health psych

• Health is an evaluative process
• Claims of the Q-ray bracelet


  • "improve the flow of Bioenergy"(doesn't even make sense)
• Participants went 6 days with no bracelet and 6 days with it


  1. With the bracelet, pain decreases significantly

  2. There was no blinding, pain differs on the day and the placebo effect could be in play
• The bracelet was exposed for being nonsense and a huge lawsuit
• Placebo effect


  A sham treatment that can't be attributed to the properties of the treatment itself and therefore must be due to the patient's BELIEF in that treatment, this is a positive effect
• Benevolent deception


  A bottle of medicine to boat your ego. A long time ago placebo pills were prescribed but were found to have very bad outcomes for people in real danger
• Angina Pectoris study


  1. Patients with this condition were assigned sham or actual surgery

  2. After real surgery, the ECG showed no real biological impact on the heart's electrical signals

  3. Those who had the surgery decreased their use of pain meds and were able to exercise more in the sham and actual surgery, even though neither had a biological change in the ECG
• We expect that medicine will relieve our symptoms as people are conditioned to feel better
• Sham treated have induced measurable biological changes in the brains of Parkinson's patients
• Reduced levels of dopamine


  Not enough being made within the motor cortex of the brain cause motor dysfunction with Parkinson's
• Dopamine transporters


  When knocked out they can not be reuptake, this causes too much dopamine in synapse and the # of receptors will decrease to become less exited
• PET scan


  A weak radioactive substance called a radiotracer will interact with the brain cells(dopamine receptors). It will bind to the cell and decay showing a bright colour in the picture, protons are made with decay and they will collide with the electrons
• Dopamine receptors want dopamine but if there is none will bind to raclopride. So the brighter the image the more raclopride is bonded meaning there is depletion in dopamine
• Parkinsons people, got sham, no and real treatment

  In the PET scan, the sham and real treatment showed the same brightness while not showing very bright, notably, this was amplified when they believed the treatment had worked
• Personality is hard to evaluate and is a hypothetical construct made up by scientists which has no biological markers
• Myers Briggs type inventory categorizes people in just 4 attributes but is actually much more complex
• Type A and B businessmen were recruited and looked at the impact of heart disease


  Showed that type A had a much higher risk, but they also drank and smoked more
• For this NO biological basis, many other factors come into play
• Autism has exponentially increased in the last 35 years
• Jenny McCarthy wrote an article which said that right after her son got the vaccine he developed autism, this blew up and many people stopped being vaccinated which caused a rise in measles
• In 1998 similar study involved 12 kids with autism and asked the parents about an event that was four years ago and the onset of symptoms correlated with the vaccines supposedly, it was stated that further investigation needed to be done but many people did not read the whole paper and didn't get this
• These papers have been discredited but people still believe this
• A Canadian study shows no link between autism and the vaccine
• Correlation does not equal causation. 2 children have teddy bears, and both have autism therefore teddy bears cause autism
• Read scientific literature, take notes and highlight key points, THINK CRITICALLY

  1. Get the gist in 10 mins main points

  2. Understand the results in the context of the literature

  3. Evaluate the assumptions of the study design and analysis

  4. What do YOU conclude from this study, not what they do
• Ambivalence


  Not knowing what to do or how, a motivational interview helps battle this
• 4 processes of motivational interview

  • Engaging(trust and respect), focusing(one thing at a time) evoking(bringing out strengths and ideas) and planning(helping to get a specific Action plan)
• CAPE of MI


  • Compassion-caring what is important to another person
  • Accpection-respecting their right to change or not to change
  • Partnership- working together and seeing as equals
  • Evoking- not forcing, bringing out the person's ideas and knowledge on the subject
• Range of styles


  • Direct(assist to move forward)- Conduct, steer, administer, manage, prescribe
  • Following(No judge)- Permit, listen, allow and observe
  • Guiding(motivation through process)- Assist, encourage, accompany, support, collaborate
• Ask-tell-ask format


  Ask permission to give advice, give limited info clearly, and don't overwhelm. Then ask how they feel about what you told them
• We ask to find out how they feel about their health, what they are ready to do, their knowledge and their challenges
• Sometimes we must tell because of professional obligation(rule, obligation, must discuss, or reporting requirement)
• Must emphasize choice so the person feels in control
• Brief Action Plan


  Highly structured, patient-centred, self-management support tool grounded in the spirit of MI. Helps to build self-efficacy for healthy behaviour change and illness. It is organized around 3 core questions and 5 skills which takes 30 mins
• Sleep is very important can only go 11 days without it
• Sleep-wake behaviour


  Is under homeostatic control as the body needs the perfect balance between sleep and wake
• Sleep debt


  The cumulative loss of sleep and the consequent pressure of sleep that results from an inadequate amount of physiologically normal sleep
• Sleep pressure


  The highest right before you sleep, is discharged through the night then when you wake up you are back at baseline
• Sleep debt is accumulative, if you don't sleep one night the sleep pressure will continue to increase. Too many of the nights and the body becomes unable to catch up
• 16 hours with no sleep has the same effect as having 2-4 drinks, which increases human error. 13+ hour shift significantly increases error