First Topic–Mental Disorders
A. Background
The below websites are meant to provide a background review of the mental disorders area and therefore should be done before the conference. To help in becoming more familiar with background knowledge about mental disorders, these websites are presented below for your review. These websites have overlapping similar information.
National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) Mental Health Topics •
Brain and Behavior Research Foundation (formerly National Alliance for Research on Schizophrenia and Depression [NARSAD]) •
National Alliance for the Mentally Ill (NAMI)
Meador-Woodruf Laboratory •
Advances in the Biology and Treatment of Depression Excellent slide presentation and transcript on the biology of depression from well-known biological psychiatry researcher, Dr. Charles Nemeroff from Emory University (this website was unavailable the last time I tried to access it, so it may be under revision)
“Mental Health Research–Into the Future” •
B. Conference
In this conference you will become familiar with information and knowledge on the website dealing with mental disorders (from NIMH, National Institute of Mental Health—http://www.nimh.nih.gov — the NIH research institute devoted to mental disorders). NIMH is the largest scientific organization in the world dedicated to research focused on the understanding, treatment, and prevention of mental disorders and the promotion of mental health. The NIMH website has portals on Health and Outreach, Research Funding, Science News and About NIMH. Under the Health and Outreach portal are excellent comprehensive write-ups on Mental Health Topics including all mental disorders. Under the Science News portal are excellently written press releases/science updates by year.
After reviewing and navigating through the NIMH website, select a mental disorder that was mentioned and report to your classmates on an interesting aspect of this mental disorder you learned about from this website. The essential requirement of your discussion is to relate information about this mental disorder to the brain. There can be no more than three postings by different classmates on the same mental disorder. If you select the same mental disorder as another classmate, then you must discuss a different aspect of the mental disorder than what has already been posted. Create a main topic that identifies the mental disorder that you selected.
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Second topic–Drug/Alcohol Abuse
A. Background
The below websites and videos are meant to provide a background review of the alcohol/drugs area and therefore should be done before the below Discussion Forum. To help in becoming more familiar with background knowledge about substance abuse, a number of websites are presented below for your review and discussion. Many of these websites have overlapping similar information and I have presented several of them so that you can navigate through all of them and find those that present the material in the most understandable way for you. After you navigate through these background websites, you should do the below forum.
Pay special attention to ‘Principles of Drug Abuse Treatment’ (at bottom of chart).
This website has important information on the nervous system effects of all the drugs we will study; for this week, click on ‘heroin’; we will use this link for other drugs in subsequent units. Don’t be fooled by the title: ‘Neuroscience for Kids’—although it was originally intended for youngsters, it clearly has important knowledge and benefit for all.
Visit this parent website for this series that is an interactive set of links geared specifically for adolescents and contains age-appropriate facts on drugs, real stories about teens and drug abuse, games, take-home activities, and a Q&A forum with Dr. NIDA. Although this series was written for teens, it is of benefit to all.
There are seven segments for the HBO Addiction project. After you visit the above website, you will see seven tabs representing each of these seven segments: understanding addiction, adolescent addiction, treatment, aftercare, stigma & discrimination, films. After you click on each of these tabs, there are videos on the right side of the screen for you to choose from. “Addiction” is a 14-part documentary television series and multimedia initiative revealing the science of addiction, its treatment, recovery, and its costs to families and society. A diverse group of people who were battling alcohol or drug addiction were featured, as well as addiction experts from around the country. Two Institutes at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) have been honored with the prestigious Governors Award by the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences for their work with HBO on the Addiction Project.
B. Discussion Forum
In this forum- you will become familiar with information and knowledge on websites dealing with alcohol and drugs of abuse (from NIAAA, National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism—http://www.niaaa. nih.gov – and from NIDA, National Institute on Drug Abuse—http://www.nida.nih.gov) . The National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, part of the National Institutes of Health, is the primary U.S. agency for conducting and supporting research on the causes, consequences, prevention, and treatment of alcohol abuse, alcoholism, and alcohol problems and disseminates research findings to general, professional, and academic audiences. Additional alcohol research information and publications are available at this website. The National Institute on Drug Abuse, also part of the National Institutes of Health, (the institute of NIH devoted to research on drugs of abuse) is devoted to bringing science to bear on drug abuse and addiction through research on a broad range of disciplines and dissemination of research results to significantly improve prevention, treatment and policy as it relates to drug abuse and addiction. For the NIDA website, there are several portals for information on drug abuse and addiction: for medical and health professions, researchers, parents and teachers, students and young adults, and Drugs of Abuse/Related Topics.
After reviewing and navigating through the above NIAAA and NIDA websites, select a drug that was mentioned and report to your classmates on an interesting aspect of this drug you learned about from these websites. The essential requirement of your discussion is to relate information about this drug to the brain. There can be no more than three postings by different classmates on the same drug. If you select the same drug as another classmate, then you must discuss a different aspect of the drug than what has already been posted. Create a main topic subject line that identifies the drug that you selected.
To post your response (one paragraph), type your Title, including drug name, and your posting click on “Submit”. A paragraph should be three-five sentences.
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