Mental and Social Health Commons^™

Sicker Americans Are More Likely To Misuse Prescription Medications, Esther Oshaji, Andrew S. London

Population Health Research Brief Series

Prescription medication misuse is a long-term population health problem in the United States. This data slice uses data from the National Wellbeing Survey (N=32,789, 2021–2025) of U.S. adults ages 18–64 to examine how the number of chronic health conditions a person has is related to their misuse of prescription opioids, tranquilizers, sedatives, or stimulants in the past 12 months. The authors find a dose-response pattern: misuse rises from 2.8% among those with no chronic conditions to 11.7% among those with three or more conditions. Mental health conditions show stronger associations with misuse than physical health conditions.

Using In-Home Air Quality Monitoring To Reduce Cannabis Secondhand Smoke Exposure In Children: Quantitative Pilot Feasibility Study, Vincent Berardi, Bradley N. Collins, Laura M. Glynn, Eusabeia Silfanus, Darby G. Lyons, Stephen J. Lepore

Psychology Faculty Articles and Research

Background: An estimated 5 to 8 million US children live with a parent who uses cannabis, and most cannabis users report smoking cannabis inside their homes, placing children at risk for cannabis secondhand smoke (cSHS) exposure. Indoor air quality (IAQ) monitoring provides real-time feedback on airborne pollutants and has shown promise in reducing in-home tobacco secondhand smoke exposure, suggesting its potential as an effective harm reduction strategy for cSHS.

Objective: This pilot study evaluated the feasibility, acceptability, and preliminary effectiveness of using low-cost, off-the-shelf IAQ monitors to increase caregivers’ awareness of children’s cSHS exposure risk and to change …

The Geography Of Faces, Faith Abraham

be Still

The Geography of Faces takes its title from the idea that a face, seen across decades, becomes a kind of landscape—something you learn to read not at a glance but through accumulated return visits. For Dr. Vasquez, an older physician who has seen so much, her patients' faces are the territory she has spent a lifetime learning to navigate.

The patients are chosen to represent different dimensions of that longevity. They show affection built on years of small battles, continuity across a family, autonomy that is respected. Together, these patients make the case that primary care is less about problems …

A Place Where I Was Finally Seen, Pierina S. Barletti Benel

be Still

This piece reflects on my experience navigating depression during medical training and the unexpected ways community can foster healing. Healing does not always occur within clinical settings. Through this narrative, I explore how returning to faith and the support of a church community helped restore hope during a difficult season of my life. Writing this essay allowed me to reflect on how vulnerability and lived experience can shape a more compassionate and present physician.

(Re)Claiming Homeplace: Dance As Embodied Resistance & Healing For Health & Spatial Justice, Preeya G. Kannan

University Honors Theses

This thesis argues that dance functions as both an upstream public health intervention and a form of radical spatial resistance; creating healing, agency, and belonging among historically marginalized communities. Drawing on bell hooks' concept of homeplace, Jasbir Puar's assemblage theory, Nancy Krieger's eco-social theory, and Katherine McKittrick's Black geographies, I position the body as both an ecological and political landscape shaped by histories of colonialism, racial capitalism, displacement, and resilience.

Through this community-based participatory research study, Homeplace, I explore dance as a form of social prescription that centers liberation rather than pathology. Movement is often reduced in public health discourse …

Healthcare Access Challenges Among Asian Americans, Phyo Theingi

University Honors Theses

Asian Americans are the fastest growing racial ethnic group in the U.S. According to the 2023 U.S. Census Bureau population estimate, Asian Americans account for 25.2 million (or 7.4%) of the nation's population. Asian Americans are not a monolith and represent a diversity of rich histories, cultures, languages and ethnicities. According to research conducted by the Pew Research Center, most Asian Americans face discrimination of some kind, including being treated as a foreigner in the U.S and being stereotyped as a model minority. They also experience health care access barriers. Research found that Asian Americans face barriers related to language …

Motherwise In Nicaragua: The Implementation Of Culturally Adapted Relationship Education For Women During Pregnancy And Postpartum, Amanda Key Correa Love

Graduate School of Professional Psychology: Doctoral Papers and Masters Projects

Intimate partner violence (IPV) is a concerning public health issue of global proportions, particularly within rural and under-resourced settings. Communities in these settings face elevated risk for relationship abuse, further compounded by barriers to access culturally responsive preventive intervention programming. This qualitative study investigated participant experiences, cultural adaptation, and implementation of the MotherWise program, a healthy relationship education intervention in rural Leon, Nicaragua. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with former and current program participants as well as the program facilitator following the initial program implementation. Data were analyzed using thematic analysis to identify patterns related to participant experiences, the types of …

The Gut Microbiome, The Gut-Brain Axis, And College Student Well-Being, Idi Mckay

University Honors Theses

This literature review examines how diet, stress, environmental exposure, and food accessibility may influence college students' mental health and academic performance through the gut microbiome and the Gut-Brain Axis (GBA). Current microbiome research often focuses on early childhood development, clinical disease populations, or older adults, while overlooking college-age students who experience significant social, environmental, and biological transitions. College students frequently face food insecurity, irregular eating patterns, chronic stress, inconsistent sleep schedules, and reduced access to nutrient-dense foods, all of which may influence microbial diversity and overall gut health.

This thesis explores how modern campus environments and lifestyle factors may contribute …

Will Beauty Save The Brain? Exploring The Relationship Between Eudaimonic Reels Exposure And Egyptian Gen Z'S Mind And Motivations, Petra Zaky

Theses and Dissertations

Social media entertaining content includes a mixed bag of the meaningful and the trivial. For Generation Z, whose favorite daily entertainment is shallow yet funny short-form videos (reels), there is often an invisible price paid. The loss of ability to watch long meaningful videos, distractedness from self, “Brain Rot”, glamorizing of hedonism are among the maladies left behind the attractive rabbit hole of their daily media diet. This study explores the relationship between exposure to meaningful reels, in contrast to pleasurable reels, and Gen Z’s reflective thinking, “Brain Rot” symptoms, motivation to watch long meaningful videos and life motivations between …

Determinants Of Corporal Punishment And Severe Physical Punishment In Egypt: A Mixed-Methods Analysis For Child Protection Policy, Marwa Moustafa Nassef

Theses and Dissertations

Corporal punishment (CP) and severe physical punishment (SPP) remain a major public health, child rights, and child protection policy concern. In Egypt, despite legislative reforms, survey-weighted analysis of the 2021 Egypt Family Health Survey (EFHS) 2021 (CAPMAS, 2022) reveals prevalence rates of 60.5% for CP and 27.4% for SPP among children aged 1–14 (author’s calculations using EFHS-2021, n=7623), yet evidence distinguishing the determinants of routine corporal punishment from escalation to severe physical punishment remains limited in low- and middle-income contexts. Guided by Bronfenbrenner’s ecological framework, this mixed-methods study identifies key drivers of CP and its escalation to SPP among Egyptian …

When School Culture Excludes: Deficit Discourse, Microaggressions, And The Mental Health Of Marginalized Students – A Conceptual Framework With Implications For School Psychology Practice And Equity Policy, Modupe Mercy Oyewunmi

Publications

Deficit-laden language like ‘behavior problem,’ ‘not college material,’ ‘won’t fit in’, ‘not a cultural fit’, operates as a systemic form of implicit bias and microaggression in school settings. Despite decades of research on school belonging and well-being, school psychology has yet to integrate these exclusionary discursive practices into a coherent health-determinant model that also accounts for the current anti-diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) policy environment. This conceptual paper proposes a testable framework linking deficit discourse and school-based microaggressions to student identity suppression, academic impostor phenomenon, and educator moral injury, with downstream effects on school mental health outcomes. We situate these …

Psychogastroenterology: An Introduction For Behavioral Health And Healthcare Professionals, Jerrod Brown Ph.D., M.A., M.S., M.S., M.S., M.S., M.S., Jeremiah B. Schimp Phd, Ma, Lpcc, Leanne Skehan Dcn, Msacn, Mph, Mba, Cns, Ches, Shelley Mydra Dmft, Lmft, Jonathan Ward Dc, Phd(C), Ms, Dibcn, Tiffany Flaten Cns, Ldn

Nutritional Neurocriminology Today

Although often difficult to discuss with clients, gastrointestinal (GI) issues affect an estimated 60 to 70 million Americans (American Gastroenterological Association, 2022). Yet only about 25% of those experiencing these conditions receive treatment. This is troubling because GI issues frequently co-occur with clinically significant consequences for physical health, psychological well-being, daily functioning, and overall quality of life. Designed for behavioral health and healthcare professionals, this brief article introduces the field of psychogastroenterology, with emphasis on symptoms, stigma, diagnosis, and treatment. Key topics include the gut-brain axis, common digestive health conditions, and the mental health implications associated with gastrointestinal disorders.

Living Through Misinformation: An Autoethnography Of Autism In Chinese Communities, Joy Lu

Ought: The Journal of Autistic Culture

This critical autoethnographic essay examines how misconception, misinformation, and disinformation shape understandings of autism within Chinese communities and produce tangible harm for autistic individuals and their families. Drawing on lived experience, advocacy work, digital observation, and cross-cultural analysis, it explores how language, medical practices, social media, and professional authority sustain persistent misrepresentation.

The essay argues that this misinformation is not merely the result of ignorance, but a socially reinforced and institutionally supported system of knowledge. By situating personal encounters within broader cultural and structural contexts, it highlights the interconnected roles of language, power, and exclusion in shaping autistic lives. It …

Emotional Intelligence Documentary - The Art Of Compassion: Learning From Spain, Poetry, And Medicine, Emily E. Morin

Cultivating Emotional Intelligence through the Humanities in Spain

The Art of Compassion: Learning from Spain, Poetry, and Medicine explores how art, literature, and cultural experiences can deepen compassion and inform more human-centered healthcare. Drawing on works encountered during a Medical Humanities study abroad program in Spain, the documentary examines compassion as a skill that can be cultivated through self-reflection, recognition of shared vulnerability, and appreciation of multiple perspectives. Through analysis of poetry by Lope de Vega, Jaime Sabines, and Yehuda Halevi, alongside artworks by Diego Velázquez, Francisco Goya, and Pablo Picasso, the film connects themes of empathy, suffering, identity, and healing to contemporary clinical practice. The documentary also …

Extraction Of Key Themes In Online Health Discourse Using Unsupervised Learning And Large Language Models, Miranda G. Scully

Computer Science Senior Theses

Health online discussion boards are a modern platform that allow patients to interact with each other and the healthcare system as a whole, making them valuable sources of information for clinicians seeking to better anticipate treatment experiences and barriers. This study focuses on one such community, r/suboxone, a subreddit where patients using Suboxone share their experiences and ask questions. Our analysis is motivated by previous work that proposes event-based classification systems for such posts which buckets posts from r/suboxone into one or more of five high-level labels (Access Logistics, Co-Occurring Drug Usage, Medication for Opioid Use Disorder Administration, Psychophysical Effects, …

Safety And Synergy Of Finerenone And Empagliflozin In Lowering Blood Pressure, Rajiv Agarwal, Ricardo Correa-Rotter, Sankar D Navaneethan, Hiddo J L Heerspink, Matthew R Weir, Janet B Mcgill, Amy K Mottl, Masaomi Nangaku, Julio Rosenstock, Peter Rossing, Muthiah Vaduganathan, Charlie Scott, Li Li, Meike Brinker, Csaba P Kovesdy, Jennifer B Green, Johannes F E Mann

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

Background: This secondary analysis of the CONFIDENCE (combination effect of fInerenone and empagliflozin in participants with chronic kidney disease and type 2 diabetes using a UACR endpoint) trial (REGISTRATION: URL: https://www.clinicaltrials.gov; Unique identifier: NCT05254002) assessed systolic blood pressure (SBP) changes with empagliflozin/finerenone combination therapy versus monotherapy in people with chronic kidney disease and type 2 diabetes across baseline SBP categories. We assessed SBP response predictors and whether early (day 30) SBP changes mediate urinary albumin-to-creatinine ratio reductions.

Methods: Participants (n=800) were stratified by baseline SBP (< 130 mm Hg; ≥130 mm Hg). Outcomes included SBP response (≥10 mm Hg reduction from baseline at day 180) and longitudinal SBP changes, analyzed by linear mixed-effects models and logistic regression. Causal mediation analysis, a secondary exploratory analysis, evaluated the effect of day 30 SBP change on day 180 urinary albumin-to-creatinine ratio reduction.

Results: At baseline, 532 (66%) participants had SBP ≥130 mm Hg; 268 (34%) …

Cross-Cultural Differences Among Children And Youth With Special Health Care Needs: A Mixed-Methods Analysis Of Chinese, Spanish, And English-Speaking Families, Kathleen Mcgrath, Miriam Franco, Amy Morales-Lara, Karen Bonuck Phd, Joanne Siegel

Developmental Disabilities Network Journal

One in five U.S. children has a special health care need, with prevalence rates rising each year. Children and youth with special health care needs (CYSHCN) from immigrant and/or non-English speaking families face heightened barriers to care, unmet health needs, and worsened health outcomes. This mixed-methods study explores cross-cultural similarities and differences among English-, Spanish-, and Chinese-speaking families of CYSHCN across four key domains – (1) the diagnostic process, (2) access to essential services, (3) community integration, and (4) social supports. As part of a statewide, New York State Department of Health funded initiative implemented across three University Centers for …

Evaluating Behavioral Intervention Strategies For Reducing Hyperactivity In Children Diagnosed With Autism Spectrum Disorder And Comorbid Adhd, Murtadha M. Abd Noor, Dunya Habeeb Shnain

Maaen Journal for Medical Sciences

One of the most difficult and complex symptoms in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and comorbid attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is hyperactivity. This has a substantial negative impact on daily functioning, learning, and responsiveness to therapy interventions, as well as on intervention programs that aim to manage behavior in schools and clinical settings, thereby restricting children's engagement in these programs as management behaviors become more emphasized. Given marked heterogeneity in clinical presentations and a lack of consensus on the most effective behavioral strategies, there remains an imperative to systematically evaluate targeted, specific strategies for reducing hyperactivity in this …

An Attachment Perspective For Help-Seeking Intentions Among Emerging Adult Women Child Sexual Abuse Survivors, Dominique Giroux

Dissertations

Child sexual abuse (CSA) is an adverse childhood experience and a global health issue. Approximately one in four girls encounter CSA per year. Research evidence suggests approximately 50% of CSA survivors encounter sexual revictimization during adulthood (Walker & Wamser-Nanney, 2023), but formal help and intervention can mitigate further psychosocial harm experienced by CSA survivors (Widom et al., 2008). Attachment theory has provided a theoretical framework for identifying individuals at risk for revictimization and help-seeking patterns, such that individuals who have insecure attachment styles report more revictimization frequency, but the literature is mixed about attachment styles and help-seeking (Brenner et al., …

Exploring How Therapist Trainees’ Mentalization, Attachment Styles, And The Working Alliance Impact Treatment Outcomes In Psychotherapy, Hanali Gilbert

Dissertations

A burgeoning area of research within the past 30 years has sought to identify which specific therapist factors contribute to differential treatment outcomes (Barkham et al., 2017). The purpose of the current naturalistic study was to explore how two personal characteristics of therapist trainees, mentalization capacity and attachment styles, impact early treatment outcomes at two Midwestern psychology training clinics. This study also examined whether therapist mentalization and the working alliance interacted to influence client outcomes. Therapists completed the Mentalization Scale (MentS; Dimitrijević et al., 2018) and the Experiences in Close Relationships scale (ECR; Brennan et al., 1998), while the Working …