Lifetime use of MDMA/ecstasy and psilocybin is associated with reduced odds of major depressive episodes

Background: Depression is a major mental health issue worldwide, with high rates of chronicity and non-recovery associated with the condition. Existing treatments such as antidepressant medication and psychological treatments have modest effectiveness, suggesting the need for alternative interventions. Aim: The aim of this study was to examine the relationships between MDMA (3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine)/ecstasy and psilocybin use and major depressive episodes (MDEs). Methods: This observational study used data from a large ( N = 213,437) nationally representative sample of US adults to test the association of lifetime use of MDMA/ecstasy, psilocybin and other classic psychedelics (lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD), peyote, mescaline), other illegal substances (e.g. cocaine, phencyclidine (PCP)), and legal/medicinal substances of misuse (e.g. pain relievers, tranquilizers) with lifetime, past year, and past year severe MDEs. Results: Results revealed that lifetime MDMA/ecstasy use was associated with significantly lowered odds of a lifetime MDE (adjusted odds ratio (aOR) = 0.84; p < 0.001), past year MDE (aOR = 0.84; p < 0.001), and past year severe MDE (aOR = 0.82; p < 0.001). Psilocybin was associated with significantly lowered odds of a past year MDE (aOR = 0.90; p < 0.05) and past year severe MDE (aOR = 0.87; p < 0.05). All other substances either shared no relationship with a MDE or conferred increased odds of an MDE. Conclusions: These results suggest that MDMA/ecstasy and psilocybin use is associated with lower risk of depression. Experimental studies are needed to test whether there is a causal association between use of these compounds and the alleviation of depressive symptoms.

Employee Wellness Without Stress and Strain

Amidst the COVID-19 pandemic situation, the human race has entered the era of hope and transformation, and there is growing pressure and focus to raise awareness to adopt alternative interventions and sustainable practices to ensure gaining sound functioning of physiological organs. Can yoga and meditation promote clarity in thoughts and enhance alertness at work? Does practice of mudras help in improving concentration level of individuals? Do yoga and meditation help to improve the improve quality of life in general? The aim of this chapter is to help new practitioners, scholars, and employees to understand fitness mantra without stress and strain through Indian style of yoga and meditation. This chapter presents an overview of collection of research papers and articles written by yoga experts, saints, and researchers that have emphasized psychology, spirituality, and mentioned evidence for better mental health or effectiveness of yoga, meditation, and mudra interventions as tools for improving the overall personality and mental health of individuals.

“Isn’t There Any Other Way than Calling the Cops?”: How Differences in Initiation of Police Intervention Influence Survivor Safety

As formal crisis responders, police are trained in de-escalation tactics that are expected to mitigate intimate partner violence and promote survivor safety. However, the alignment between expected and actual practice of police intervention varies, especially when the survivor does not initiate the call, police treat the survivor poorly, or provide an undesirable arrest outcome. At best, unsuccessful interventions do not change survivors’ risk level, and at worse, elevate their risk of experiencing harm. The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore survivors’ perspectives on the process of police intervention, specifically how variations in initiation, quality of engagement, and arrest influence survivors’ safety. Twenty-four women whose partners were in a relationship violence intervention program were recruited to participate in the study. Results showed that many survivors described a range of ongoing, strategic violence perpetrated by their partners that required intervention; yet the complex nature of the violence often extended beyond police capacity. Either survivors called the police, or they were initiated externally by neighbors or strangers; some survivors had dual initiations. Whether survivors reported that police used safety practices during the intervention was related to who initiated the police. Arrests of abusive partners were inconsistent, and they varied based on number of previous calls to the police and visible signs of injury. Survivors of color, specifically Black women, self-initiated at higher rates, experienced fewer safety strategies used by police, and had fewer arrests. No matter the outcomes of police intervention, survivors actively engaged in strategies outside of formal systems to protect themselves and their families. Study results imply that police intervention may be ill-suited to support survivors’ safety goals and highlight a need for alternative interventions focused on de-escalation and prevention.

Effects of a Web-based Intervention on Cardiovascular and Physical Health of Korean Older Adults During the Pandemic

During the lockdown, 97.5% of Korean senior centers in South Korea were closed to prevent the spread of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). The threat of the COVID-19 presented the need for alternative interventions for Korean older adults to maintain cardiovascular and physical health. Korean senior centers implemented web-based interventions to provide physical health services, but their effectiveness was not yet assessed. Thus, our study aimed to identify the effects of a web-based intervention using a smartwatch and mobile app in older adults when compared to center-based intervention during the pandemic. This study collected 117 Korean older adults (≥ 60) who participated in the 12-week web-based and center-based physical interventions using a smartwatch and mobile app. This quasi-experimental study was conducted between August and December in 2020. We analyzed the pre-posttest of cardiovascular and physical health across two intervention types. Our regression results indicated that participants in the 12-week web-based intervention reported better cardiovascular (systolic blood pressure: b = -13.77, p &lt; .001; cholesterol: b = -11.71, p &lt; .05) and physical health (muscular function: b = 2.99, p &lt; .001; body balance: b = -1.31, p &lt; .001; cardiopulmonary endurance: b = 33.33, p &lt; .001) than those in center-based intervention at posttest. The findings imply a web-based intervention is likely to become an innovative therapeutic strategy for older adults' health to respond to the rapidly changing social service systems amid the pandemic.

Penerapan Teknik Relaksasi Messase Punggung Untuk Menurunkan Nyeri Kepala Pada Pasien Hipertensi

Hypertension is an abnormal levels of blood pressure, which is characterized by a systolic pressure above 140 mmHg and a diastolic pressure above 90 mmHg it occurs in arterial blood vessels that can transport blood from the heart and is able to pump it throughout the tissues, organs of the body that are continuously more than a period. Pain is a state of uncomfortable feelings and pain can also create disturbances in sleep and rest patterns. One of an alternative interventions to reduce neck pain is back messase relaxation. The purpose of the study was to applied back message relaxation therapy to reduce neck pain in patients with hypertension. The method of the scientific study was a case studies with the application of interventions It is done for three days twice a day in the morning and evening and subjects of this case study were two hypertension patients who experienced neck pain. The result show that back messase relaxation was effective in reducing neck pain. Accordingly, the back messase relaxation can be used to reduce neck pain in hypertension patients. Keywords: Back Messase Relaxation; Hypertension; Neck Pain AbstrakHipertensi merupakan suatu peningkatan tekanan darah yang abnormal, yang di tandai dengan tekanan sistolik di atas 140 mmHg dan tekanan diastolik di atas 90 mmHg yang terjadi di dalam pembuluh darah arteri yang dapat mengangkut darah dari jantung dan mampu untuk memompanya keseluruh jaringan, organ-organ tubuh yang secara terus-menerus yang lebih dari suatu periode. Nyeri adalah suatu keadaan perasaan yang tidak nyaman dan nyeri dapat juga membuat gangguan pada pola tidur dan istirahat. Tindakan untuk menurunkan nyeri kepala salah satunya dengan messase punggung. Messase punggung mampu untuk menurunkan nyeri kepala. Tujuan Karya Tulis Ilmiah ini adalah untuk menggunakan terapi relaksasi messase punggung untuk menurunkan nyeri kepala pada penderita hipertensi. Metode yang di gunakan dalam karya tulis ilmiah ini adalah studi kasus dengan penerapan intervensi yang di lakukan selama tiga hari sebanyak dua kali dalam sehari pada waktu pagi dan sore hari dan subyek studi kasus ini dua klien penderita hipertensi yang mengalami nyeri kepala. Hasil Karya Tulis Ilmiah ini menunjukkan perubahan skala nyeri dan mengatakan nyeri berkurang pada klien I dan II. Kesimpulan dari studi kasus ini menunjukkan messase punggung efektif untuk menurunkan nyeri kepala pada penderita hipertensi. Saran dari penulis di harapkan relaksasi messase punggung ini dapat di gunakan untuk penerapan yang efektif pada penderita hipertensi yang mengalami nyeri kepala..Kata kunci: Hipertensi; Nyeri kepala; Relaksasi messase punggung

International Scholarships and Southern Agency: An Ethnography of Alumni, Scholars, and Applicants

International scholarships are an established mode of aid distribution for many donor countries and a life-changing educational opportunity for recipients from the global South. This article draws upon ethnographic field research centred on Dili, Timor-Leste, focussing on case studies of a scholarship applicant, a scholar, and an alumnus. It employs the concept of Southern agency, investigating individual practices shaped by influences that both constrain and enable action, namely local infrastructure, family and kinship groups, literacies, and the colonial legacy. Scholarship places are limited and extremely competitive, while assigning a moral imperative for alumni to learn and return to contribute to local development, often resulting in the re-production of socially normed roles echoing the colonial era. The global upheaval in higher education resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic emphasises the need for alternative interventions in the global South, including greater investment in local higher education institutions, and online learning.

Limited impact of contact tracing in a University setting for COVID-19 due to asymptomatic transmission and social distancing

Contact tracing is an important tool for controlling the spread of infectious diseases, including COVID-19. Here, we investigate the spread of COVID-19 and the effectiveness of contact tracing in a university population, using a data-driven ego-centric network model constructed with social contact data collected during 2020 and similar data collected in 2010. We find that during 2020, university staff and students consistently reported fewer social contacts than in 2010, however those contacts occurred more frequently and were of longer duration. We find that contact tracing in the presence of social distancing is less impactful than without social distancing. By combining multiple data sources, we show that University-aged populations are likely to develop asymptomatic COVID-19 infections. We find that asymptomatic index cases cannot be reliably back-traced through contact tracing and consequently transmission in their social network is not significantly reduced through contact tracing. In summary, social distancing restrictions had a large impact on limiting COVID-19 outbreaks in universities; to reduce transmission further contact tracing should be used in conjunction with alternative interventions.

Case Report: A Tale of a Cardiac Mass: Looks Like a Papillary Fibroelastoma, Acts Like a Non-bacterial Thromboendocarditis

Introduction: Benign cardiac tumors and tumor like conditions are a heterogeneous collection of mass lesions that vary widely in their characteristics, such as presentation, size, and location. In some instances, these tumors are found incidentally, and therefore a broad differential diagnosis should be considered.Case: An elderly male with significant unintentional weight loss and a high risk for cancer presented with an incidental valvular cardiac mass. The mass was thought to be a non-bacterial thromboendocarditis on initial clinical evaluation. After multiple imaging modalities, the mass was suspected to be a papillary fibroelastoma (PFE), which was resected due to high stroke risk and multiple previous chronic infarcts on brain MRI.Conclusion: This case highlights the need for a comprehensive cardiac evaluation of a valvular tumor to discern the etiology and rule out other underlying pathophysiological processes that may require alternative interventions to cardiac surgery.

Clinically Relevant Genes and Proteins Modulated by Tocotrienols in Human Colon Cancer Cell Lines: Systematic Scoping Review

The last decade has witnessed tremendous growth in tocotrienols (T3s) research, especially in the field of oncology, owing to potent anticancer property. Among the many types of cancers, colorectal cancer (CRC) is growing to become a serious global health threat to humans. Chemoprevention strategies in recent days are open to exploring alternative interventions to inhibit or delay carcinogenesis, especially with the use of bioactive natural compounds, such as tocotrienols. This scoping review aims to distil the large bodies of literature from various databases to identify the genes and their encoded modulations by tocotrienols and to explicate important mechanisms via which T3s combat CRC. For this scoping review, research papers published from 2010 to early 2021 related to T3s and human CRC cells were reviewed in compliance with the PRISMA guidelines. The study included research articles published in English, searchable on four literature databases (Ovid MEDLINE, PubMed, Scopus, and Embase) that reported differential expression of genes and proteins in human CRC cell lines following exposure to T3s. A total of 12 articles that fulfilled the inclusion and exclusion criteria of the study were short-listed for data extraction and analysis. The results from the analysis of these 12 articles showed that T3s, especially its γ and δ analogues, modulated the expression of 16 genes and their encoded proteins that are associated with several important CRC pathways (apoptosis, transcriptional dysregulation in cancer, and cancer progression). Further studies and validation work are required to scrutinize the specific role of T3s on these genes and proteins and to propose the use of T3s to develop adjuvant or multi-targeted therapy for CRC.

Non-pharmacological therapy for infantile colic

Infant colic is an inconsolable cry of unknown cause in healthy babies. Observed in about 20% of infants, the most common reason for seeking medical attention at an early age. Colic is associated with maternal stress and the most significant risk factor for shaken baby syndrome, and can also cause premature breastfeeding termination. Informing and supporting parents with crying babies is increasingly important, and some guidelines recommend it as a cornerstone of intervention in families with a baby with colic. Because of the high quality randomized trials, none of the behavioral, dietary, pharmacological, or alternative interventions can be recommended as the only effective treatment. Unfortunately, many mothers around the world associate their child’s anxiety with “dietary mistakes” in their diets, leading to further dietary restrictions as a preventative measure. At the same time, according to the recommendations of the experts of the IV Rome Criteria, dietary restrictions for infant colic in breastfeeding mothers can be recommended only if there is a suspicion of suspicion of tolerance of cow’s milk protein. It is also possible for any type of feeding to prescribe fennel and chamomile preparations, in particular, in the form of aqueous infusions, and when breastfeeding it is desirable to use a bottle and excessively large volumes, which can reduce the amount of milk in a woman. It is desirable to exclude unreasonable dietary restrictions in breastfeeding mothers by excluding the so-called “gas-forming products” and ineffective therapy, in particular simethicone preparations.