Health Articles for Psy2340

Students: If you are accessing this blog for extra credit articles for Psy2340, I will continue to periodically update this site. However, I am also posting appropriate links/articles from my twitter account: https://twitter.com/marylewisphd

Feel free to "follow" me there and click on links to appropriate health-related articles that can be used for extra credit in some (but not all) of the Psy2340 Courses at CSCC. Thank you!

Health Disparities can be fatal

The Chicago Tribune article entitled "CDC: Hundreds of thousands of Americans die unnecessarily every year," reports on how disparities in access to healthcare and treatment result in preventable deaths each year. The article goes into detail about specific illnesses and the statistics. What more could the US do to prevent these deaths? How will the new Healthcare Law impact these statistics?

Casual Pot Use Causes Brain Abnormalities

This Chicago Tribune article entitled "Casual Pot Use Causes Brain Abnormalities in Young: Study" reports on a recent research study revealing that even with casual use, there is a direct correlation between the number of times young users smoked and brain abnormalities, especially in the nucleus accumbens and the nucleus aygdala. These are two areas which regulate emotion and motivation. Is there any "safe" level of pot smoking? What are the implications, especially if people use medical marijuana?

Diet’s Link to Longevity: After 2 Studies Diverge, a Search for Consensus

The NY Times article entitled "Diet’s Link to Longevity: After 2 Studies Diverge, a Search for Consensus" discusses the conflicting result on Caloric Restriction as a way to prolong lifespan between two research studies. What do you think about the way they are trying to resolve the conflicting results? Does caloric restriction seem a logical way to lengthen lifespan to you?

Older Mind = Fuller Mind?

This NY Times New Old Age Blog article entitled "The Older Mind May Just be a Fuller Mind" explores some recent research revealing that the memory/age decline may not be a true decline in memory, but rather a challenge in data mining: that older adults just have more information to "sort through" before finding a memory than younger adults. Does this seem plausible? How might this change the future of memory research?

High Suicide Attempt Rate in Transgender Individuals

This Chicago Tribune article entitled "Transgender study looks at 'exceptionally high' suicide-attempt rate" reveals that 41% of individuals who are transgender or gender-nonconforming have attempted suicide at some point in their lives. This statistic is nearly nine-times the national average. What do you think the risk factors might be for this group of individuals? How could professionals intervene?

Depression in Millennials

This Washington Post article entitled "Why are so many millennials depressed? A therapist points the finger at Mom and Dad" discusses the increase in depression rates among the "millennial" generation (the demographic cohort following Generation X). Psychologists speculate that the reason is that these children are over-parented, and were never taught the conflict negotiation and critical thinking skills needed to be independent. Does this seem like an accurate assessment? What other factors might be at play?