The Last One!!!!

So this is the last blog that I will have to do for Mrs. Bowles writing class. It has been, not only an intersting semester, but an intersting first year here at UCA. I have enjoyed my fisrt year in college and i think that i have a lot more comming my way as I start this journey. I look forward to starting up again in the fall as I persue my carreer dreams. i have learned a lot so far, and in respect to writing, i have grown in my confidence and skills. As I look back on this year think that the most interesting thing that I have had the pleasure to do is my labs. Yea I did hate being there for three hours straight, but it was in subjects that i really enjoy, chemistry and biology. We did some real intersting things and I loved being able to go outside to do some of the things in biology and playing with chemicals in chemistry. The thing that I hates the most however, was the fact that I didnt do as much stuff on campus that I would have liked. i live at home so I usually when to class and then went home instead of speding time on campus getting involved with other things besides classes. I am moving out this summer so I hope that that will help relieve me of that dissapointment. I did love this year, nontheless, and I wouldnt trade it for the world! See everyone in the fall!

More of the Random...

i know that this doesnt have anythign to do with anything that i or anyof us has done in the past semester but i thought that these videos were to most inter taining things that i have ever seen...

Evolution of Dance 1

Evolution of Dance 2

i guess i can argue that it went with my topics of evolution that i had been looking at for biology but that would be a strech. it was most intertaining when i showed the videos to my parents and they started talking about how they actually use to do those dances. i dont know about the rest of you but i cant really see MY parents danceing at all... Especially with some of those moves.

Creation and Evolution

I know that it is cliche to write on this but as i was looking at the works of W.H. Calvin I was lead to the area of evolution and creation and how each are viewed by different people. There were three in particular that I viewed. 1) The Creation Explanation by Robert E. Kofahl and Kelly L. Segraves. This is the more religious oriented view (uses the bbible as a reference to explain creation); 2) The Origin of Species by Darwin. This, of course, is the piece that has the more scientific view with the ideas of evolution of species to another (primates to humans), and 3) Evolution by Henry T. Edge who takes the ideas of both and makes a hybrid. Either way that you look at it it is very interesting to see how so many people can get to the same conclusion in so many different ways. According to Calvins work, that is true intelligence. I just wish that i had a real idea about what it is that i believe in. On one hand i do believe in some of the ideas of evolution but some of the theroies are so hard to grasp it just seems impossible to be fully correct. (total of approximatly 35-40 pages between all three works)

Evolvong a Good Guess...

This is yet another chapter in a W.H. Calvin book. This one also has to do with the mind, not in its evolution, but in how we think and what is our intellegence (hence the title How the Brain Works). This chapter analyses what it is that we define as intellegence and what is smart. Calvin says that it is how we deal with things "on the fly" that defines how intelligent we are and not how much we know. Its how we deal with spur of the moment situations and how creative we are with soultions that makes us intelligent. He goes on to discuss that IQ as a numeric scale can not adequetly measure ones intellegence and that IQ tests are more a factor of showing ones test taking ablity (the general factor g). IQ is just a small piece that determins one intelligence. More so intellegence covers more things like cleverness, foresight, speed, creativity, and how many things you can juggle at once. (10 pages)

Exploring Ways to Shorten the assent to a Ph.D.

This is another random article that I found in the New York Times by Joseph Berger. It was written on the issue of student who take till the age of 33 to fully complete schooling to obtain their doctorate. In this case many believe that it is taking way too long for these students to finish their dissertations and graduate. As for me I think that the amount of time it takes for a student to complete their degree is irrelevant. If they are graduating, does it really matter how long it took them? Either way they are getting the same education. Besides that it is a life choice to stay in school that long. I think that if the students weren’t in school for that long the quality of their education could be compromised. So there is nothing wrong with an extra 7-8 years of school if in the end you are able to fully contribute to society in a positive way. (5 pages)

A Football Power in a Small Kansas Town

This was a very interesting i found in the New York Times by Joe Drape. It has to deal with a great football team. I mean absolutely awesome! This team is now 51-0 and has out scored opponents 704-0!!! However the amazing part is that this team is the foundation of a town. This is the kind of thing that you would see in one of today’s big sports movies. Because of the kids playing football, they each had to sign a pledge saying that they will stay drug free and if they don’t uphold that they are kicked off the team and their playing card is taken up from circulation. This is a very big deal and a very smart one at that. It seems to be one of the better “keep kids off drugs” approaches I’ve ever heard of. (3 pages)

Assesment question for making brochure (5)

1-Main Ideas or Questions
2-What I Already Know About this Idea or Question
3-What I Need to Find Out—Notes and Sources


1-What is the best treatment for depression?

2-The best treatment is a combination drug treatment therapy with talk therapy. This helps by letting the drugs work how they are suppose to and allowing the patient to better understand how to deal with their depression as well as figuring out that who they are with and without the drugs is the same person.

3-Nothing; the information is in my notes

Summary of the River that Flows Uphill... Day 7

This is also another online book by W.H. Calvin. I looked at this because i enjoyed his other book and wanted to read more on something i was learning in class. This book in particualr is a journal kept by Calvin on his trip down the Grande Canyon. here on day 7 he discusses one of the topics that we covered in our class: natuarl selection. In particular, Calvin concentrates on the squril population in the canyon. He notes that there is a difference in the south rim populations and the north rim populations. This is an example of the same species being divided by geological factors (the river) and changinf differently over time, sympatric speciation. (31 pages)

Summary of the Ascent of Mind... Chapter 3

This also comes form the online book by W.H. Calvin. Here he is examining how the climate changes aided in increaseing the brain size of humans in more detail. More inportantly he is looking at an explosion in evolutionary growth on our planet that happened 2.5 million years ago. This is the time in our history that we come to the ice ages. It was now that those humans with the ability to make tools and had better suvival skills (survival of the fitest) dominate the landscape while the rest dies off. because of this fact the tools got exponentially more complex until today. All in all it comes down to the fact that the climate changes caused greater encephalization in humans (brain growth). (34 apges)

Summary of the Ascent of Mind... Chapter 1

I read this chapter of the this online book after we studied evolution in my boilogy class. It also has a connection to my research paper bcuase of its connection to the brain and how it works. The authour of this book is W.H. Calvin, and it tracks the evolution of the human species and their brains through time. This chapter examins how we came to the state that we are in as a species from the the first human like species till now. Calvin tracks the movement of humans arcoss the moving contenents and their evolution. We see the evolutionary growth in brain size from homoerectus (smallest brain), to homosapiens, to neadertals and then our most current staet of being (lagest brain). we see that these evolutionary changes are a result of the changing climate and different demands excerted by the land. All of this time our brain is growing in size and aquireing more folds that allow us a greater brain capasity and more complex thoughts and ideas. (20 pages)

Assesment question for making brochure (4)

1-Main Ideas or Questions
2-What I Already Know About this Idea or Question
3-What I Need to Find Out—Notes and Sources

1-Is there anything else you can do about your depression?

2-There are other forms of treatment such as talk therapy. This is the most common alternative to drugs.

3-Nothing; the information is in my notes

Assesment question for making brochure (3)

1-Main Ideas or Questions
2-What I Already Know About this Idea or Question
3-What I Need to Find Out—Notes and Sources

1-What are the risks of SSRI drugs?

2-Minor risks include headache and dry mouth. However there is a rare chance of increased suicidal thoughts and actions.

3-Nothing; the information is in my notes

Assesment question for making brochure (2)

1-Main Ideas or Questions
2-What I Already Know About this Idea or Question
3-What I Need to Find Out—Notes and Sources

1-What is the “black box”?

2-The black bow is a warning label that is placed on products that have potentially lethal side effects. The black bow label was placed on SSRI drugs in 2003 by the FDA after a correlation was found with increased suicide rates in SSRI drug patients.

3-Nothing; the information is in my notes

Assesment question for making brochure (1)

1-Question
2-What I Already Know About this Idea or Question
3-What I Need to Find Out—Notes and Sources

1-How do SSRI drugs work?

2-They work by blocking the cites on a neuron where serotonin enters. This forces the build up of this neurotransmitter and as a result a brightening effect occurs.

3-Nothing; the information is in my notes

Least Interesting article in research…

The most gut-wrenching article that I had to read and understand happened to be one of my best sources in my research paper. The article that did coverage on the study done with the 128 patients took a lot of time and patience to get thru. This is because of the large tables and figures in the article that were sometimes hard to make sense of. It was also hard to see a relationship with the information that was around the figures. This information came from Dr. Gualtieri.

Gualtieri, C. Thomas. Johnson, Lyn G. (2006). Antidepressant Side Effects in Children and Adolescents. Journal of Child and Adolescent Psychopharmacology, 16(1-2), 147-57. Retrieved February 25, 2008, from Research Library database. (Document ID: 1035333831).

Interesting article in research…

My most interesting articles came from those found in the library database. The research I found in regards to serotonin and the way it works in the body was the most interesting to me. This is because I enjoy learning about drugs and their effects on the human body. Most of this information was found in the article by Dr. Weir.

Weir, Kirsten. (2005, April). DRUG PROBLEM. Current Health 2, 31(8), 11-13. Retrieved February 25, 2008, from Research Library database. (Document ID: 821700111).

Changes in my Writing style…

Well here is the thing… my writing style hasn’t really changed that much. I may have been a bit more stylistic in my writing but not much else has changed. I still struggle with organization, I still suck with grammar and mechanics, and recognizing things is still hard for me to get without a whole lot of work. But I have grown in respect for writing and wanting to write.

Continuation of reflection free write…

It was this research paper that did just that… it made me enjoy writing. For the first time ever I actually liked doing a writing assignment. I must even admit this bog was a little bit fun (when I kept up with it). Its kind of like a academic journal. This is proof that it doesn’t have to be long and involved either to be good writing or effective writing as long as it is writing.

Start of a reflection...

In this semester in was the research paper that did the most good for me in terms of improving my writing skills. This paper made me think more about what I was writing and it was also the first paper that I had to truly do research in a long time. It was the research itself that opened my eyes to the fact that when you are doing something or learning about something that you enjoy it makes it much easier and more fun to do or writ about. Its trying to find that one thing that you enjoy that is the key.

random

ok so i know that this is kinda random but when i was making my brochure one of the questions I was asked about is what are the factors that lead to depression? even though i did not include that in my work, even though i probably should have, i went in search of some factors. One that i found interesting was involving young girls and their appearences. Because of the way that society has portrayed the the "perfect" woman, girls sometimes try and force themselves and their bodies to be that ideal figure. When i was looking more into it i came across a Youtube video that i really liked. it shows us how much time and efort goes into making that ideal woman and proves that there is no reason to strive towards being her because in reality she doesnt exist (that is unless you have a huge makeup and hair staff at your disposal and a computer that allows you to alter your overall appearence).


Youtube video

Brochure Information

[What Are SSRI Drugs?]

SSRI drugs are selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors. They are frequently prescribed for patients with severe depression. Some of the most common medications are Prozac and Zoloft.


[Risks]

Like all other drugs, these antidepressants have their own set of risks and side effects. Most are mild and are as common as headaches and nausea. However, there are some studies that suggest that these drugs have a higher risk to their use, potential suicide. Several studies show that these drugs, in low numbers of patients, actually increased depression and with that an increased suicide risk is also effected. This also includes things like cutting and picking.
[Black Box]

In 2003, these drugs came under attack because of these very studies. The FDA placed a “black box” warning was placed on every SSRI drug telling costumers that they had a potential lethal side effect. Due to this label, the sale of SSRI drugs was cut in half.






[Counter Studies]
There have been several counter studies against the FDA’s label. These studies did, however, prove that these drugs did increase suicidal thoughts but they also stated that these problems could be easily fixed with a simple change in medicine or the dosage of the current medication. These studies prove that these drugs are in fact very effective in the fight against depression and should be used without fear of the manageable side effect.

[Best Treatments]
For most individuals, the single drug treatment with an SSRI drug is effective. For others, talk therapy is effective. But the truth is that the combination of the two is still the most effective treatment that there is. With the combination of the drugs, taken in the correct way, and the talk therapy, patients learn how to better deal with their depression. They also learn how to deal with the way that the drugs seem to alter their personality. This talk therapy also helps parents understand what their teen is going through.

Lit Review Dokoupil

Dokoupil, Tony. (2007, July). Trouble in a 'Black Box'; Did an effort to reduce teen suicides backfire :[U.S. Edition]. Newsweek, 150(3), 48. Retrieved February 25, 2008, from Research Library database. (Document ID: 1302292331).

Tony Dokoupil’s Trouble in a 'Black Box'; Did an effort to reduce teen suicides backfire, the FDA is under fire. Dokoupil gives firsthand accounts from some of those who were doing the voting for the “black box” and some of those doctors and parents that oppose it. He also interestingly enough, states that when the label first appeared they were praised for their care and understanding for their patients. But that quickly changed when the new numbers of suicide rates were presented by the CDC. The voters argument is that the warning was never meant to discourage use of the drug, rather, to inform the patient of all possible risks. Those who oppose say that is was to discourage and it did so dramatically; the SSRI sales dropped almost 50% in 2003-2005. The argument that it saves more lives than kills is big among them. The only discouraging thing to those people is that the FDA has only repealed one “black box” in history. Only another year of high suicides rates will be able to help those who want the label gone.

Lit Review 4 Gibbons

Gibbons, Robert D., C Hendricks Brown, Kwan Hur, Sue M Marcus, et al. (2007). Early Evidence on the Effects of Regulators' Suicidality Warnings on SSRI Prescriptions and Suicide in Children and Adolescents. The American Journal of Psychiatry, 164(9), 1356-63. Retrieved February 25, 2008, from Research Library database. (Document ID: 1329950011).

Gibbons et al. are a big promoters for SSRIs being the cause for the increase in suicide rates from 2003 to 2005 in their article, Early Evidence on the Effects of Regulators' Suicidality Warnings on SSRI Prescriptions and Suicide in Children and Adolescents. They concentrate their argument on the FDA warning, claiming that this was the cause that discouraged patients from seeking the medications that could have helped their depression. Instead these patients choose to go without the drugs in fear that they would simply make things worse.
With the use of Poisson regression analyses, they determined that there was an inverse relationship between the antidepressant sale rate and the youth suicide rate. In Europe, we see a 49% increase in youth suicide rates in 2003 to 2005 and in the US we see a 14% increase from 2003-2004, one of the largest jumps in a single year that has ever been witnessed. This, the authors argue, is all cause by the ‘black box” warning that was issued by the FDA in 2003.

Lit Review 3 Bhatia

Bhatia, Shashi K. , Subhash C Bhatia. (2007). Childhood and Adolescent Depression. American Family Physician, 75(1), 73-80. Retrieved February 25, 2008, from Research Library database. (Document ID: 1191937891).

Shashi and Subhash Bhatia’s Child and Adolescent Depression, is a very informative one. Topics like treatment, suicidal factors, and screening/diagnosing are all covered. Most interesting though is the screening/diagnosing. Most doctors think that a regular screening of children is good for detecting depression early and the Children’s Depression Inventory (CDI) allows you to evaluate children. Diagnosing is very hard. Every other disease anomaly has to be ruled out before actual major depression disorder (MDD) is diagnosed. There are many forms of milder cases of depression that are more commonly seen like dysthymic disorder and atypical depression but none are as serious as MDD.
They discuss that suicidal factors are risks associated with these drugs and also how these disorders are generally treated. First off, they suggest that if the patient has multiple risk factors already that drugs should be used alongside psychotherapy. The drug treatment plan that is most preferred is on that starts off at a low dosage to get you body use to the medication; followed by a higher dosage generally used to take away the depression; and finally another period of lower dosages to wean the body off the medications. This process should be followed up by regular doctor visits to prove that they have, in fact, done their job.

Lit Review 2 Weir

Weir, Kirsten. (2005, April). DRUG PROBLEM. Current Health 2, 31(8), 11-13. Retrieved February 25, 2008, from Research Library database. (Document ID: 821700111).

Kirsten Weir is able to cover a lot of topics in her DRUG PROBLEM essay. She gives information on a wide variety of topics including the FDA “black box” warnings, other treatment methods, and how exactly these SSRI drugs work.
Most importantly she covers the FDA decision to create a “black box” label for these drugs. Using 4400 children/teens, the FDA conducted a study that showed that with the use of a placebo (a drug with no active ingredient) only 2 out of every 100 of the patients became suicidal and while on SSRI medication, 4 out of every 100 became suicidal.
The other main point that is beneficial to my research is how these drugs actually work. When these SSRI drugs are used, they are trying o fix a chemical imbalance by not allowing serotonin to return to the initial neuron and to keep traveling to the next one creating a serotonin build up. This build up of serotonin creates a brightening effect in the person taking the medication.

Lit Review 1 Gualtieri

Gualtieri, C. Thomas. Johnson, Lyn G. (2006). Antidepressant Side Effects in Children and Adolescents. Journal of Child and Adolescent Psychopharmacology, 16(1-2), 147-57. Retrieved February 25, 2008, from Research Library database. (Document ID: 1035333831).

In Antidepressant Side Effects in Children and Adolescents, Gualtieri and Johnson present a great deal of good information regarding antidepressants used in a clinical study for fourteen months on 128 patients in North Carolina. Their study did, in fact, show that the antidepressants in question, the SSRIs, did seem to increase suicidal thoughts and behaviors in 36 of the 128 patients. Suicidal thoughts includes ideation, threats, attempts and self injury that isn’t always suicidal like cutting or picking. The main drugs that seemed to have more effects than the rest were venlafaxine, fluvoxamine, and fluoxetine, better know as Prozac. However, 34 out of the 36 patients that were observed to have these symptoms were able to manage there behaviors through either a total change in medication or a smaller dosage of the original drug.
This was a great source, as it supplies some of the greatest data and tables to support the argument that these SSRI drugs do induce suicidal thinking. It also proves that it can be controlled when taken care of in a timely manner.

You Tube

Depression videos from You Tube.

Antidepression

Prozac

SSRI drugs

Annotated Bib. (Gualtieri)

Gualtieri, C. Thomas. Johnson, Lyn G. (2006). Antidepressant Side Effects in Children and Adolescents. Journal of Child and Adolescent Psychopharmacology, 16(1-2), 147-57. Retrieved February 25, 2008, from Research Library database. (Document ID: 1035333831).

Data is presented from a neuropsychiatry clinic where 128 patients were treated with modern antidepressants for a period of 14 months. In the study, Gualtieri found that suicidal thoughts and behaviors was not an uncommon side effect for the patients to have. This is a good argument for the side that says that the drugs are bad for teenager patients. (11 pages)

Annotated Bib. (Weir)

Weir, Kirsten. (2005, April). DRUG PROBLEM. Current Health 2, 31(8), 11-13. Retrieved February 25, 2008, from Research Library database. (Document ID: 821700111).

Weir discusses on the safety of antidepressant drugs in treating depression especially in teen patients. She plays to your emotions in the beginning of the story with the use of survivors of the Columbine attacks and how it could have been stopped with the use of antidepressants. She goes on to tell how to identify depression and the early signs of it. Serotonin, the “happy juice” of the brain, is also described in this piece which helps in understanding how the SSRI drugs work for the body. (4 pages)

Annotated Bib. (Bernstein)

Bernstein, Elizabeth and Jennifer Corbett Dooren (2007, April 18). Antidepressants Get a Boost For Use in Teens; Despite Warnings on Labels, Study Says Benefits Outweigh Risks of Suicidal Tendencies. Wall Street Journal (Eastern Edition), p. D.1. Retrieved February 25, 2008, from ABI/INFORM Complete database. (Document ID: 1256243701).

Written in the Wall Street Journal, Bernstein’s piece covers a study publishes in JAMA (Journal of the American Medical Association) that consisted of a 27 case study on the effectiveness of these SSRI drugs. Personal accounts are also given that tell about suicides that were stopped by the drugs and some that were caused by them. (5 pages)

Annotated Bib. (Finucance)

Finucane, Caroline. (2007, January). SSRIs for adolescents... ... what are the dangers? Hospital Doctor,30-31. Retrieved February 25, 2008, from ABI/INFORM Complete database. (Document ID: 1224227271).

Finucane analyzes several different claims made about SSRI drugs and if they really do help with fights depression of if they simply spur it on. A the end of her piece she also examined the effectiveness of psychotherapy as a form of treatment and found that a joint effort is most effective. (7 pages)

Annotated Bib. (Dokoupil)

Dokoupil, Tony. (2007, July). Trouble in a 'Black Box'; Did an effort to reduce teen suicides backfire :[U.S. Edition]. Newsweek, 150(3), 48. Retrieved February 25, 2008, from Research

Library database. (Document ID: 1302292331).
In this article, Dokoupil, starts to give blame for the increased suicide rate, saying that the FDA’s warning scared off parents and doctors from using the SSRI drugs. He takes that side that says that drugs help people while untreated cases kill them. (3 pages)

Annotated Bib. (Bhatia)

Bhatia, Shashi K. , Subhash C Bhatia. (2007). Childhood and Adolescent Depression. American Family Physician, 75(1), 73-80. Retrieved February 25, 2008, from Research Library database. (Document ID: 1191937891).

Here Bhatia explains how depression effects children and adolescence. They also discuss other initial risk factors children face that lead to their depression that include neglect of abuse, being female, chronic illness etc. They go on to suggest a way to beat the “black box” is to do heavy monitoring of the child in question for the first couple of months of treatment. (6 pages)

Annotated Bib. (Brent)

Brent, David. (2007). Antidepressants and Suicidal Behavior: Cause or Cure? The American Journal of Psychiatry, 164(7), 989-91. Retrieved February 25, 2008, from Research Library database. (Document ID: 1301548481).

Dr, David Brent gives another possible explanation than Gibson for the higher rate of suicidal behavior in the untreated group is that lack of treatment may be due to lack of adherence and concomitant psychosocial factors (e.g., personality disorder, alcohol abuse) that may increase suicidal risk. (6 pages)

Annotated Bib. (Gibbons)

Gibbons, Robert D., C Hendricks Brown, Kwan Hur, Sue M Marcus, et al. (2007). Early Evidence on the Effects of Regulators' Suicidality Warnings on SSRI Prescriptions and Suicide in Children and Adolescents. The American Journal of Psychiatry, 164(9), 1356-63. Retrieved February 25, 2008, from Research Library database. (Document ID: 1329950011).

In this article, Gibson et al., reports on the American and European public health warnings regarding the use of SSRI drugs in 2003 and 2004. Here he attempts to connect this warning with the decreased number of sales of SSRI drugs which then lead to the increased suicide rate on both continents. (8 pges)