiosity. Journal of College Student Development, 35(6), 461-466.

Chapter 3 First Impression Post (sleep)

--Original published at RachelsCollegeBlog

Since I have come to college my sleeping habits have steadily gotten worse as I am getting less sleep per night. I am always up late studying for an exam or doing work to keep my grades up, though I am starting to feel the effects, as I am starting to sleep through alarms, I have a hard time getting up, and when going to bed I have a difficult time actually falling asleep. I can feel my exhaustion throughout as it gets progressively harder to pay attention in classes or even pay attention to what I am reading as I am going through my textbook. I get on average 6 hours a sleep per night, but a realistic goal for amount of sleep for a college student is probably about 7 or 8 hours. This will allow enough time for students to get enough sleep so they are able to get more out of their day when it comes to paying attention in classes and retaining information while studying.

I can improve my sleeping habits by not waiting to the last minute and procrastinate when it comes to getting work down for some of my classes. This will allow me to not stay up as late when I do not have to worry about the paper that I have due the next day that I had not even started. I can also start to study more with a group of friends. This will allow me to not only learn important concepts but also allow me to have a social life, so I am not trying to squeeze that in between studying.

1st Impression Post-Chapter 3

--Original published at RachelsCollegeBlog

My stance in marijuana is, if it is for a medical reason it is okay to be legal. However, for recreational use, that I do not think should be legal.

Medical marijuana can help to put people out of their misery or to help them control their disease so that it is less invasive of their lives and they are able to live a better. Marijuana that is prescribed medically is normally to help those that are in pain. This can include those that get frequent and terrible headaches or even those that have a cancer and their disease is causing them pain. These are times that prescribing medical marijuana is okay and should be legal. It is being prescribed to help those that are in pain and are suffering. The positive to medical marijuana is that those who are in pain, there amount of pain decreases and they are able to live a fuller, happier life. However, a negative to medical marijuana is that it could decrease the intellectual functions, like memories, they could also start to become less interested in the things that they loved so much in the past. Therefore, even though their pain will be decreasing there will to do the things that they love or things that they find interesting.

Recreational marijuana, however, should not be legal. People that are using marijuana for fun are people who should not have it. It can cause those using it to be dependent on it. It can also cause hallucinations as well as health risks to those who do not need it. Those who are given medical marijuana are given a certain amount, allowing them to control their usage of the amount. When it is used in a recreational way, they are free to use as much as they want, and this can lead to dangerous behaviors and health risks as it is known to cause shallow breathing. Though a positive to those using it, it is a chance for those who are social awkward to have a chance to fit in and be more outgoing. However, the negatives seem to outweigh the positives as it has a possibility of causing some serious health side effects.

Therefore, my opinion is marijuana should be legal if it is for medical reasons not for recreational usage.