CHEM 183 Chapter Notes - Chapter MT2: Carl Djerassi, Diosgenin, Octan
7 Jun 2018
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Can a good sense of humour protect you from stress?
Studies show : humour reduce stress, homour is shown to be protective by psychology research
Diary study with 21 women and 1 man diagnosed with chronic pain condition Fibromyalgia Syndrome
- baseline questionnaire including their humor, socializing situation, support, tendency to reappraise challenges
- followed by diary entries about physical and emotional state
Result : pronounced sense of humour -> lower psychological distress at start of experiment and better physical symptoms through diary
- but benefits of humour weren’t explained by sense of humour being linked with a tendency to reappraise situations, nor to better social
situations
Study 100 undergrad : answer questions about psychological/emotional state, tendency to find things funny, previous distressing moment
and how much it continued to affect them
- more past trauma affect them -> higher psychological distress
- not for students include to humour and see funny side of things, trauma still affects them but not experiencing heightened distress
Problem with the studies : may be that less distressed participants were better at experiencing humour
- rather than humour reduces stress level and physical symptoms
Study (try to overcome this methodological problem) students affected by 911
- baseline psychological measures 1 month after attacks : disposition for humour
- 2 months later : answered questions about psychological distress
Result : tendency for self-enhancing humour to be associated with reduced stress over time (even though didn’t each statistical significance)
- self-defeating humour was associated with more distress and less reappraisal
Fritz said : consistent pattern from the studies “positive humour use predicted reduced psychological distress in response to stressful events”
- however, evidence seems weak : only final study had longitudinal methodology needed to identify a potentiall casual role for humour in
rreducing stress and it failed statistically (even if it was successful, could be caused by other factors)
Strong evidence of humour’s stress-busting benefit requires experiment that manipulated people’s sense of humour, and look at effect
Conclusion “Given the persistent lay beief in the physical health benefits of humour use, it is critical that we understand the magnitude of
its effect”
Amphetamines : for depression, fatigue, weight control
1970s amphetamines was widely prescribed -> reduced in 1980s malnutrition, depression, memory loss, body sores, wrinkles, insomnia
- side effects : linked to seizures, insomnia, heart problems, paranoid behavior
- in most cases, because it was taken in abusive amounts
- capable of converting users addicts
Lampang Elephant Hospital in Thailand : many addicted, trauma of withdrawal
- elephants high drugs, lost their normal concern for safety and developed all sorts of injuries -> end up in the elephant
Narcolesy responds to amphetamines
Used for appetite suppressants for morbid obesity
Amphetaminess (Adderall) or analogues like methylphenidate (Ritalyn) -> treat ADHD, induce mental acuity without significant side
effects
Brain scans have been shown to damage nerve cells permanently
After cannabis, speed (ice/crank/crystal) is the most common illicit drugs
Speed is taken by atheletes for enhanced endurance, by students for concentration
Drugs like meth and amphetamines : increase levels of neurotransmitters dopamine and noradrenalin
Methaphetamine : most commony abused amphetamine, illegal in Canada, production/distribution bears max penalty of life imprisoners,
but doesn’t affect distributers and users
Clandestine chemists distributes recipes online
Ephedrine : raw material, used by Japanese chemist Akira Ogata to make the same batch of synthetic methamphetamine
- natural occurring in plants, Ma Huang, used traditionally as a stimulant and decongestant
- Ogata used red phosphorus and iodine to convert ephedrine to methamphetamine, still used by underground chemists
- iodine is readily available, phosphorus can be scraped off the striking surface of match boxes
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Document Summary
Studies show : humour reduce stress, homour is shown to be protective by psychology research. Diary study with 21 women and 1 man diagnosed with chronic pain condition fibromyalgia syndrome. Baseline questionnaire including their humor, socializing situation, support, tendency to reappraise challenges. Followed by diary entries about physical and emotional state. Result : pronounced sense of humour -> lower psychological distress at start of experiment and better physical symptoms through diary. But benefits of humour weren"t explained by sense of humour being linked with a tendency to reappraise situations, nor to better social situations. Study 100 undergrad : answer questions about psychological/emotional state, tendency to find things funny, previous distressing moment and how much it continued to affect them. More past trauma affect them -> higher psychological distress. Not for students include to humour and see funny side of things, trauma still affects them but not experiencing heightened distress.
