Antipsychotic Drug Use: Managing Cardiometabolic and Cost Effects

Across the US, 30%, or approximately one third of people meet the criteria for at least one mental illness.1 Of those with severe mental illness (SMI), namely schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, the mortality rate is more than twofold compared to the general population.2 The cardiovascular risk factors that contribute to cardiovascular related deaths, including metabolic disease and type II diabetes, are not only modifiable, but staggeringly higher for those with SMI.3 Though antipsychotic drug prescription is the standard protocol for SMI treatment, such drug effects on cardiovascular risk factors and related deaths exacerbate the much higher mortality rate for the severely mentally ill population. Due to both the prevalence of SMI and the physical comorbidities that it entails, analysis of healthcare costs associated with this population are an essential part of general health and policy improvement for the U.S. Therefore, a breakdown of the healthcare costs of this population requires not only acknowledgment of the modes of treatment for mental illness specifically, but also the identification and cost-analysis of the commonly associated physical comorbidities. This is especially important considering SMI is almost always considered chronic, and many SMI patients qualify for either Medicare, Medicaid, or both. Certain gaps in coverage can lead to lack of preventive care, exacerbating the cost burden. From a clinician’s perspective, assessing relevant scientific studies and reviews to change the relationship between primary care and psychiatry is necessary to dampen the high mortality rate of the SMI population. From a policy-maker’s perspective, analyzing the cause and effect balance between managing costs of care directed at the SMI itself against the adjunct costs from physical comorbidity calls for a change in the structure of therapeutic care and how the SMI population accesses primary care. The Collaborative Care model is a health care model that unifies psychiatric, behavioral, and primary care to support the mental, behavioral, and physical health of patients. By supporting holistic healthcare, the high cost of care for the SMI population will be diminished. The model includes four parts: patient-centered care, populationbased care, measurement-based treatment to target, and evidence-based care. Swapping oral antipsychotics with injectable versions will be especially cost-effective by improving adherence rates, and thus, reducing institutionalization and other hospitalizations. By enforcing the Collaborative Care model through community health center interventions, clinicians and policy makers will be able to work together to effectively leverage the health of the SMI population while eroding the high health care expenditure that this population currently imposes on states

Bank Liability Under the Antiterrorism Act: The Mental State Requirement Under § 2333(a)

This Note specifically addresses the jurisdictional split on the mental state requirement necessary to hold a defendant liable under the ATA. This Note explores the current judicial interpretations of the statute and concludes that, as the statute stands, the Second Circuit best interprets the mental state requirement for § 2333(a) claims predicated on a violation of material support laws. This Note proposes, however, that Congress should amend the ATA to clarify the state-of-mind requirement and should only allow for a cause of action where a bank manifests heightened culpability through intentional wrongdoing in the provision of financial services to foreign terrorist organizations

Climate Change Impacts on Amazonian and Arctic Indigenous Tribes

This paper aims to touch upon the various climatic impacts on two differing indigenous tribes. The Amazon Rainforest and Arctic is home to a variety of native tribes. As climate change intensifies, these different groups are faced with differing impacts that has had a major impacts on their daily lives.https://digitalcommons.salve.edu/chp218/1001/thumbnail.jp

The Influence of Self-Enhancement And Stress on Weight Gain: A Biopsychosocial Approach

The current longitudinal study was conducted to test if people perceive their physical body size to be smaller than it is, and if people do self-enhance their body size, then how do body self-enhancement and stress interact to predict subsequent Body Mass Index (BMI). This study toke a biopsychosocial approach to understanding why people make health decisions by measuring participants’ self-enhancement, perceived stress, cortisol baseline levels, and stress reactivity and observing their associations and interactions with subsequent weight gain. Self-enhancement is a type of positive illusion characterized by overly positive attitudes people have towards themselves, which is used for promotion and maintenance of a positive sense-of-self. Previous research has found that people’s self-enhancing tendencies about their traits and abilities extended to automatic and perceptual judgments of themselves by perceiving themselves as more attractive than they are (Epley & Whitchurch, 2008). The current study questions if this also applies to body size. Additionally, different types of stress were measured, such as perceived stress using the Perceived Stress Scale, as well as baseline cortisol levels and stress reactivity. Saliva samples were collected before and after an acute stressor, the Trier Social Stress Task (TSST), and analyzed using Salimetrics ELISA Cortisol Kit (Birkett, 2011; Kirschbaum, Pirke, & Hellhammer, 1993). TSST was recommended by Dickerson and Kemey’s (2004) meta-analysis as an acute stressor that accurately and validly activates the HPA axis, the central stress response system responsible for releasing cortisol (the stress hormone). Previous studies support two conflicting hypotheses about the health implications of selfenhancing (Taylor et al, 2003). The results of this study show that participants do self-enhance their body sizes to be smaller than they are and that there are significant associations between body self-enhancement and BMI, mediated by stress that support and contradict previous hypotheses on the health consequences of self-enhancing

Climate Change Impacts on Amazonian and Arctic Indigenous Tribes

This paper aims to touch upon the various climatic impacts on two differing indigenous tribes. The Amazon Rainforest and Arctic is home to a variety of native tribes. As climate change intensifies, these different groups are faced with differing impacts that has had a major impacts on their daily lives.https://digitalcommons.salve.edu/chp218/1002/thumbnail.jp

Coping Through Curse: Confronting British Metropolitan Identity Through the "Curse of Tutankhamen" (1923-1933)

This thesis was submitted to the Department of History of the University of Kansas in partial fulfillment of the requirements for departmental honors.This thesis seeks to understand the origins of the curse of Tutankhamen within interwar British society and to explain why the British were willing to believe in the “curse of Tutankhamen” between 1923 and 1933. It argues that the curse served as a method of coping as the British reforged their rational, Enlightened ways with irrational imaginings to deflect feelings of trauma after the First World War and of vulnerability with the loss of Egypt as a protectorate in 1922. Just as the British newspapers evaded discussing the true story of the archaeological dig of the tomb of Tutankhamen, so too did the British use their own imperial ideas of Egyptian Romantic allure to circumvent the reality of Egyptians through the curse of Tutankhamen. I argue that the curse of Tutankhamen was a British-created myth with necessary Egyptian influences that served to preserve British imperial views of the “other” in the wake of World War One (1914-1918) and the British Unilateral Declaration of Egyptian Independence on February 28, 1922. Importantly, this thesis maintains that the veracity of the curse itself is secondary to the cultural effects of the purported curse in the British metropole. The curse of Tutankhamen was a myth born out of the British metropole-favored imagination and threating comparison with the Empire inherent in Orientalism. By analyzing coverage in British newspapers such as The Times and The Daily Mail and the accounts of later historians such as Allegra Fryxell and Roger Luckhurst, this thesis argues that the British authored and perpetuated the “curse of Tutankhamen,” by basing the curse within British perceptions of modern and ancient Egypt. The curse symbolized the mythological arrival of the periphery of the British Empire within British metropolitan identity

Cultivating Perspective: A Qualitative Inquiry Examining School History Textbooks for Microaggressions Against Native Americans

Native American youth face a number of challenges that affect their academic success and mental health (Center for Native American Youth, 2016). One way in which Native American youth currently face prejudice within the school system is through curriculum (Yosso, 2002). More specifically, Native American youth are often presented with textbooks that include stereotyped and distorted information about their peoples’ history (Loewen, 1995; Sanchez, 2007). However, there is currently a gap in the literature showing whether or not these textbooks also contain microaggressive statements towards Native Americans. The current study looked at 5 Eighth Grade level Montana history texts from around the state to explore two research questions. The first- are there microaggressions in history textbooks used across the state, and the second- if there are microaggressions, what are those themes? Results of this study found that microaggressions were present in textbooks used in Eighth Grade textbooks in Montana. Microaggressions found in these books included 96 microinvalidations, 54 microinsults, and 11 microassaults. Furthermore, the themes of these microaggressive statements expanded beyond Sanchez’s (2007) original themes. In turn, this section further discusses the results of this study as well as the possible implications, directions for future research, and suggestions for school psychologists

A Critical Review of the Literature of Social Media’s Affordances in the Classroom

Even though the use of social media in education is a now widely-studied topic, there still does not seem to be a general consensus for what social media may afford students or how best to use them in the classroom. In this article, I aim critically discuss some of the most prominent qualitative studies that explore the use of social media in the classroom. I critically consider some of the claims for affordances that social media can offer in the classroom, in particular the affordances of the interactive features that are unique to social media, the affordances for authoring to a wider, interactive audience, and the opportunity for increased student creativity. I then discuss how contemporary scholars have used social media as a platform for learning and literacies. The article some scholars’ findings for incorporating social media into the classroom and the limitations for social media in education. The article concludes with a discussion of some potential steps for future research

Fagus sylvatica (European beech), ID: 1134

Location: Wakehurst, near labyrinthhttps://digitalcommons.salve.edu/bio140_arboretum/1006/thumbnail.jp