Psychiatric and Mental Health Commons^™

Trapped In The Bell Jar: Mental Illness In College Students, Julie Stagis

Honors Scholar Theses

This is a magazine article that explores the rising problem of mental health in college students, focusing on Connecticut. It explores the experiences of three college students dealing with depression and bipolar disorder, a family who lost a child to suicide, and the measures taken by colleges in Connecticut to curb the problem.

Immune Function And Health Outcomes In Women With Depression, Cherie Howk, Mary P. Bennett

Nursing Faculty Publications

This research reports immune function and health outcomes in women with depression, as compared with a nondepressed control group. Using Psychoneuroimmunolgy theory and a descriptive comparison design, scores on the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) were used to divide 40 non-hospitalized Caucasian women between the ages of 18 and 65 years into either the control or depression comparison group. Women with depression were found to report significantly more incidences of illness over the previous two months and they were found to have significantly more indicators of illness at the time of the exam as compared to the controls. However, contrary to …

Institutional Policy Changes Aimed At Addressing Obesity Among Mental Health Clients, Linda L. Knol, Kelly Pritchett, Jeri Dunkin

All Faculty Scholarship for the College of the Sciences

Background
People with mental illness often experience unique barriers to healthy eating and physical activity. For these clients, interventions should focus on changes in the immediate environment to change behaviors. The purpose of this project was to implement and evaluate policy changes that would limit calorie intake and increase calorie expenditure of clients receiving mental health services.

Context
This intervention was implemented in a rural mental health system in the southeastern United States. Clients live in small group homes, where they are served breakfast, dinner, and a snack, and attend outpatient day treatment programs, where they are served lunch and …

The Abortion Attitudes Of Counselor, Social Worker, And Nursing Trainees, Mary J. Ball

Dissertations

This study examined the similarities and dissimilarities in abortion attitudes among counselors (CTs, n = 51), social workers (SWTs, n = 42), and nurses in training (NTs, n = 78), based on profession, age, race, gender, and religion. Data were analyzed using analysis of variance and standard multiple regression. It was predicted that profession, religion, age, gender, and race would predict the abortion attitudes of CTs, SWTs, and NTs in training. It was also predicted that the attitudes of CTs and SWTs would be most similar, and that both of these groups would hold more positive abortion attitudes than NTs. …

Evaluation Of Medication Effects On Academic Performance, Sleep, And Core Adhd Symptoms In Children, Tina K. Head

Dissertations

Idiosyncratic effects of Vyvanse™ (lisdexamfetamine dimesylate) and placebo were evaluated in a double-blind alternating treatments experimental design in this 4-week study. Direct, objective measures were combined with traditional behavior ratings to provide data sets to assess whether or not the prescribed stimulant medication showed detectable therapeutic effects for a child whose positive response to medication was not obvious via traditional subjective methods. Effects of medication on core ADHD symptoms, academic performance, and sleep in four children ages 10-12 with attention deficit/ hyperactivity disorder. Potential side effects were also measured. Daily measures included parent rating scales, side effects checklist, sleep journal …

College Students Who Self-Injure: A Study Of Knowledge And Perceptions Of Self-Injury, Stacey Edwards Clinard

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

Archived data was utilized for the present study which examined self-injurious behaviors in a college population. College students, who engage in non-suicidal self-injury, or NSSI, were expected to evidence a higher knowledge base for the behavior than those who do not. The demographic variables of gender and sexual orientation were predicted to be over represented in the NSSI group. Further, this study examines the perceived riskiness of the behavior in individuals who self-injure, as well as their perceptions of others who engage in NSSI. The survey consisted of four sections: demographics, knowledge ofNSSI, experience with NSSI, and perceptions ofNSSI. Individuals …

Dialectical Behavior Therapy In State Hospitals: Does It Work And What Moderates The Outcomes?, Amanda L. Collins

Department of Psychology: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) demonstrates effectiveness in the treatment of individuals diagnosed with Borderline Personality Disorder in an outpatient setting. DBT has also been adapted for inpatient settings and demonstrates effectiveness with this population. To date no published literature examines the effectiveness of the standard outpatient model implemented in an inpatient setting. Furthermore, the literature examining inpatient DBT is done on treatment units where DBT is the sole treatment modality. There is no published literature regarding the use of DBT in conjunction with another treatment program. Therefore, this study examines the effectiveness of the standard outpatient DBT model implemented in …

Computational Pharmacology: Simulating Circuits Of The Brain For Drug Development, Patrick D. Roberts

Systems Science Friday Noon Seminar Series

The pharmaceutical industry is approaching unsustainable research costs to develop new drug therapies for mental disease because of the high failure rate in clinical trials. These failures are due to limitations of pre-clinical studies in animal models that fail to predict the efficacy of new drugs in human subjects. The gap between pre-clinical trials and clinical trials is particularly difficult in complex mental diseases such as schizophrenia because of the complex dynamics of the brain and the multiple chemical pathways that drugs can affect.

However, many biological mechanisms associated with schizophrenia are now understood, and computational power and methods have …

Traveling Exhibit: The Lives They Left Behind: Suitcases From A State Hospital Attic, Laura J. Hall

Posters and Presentations

The Lives They Left Behind: Suitcases from a State Hospital Attic was a traveling exhibit that explored the stories of patients from the Willard Psychiatric Center in New York, whose personal belongings were discovered after the institution closed in 1995. The exhibit highlighted the intersection of mental health, poverty, and systemic failures in care. Through a series of public events including panel discussions on homelessness, health equity, and mental health policy, the exhibit aimed to raise awareness and promote dialogue on mental health issues. Curated locally by Laura J. Hall and funded by the New Mexico Humanities Council, it was …

Predictors Of Depressive Symptomatology In Family Caregivers Of Wom-En With Substance Use Disorders Or Co-Occurring Substance Use And Mental Disorders, David E. Biegel, Shari Katz-Saltzman, David Meeks, Suzanne Brown, Elizabeth M. Tracy

Social Work Faculty Publications

This study utilized a stress-process model to examine the impact of having a female family member with substance use or co-occurring substance use and mental disorders on family caregivers' depressive symptomatology. Participants were 82 women receiving substance abuse treatment and the family member providing the most social support for each woman. Greater caregiver depressive symptomatology was predicted by greater care recipient emotional problems, less care recipient social support, and poor caregiver health. Implications of findings for treatment and future research are discussed

Quality Of Life Of The Severely Mentally Ill As Described By Social Workers, Simonetta Fosci

Theses Digitization Project

The purpose of this study was to investigate the levels of the quality of life among severely mentally ill offenders residing at a psychiatric hospital in the United States as perceived by their social workers.

Major Depression : Diagnosis And Intervention, Lindsay Linck

Graduate Research Papers

This paper will be an analysis of the psychological disorder of major depression. First, the classification of this disorder using the DSM-IV-TR will be reviewed. The areas of etiology, differential diagnosis, and treatment will then be considered. Following, a theory-specific approach to the disease including theoretical framework, diagnosis and treatment, and outcomes of using this approach, will be examined. Finally a personal reflection on the subject of major depression, and lessons learned from this project, will be discussed.

The Medicalization Of Hyperactivity And Inattentiveness : A Social History And Theoretical Perspectives On Adhd, Justin Douglas Brock

Theses, Dissertations and Capstones

This study investigates the rise of the Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder diagnosis. It approaches the topic from a medicalization perspective and frames it under the therapeutic state as proposed by Nicholas Kittrie in 1971. It asks three questions: how has society, and particularly, the medical community changed to allow the medicalization of hyperactivity and social control of active children? How has the continuing diagnosis of hyperactivity in children expanded to include attention deficit hyperactivity disorder in both children and adults? And what forces are behind the continuously inclusive diagnosis and why? In an attempt to answer these questions the history of the …

Comprehensive Evidence-Based Program Teaching Self-Management Of Auditory Hallucinations On Inpatient Psychiatric Units, Robin Buccheri, L Trygstad, M Buffum, K Lyttle, G Dowling

Nursing and Health Professions Faculty Research and Publications

Patients hearing command hallucinations to harm whose only self-management strategies are to obey these commands, can represent serious safety concerns on inpatient psychiatric units. A comprehensive evidence-based program teaching self-management of auditory hallucinations on inpatient psychiatric units is described that includes five components: suggestions for staff education; patient self-assessment tools; an interview guide and safety protocol; a course to teach strategies for managing distressing voices and commands to harm; suggestions to improve staff communication; and a plan to extend the program from inpatient care settings into the community by sharing materials with community case managers and caregivers when patients are …

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder: Guiding Management With Careful Assessment Of Comorbid Mental And Physical Illness, Don Richardson, Diane Mcintosh, Murray B. Stein, Jitender Sareen

MacDonald Franklin OSI Research Centre

Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a common and serious psychiatric condition in the civilian and veteran population. The lifetime prevalence of PTSD in the Canadian general population is 9.2%, which, surprisingly, is not significantly different from the 7.2% lifetime prevalence rate within the Canadian Regular Forces. In Canadian veterans pensioned with a medical condition the 1-month prevalence was 10.3%. Given the serious functional impairment and impaired quality of life associated with PTSD, careful assessment and treatment of PTSD is warranted. Due to the complex clinical presentation of PTSD, which can include symptoms across the continuum from adjustment disorder and subthreshold …

Denominational Support For Clergy Mental Health, Bobby L. Trihub, Mark R. Mcminn, William C. Buhrow, Thomas F. Johnson

Faculty Publications - Doctor of Psychology (PsyD) Program

To date, minimal research has addressed the actual services provided to maintain the mental health of leadership in the church. Three major Protestant denominations were consulted within this study, including a total of 434 pastors across the United States. Among these three denominations, a range of services are now being offered to support clergy, with services such as time off, prayer support groups, and clergy retreats among the most valued, adequately provided, and utilized. Still, clergy do not see the provision of services as fully adequate, and report a number of obstacles to utilizing services. Generally, the most highly rated …

Stigma Reduction Techniques/Campaigns For Practitioners In A Rural Community Mental Health Practice, Becky Mensing

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

The purpose of this project was to systematically review the literature on the negative effects of stigma on the therapy seeking clients of rural mental health centers. Also to provide information on anti-stigma campaign efforts. The goal of anti-stigma programs are to create awareness about how stigma affects people with mental illnesses, and to have participants develop a sense of what it means to walk in the shoes of a person with mental illness (Corrigan, 2004, p. 19). The research question was how do we help people from being victimized by the prejudice and discrimination that arises from stigma?

Early Psychosis Intervention In Oregon: Building A Positive Future For This Generation, Ryan P. Melton, Tamara Sale

Regional Research Institute for Human Services

The article focuses on the importance of early Schizophrenia intervention.

A Vignette Study Examining The Accuracy Of Diagnosis: The Role Of Patient And Practitioner Gender And Race Match, Kevin Johnson

Wayne State University Dissertations

ABSTRACT

DIAGNOSING MENTAL ILLNESS

By

KEVIN JOHNSON

2010

Advisor: Dr. Janet R. Hankin

Major: Medical Sociology

Degree: Doctor of Philosophy in Sociology

A convenience snowball sample of 228 mental health practitioners were surveyed and administered two vignettes of persons with mental illness and a 12-question survey that included occupational background and attitudinal questions about diagnosing mental illness. The gender and race of the patients were randomly altered, while the symptoms and characteristics of mental illness remained constant for each vignette. Each practitioner assigned a DSM-IV diagnostic label for axis I and axis II on both vignettes. The surveys were coded …

The Role Of Organizational Commitment In Practitioner Implementation Of Evidence-Based Practices In Substance Abuse Treatment Settings, Irene Teresa Manfredo

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

Organizational commitment (OC) has been linked to different types of work-related behaviors including innovation implementation and professional behavior change but the influence of OC on technology transfer or research to practice processes is as yet unknown. Using a social exchange perspective, the study employed constructs derived from Klein & Sorra (1996) - perceived implementation climate and practitioner innovation-values fit - to understand the association between practitioner level OC and evidence-based practice implementation (EBP) in substance abuse treatment settings. Method: A secondary data analysis was conducted utilizing a 2008 cross-sectional survey of outpatient substance abuse practitioners in eastern New York State …