Health Psychology Flashcards
Epidemiology research is _____ not _____
observation not experimental
Cohort Studies: Paffenberg et al.
Got participants from Harvard university and asked them to complete questions about their daily physical activity. They were then categorized into 6 different levels; he found that there’s a linear benefit of heart attacks up to a certain point and after that it sort of plateau’s
Case control studies: Bernstein et al.
Purpose: to investigate the effect of PA exposure accumulated from adolescence through adulthood on the risk of breast cancer. Women were categorized into five levels of average lifetime exercise exposure (hours/week)
What do case-control studies look for?
treatments which reduce event rates. (backwards in time)
What does WHO recommend?
600 MET minutes a week or 150 min/week of brisk walking or 75 minutes/week of running
What percent of Canadians will personally experience a mental illness in their lifetime?
20%
What percent of adults will experience major depression?
8%
Explain the study by Farb 2011
Used MRI scans of formerly depressed patients and showed them sad movie clips. 9 out of the 16 relapsed. They compared relapsing brain vs healthy brain vs a brain who never experienced depression. Patients showed increased brain activity in the medial prefrontal gyrus
Capsi et al., 2003 Genetics found…
Analyzied the 5-HTT gene which helps regulate serotonin. Two types of this gene, the short and the long. Researchers found the the short version of 5-HTT is not as effective in controlling the serotonin flow as the long version.
Kirsch et al., Feb. 2008
Did a meta-analyses of antidepressant medications have reported only modest benefits over placebo treatments.
Purpose: to establish the relation of baseline severity and antidepressant efficacy using a relevant dataset of published and unpolished clinal trials.
Methods: Obtained data on all clinal trails submitted to the US FDA
Conclusions: researchers found 12% net gain treatment from the placebo group, but according to NICE it should be 29%. Drug placebo groups increased as a function of initial severity
What was the take home message from Kirsch et al., 2008
The drugs to treat depression are effective, but for many , it’s no the active ingredient that’ smoking people feel better. It’s the placebo effect.
Cross-section studies (Yoshiuchi et al.,2006)
collecting data in the same time and space: showed daily step count and daily duration of moderate intensity were significantly and inversely correlated with depression.
Longitudinal studies (Paffenberg et al 1994)
People with highest energy expenditure were 28% less likely to develop depression compared to those with the lowest weekly EE.
Effects of exercising training on older patines with major depression…Blumental 1999
156 men and women with major depressive disorder randomly assigned to exercise, antidepressant medication or combined.
Conclusion: mirror reflections because in all treatment conditions there is a significant decrease in those scores.
Jack. org
a network changing the way we think about mental health, they know have a kids help line and apps so people can talk to each other and reach out for help. He was a student at Queen’s struggling with mental illness. Jack committed suicide in March 2010.
