Medicine and Health Sciences Commons^™

Prescription Drug Misuse Among Graduate Students: Prevalence And Links To Mental Health And Academic Burnout, Madison De Gruiter

Honors Theses

The aims of this study are to examine the prevalence of prescription drug misuse (PDM) among doctoral students and assess associations between PDM and anxiety and burnout in this population. Additional analyses analyzed differential associations by doctoral degree type (i.e., research versus professional programs). A sample of doctoral students (n=131) affiliated with the University of Mississippi participated in an anonymous survey to assess research aims.

From Inpatient Facility To The Everyday Classroom - Examining The Process Of Reintegration For Arkansas Youths, Grace Webb

Honors Theses

This thesis focuses on analyzing the current policies set in place within the state of Arkansas for student reintegration following a prolonged absence from school due to mental health issues. It is designed to explore what barriers and disconnections there are between mental health care and continued care after discharge of youths from an inpatient mental health facility and re-entry into the classroom. Within this thesis, current conditions impacting youth mental health and education are explored, as well as current school counseling plans throughout four school districts in various regions across the state. To my knowledge gathered from my findings, …

When Mental Health Becomes Physical, Piper Fain

Honors Theses

Glaucoma, the presence of elevated intraocular pressure, has been shown to directly correlate to elevated blood pressure levels. Likewise, numerous studies have been conducted on the relationship between elevated blood pressure and anxiety in individuals suffering from both. One might wonder, then, if there is any correlation between glaucoma and anxiety? My thesis expands upon this question utilizing a survey distributed to patients at local optometry clinics.

Mental Health Stigma Among Pharmacy Professionals And The Need For Continuing Education, Victoria Dale

Honors Theses

Background. The mental health stigma of pharmacists, the most accessible health professional, can have a significant impact on not only how these patients seek treatment, but also their quality of life (Mey et al., 2013). This study intends to explore mental health stigma among pharmacists and also examine the need for continuing education focused on mental health.

Methods. This study was a descriptive cross-sectional study that employed a self-administered online survey. The subjects were pharmacist members of the Mississippi Pharmacists Association (MPhA). Demographic characteristics were collected. The level of mental health stigma among the respondents was examined using the Community …

University Of Mississippi Student Perceptions Of The Relationship Between Stimulant Use And Mental Health, Elizabeth Mccutcheon

Honors Theses

College students are situated in a perfect storm for stimulant misuse and mental health issues, while living admits a mental health crisis of never-before-seen proportions, in combination with a global pandemic and the normal amount of stress associated with a university course load. It is important to address college student’s perceptions of the risks and benefits of stimulant use in order to see if they realize the severity of the problem of abuse and address it. The addiction of examining mental health in relation to stimulant abuse can provide new insight to the motivation behind the rise in stimulant abuse …

Acting Hysterical: Analyzing The Construction, Diagnosis And Portrayal Of Historical And Modern Hysterical Women, Gillian Singer

Honors Theses

Hysterical women’s stories from the 19th and 20th centuries have all too often been ignored and furthermore, invalidated through the capitalization and spectacularization of hysterical women’s experiences. “Acting Hysterical: Analyzing the Construction, Diagnosis and Portrayal of Historical and Modern ‘Hysterical’ Women” aims to acknowledge hysterical women’s narratives by studying the visual documentation of hysterical women. Visual documentation of hysteria began with the photographing of Dr. Jean-Martin Charcot’s “hysterical” female patients and extends to modern cinematic representations from the last two decades of historical and modern hysterical women.

Medical Muses, a book based in years of research by Asti Hustvedt served …

A Microgenetic Study Of Postpartum Depression And Infant Development, Anna S. Docurral

Honors Theses

Approximately 15% of mothers and 3-5% of fathers experience postpartum depression (DelRosario, 2013). Current literature suggests a negative association between maternal depression and infant development, but little is known about paternal contributions. Field (2010) found that mothers with depressive symptoms at 4 and 8 weeks postpartum reported frequent infant nighttime awakenings and less sleep during the night. Depressed mothers also reported more eating difficulties and lower infant weight gain than nondepressed mothers did (Gress-Smith, 2012). Moreover, infants of depressed mothers expected maternal unavailability and made less effort to engage the mother during the still face experiment (Field, 2002). In this …

Conquering Invisible Elephants: The Effects Of Family Involvement On Adolescent Recovery From Mental Illness, Christina Ditolla

Honors Theses

This paper explored the extent to which current treatments for adolescents with anorexia nervosa (AN), conduct disorder (CD), and depression have involved families in therapy. Various past and present therapies for all three adolescent disorders were reviewed and effective treatment components of family therapy were identified and compared across the treatment approaches. A review of the literature indicated that family therapy was more effective and beneficial for the adolescent patient than individual treatments not involving families. While individualized treatments helped to improve adolescent symptomatology, family therapy provided a more comprehensive approach as it focused not only on symptom reduction but …

Invisibly Wounded Warriors: The Psychological Repercussions Of War On American Soldiers, Maisy Bragg

Honors Theses

The demands that come with war can be both physically and mentally traumatizing and damaging to the soldier in many ways. These psychological injuries manifest themselves in what physicians call Posttraumatic Stress Disorder. The purpose of this paper is to examine Posttraumatic Stress Disorder in American Soldiers by analyzing the training methods, human’s natural aversion to killing, pre-deployment medical exams, type of warfare, and treatment options provided in war; specifically the Civil War, World War I and World War II, Vietnam, and the Iraq War. By taking into account the history of PTSD as a disease, as well as these …

The Neuropsychological Effects Of Combined Physical And Mental Exercise In Schizophrenia, Maggie M. Manning

Honors Theses

People suffering from severe mental disorders encounter many debilitating side effects. Those diagnosed with schizophrenia face a large number of challenges each day. Not only must they endure symptoms, like hallucinations and delusions, commonly associated with the illness, but their higher-level cognitive functioning is further impaired in numerous ways. People with schizophrenia, suffering from thought disorder, battle with a pattern of disorganized thinking in which seemingly simple tasks, i.e attention and memory, are difficult. Negative symptoms include the inability to establish social relationships, and hinder their everyday experiences, including work. Their extremely sedentary lifestyle also negatively impacts engagement in other …

The Belief In A Just World And Social Dominance Orientation: Relation To Stigma Towards Mental Illness And Ensuing Behavioral Responses, Allison M. Jekogian

Honors Theses

The current study examined the extent to which individual differences predict stigma towards individuals with mental illnesses. It was hypothesized that the more an individual believes in a just world (BJW) and the higher level of social dominance orientation (SDO) one has, the greater negative stigma one will feel towards individuals suffering from mental illnesses. I further hypothesized that these individuals high in BJW and SDO would display lower levels of intention to interact with the stigmatized group in question. Participants completed an online survey, which consisted of the opinions about mental illness scale, the just world scale, the social …