Welcome to the Nexus of Ethics, Psychology, Morality, Philosophy and Health Care

Welcome to the nexus of ethics, psychology, morality, technology, health care, and philosophy

Sunday, September 30, 2012

Lifting the Veil of Morality: Choice Blindness and Attitude Reversals on a Self-Transforming Survey

Hall, L., Johansson, P., and Strandberg, T.

Abstract

Every day, thousands of polls, surveys, and rating scales are employed to elicit the attitudes of humankind. Given the ubiquitous use of these instruments, it seems we ought to have firm answers to what is measured by them, but unfortunately we do not. To help remedy this situation, we present a novel approach to investigate the nature of attitudes. We created a self-transforming paper survey of moral opinions, covering both foundational principles, and current dilemmas hotly debated in the media. This survey used a magic trick to expose participants to a reversal of their previously stated attitudes, allowing us to record whether they were prepared to endorse and argue for the opposite view of what they had stated only moments ago. The result showed that the majority of the reversals remained undetected, and a full 69% of the participants failed to detect at least one of two changes. In addition, participants often constructed coherent and unequivocal arguments supporting the opposite of their original position. These results suggest a dramatic potential for flexibility in our moral attitudes, and indicates a clear role for self-attribution and post-hoc rationalization in attitude formation and change.








Saturday, September 29, 2012

More U.S. Kids Prescribed Off-Label Antipsychotics: Study


By Mary Elizabeth Dallas
MedicineNet.com
Originally published on September 18, 2012

Over the past decade, off-label use of antipsychotic drugs has increased among children enrolled in Medicaid, according to a new study representing 35 percent of children in the United States.

Off-label drug use is a term used to describe when drugs are prescribed using a dosage, type of dosage or for a purpose that hasn't yet been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

In the study, researchers from the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia found a 62 percent jump in the number of publicly insured children between the ages of 3 and 18 taking antipsychotics. In 2007 alone, 65 percent of the 354,000 children on these drugs were taking them for uses that have not been approved by the FDA, the investigators pointed out.

"We knew that the number of children prescribed antipsychotics had grown steadily over the past two decades, particularly among children with public insurance," study author Meredith Matone, a researcher at PolicyLab, said in a hospital news release. "With this study, we wanted to learn more about why these drugs are being used so often, what diagnoses they're being used to treat, and how prescribing patterns changed over the course of the last decade."


Friday, September 28, 2012

Unchecked Obesity Rates Could Bankrupt Nation

By Merrill Goozner
The Fiscal Times
Originally published September 19, 2012

Obesity rates have doubled over the past two decades and will almost double again over the next two decades unless the public comes to grips with its swelling waistlines, a new study says.

The rising tide of obesity threatens to send health care costs soaring. Already, the nation spends an estimated $147 billion to $210 billion per year on obesity-related diseases including Type 2 diabetes, hypertension, heart disease, and arthritis. Unless the projections are altered dramatically, additional medical costs associated with treating preventable, obesity-related diseases could swell by another $48 billion to $66 billion by 2030, the report said.

“We have this middle-aged cohort who are obese today and in the next 10 to 20 years will become quite costly,” said Jeffrey Levi, executive director of Trust for America’s Health, which co-authored the report with the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. “They’re the really tough nuts to crack when it comes to combating obesity.”

The entire story is here.

Government Can Play Important Role in Obesity Epidemic, Expert Argues

ScienceDaily
Originally published September 18, 2012

Addressing the obesity epidemic by preventing excess calorie consumption with government regulation of portion sizes is justifiable and could be an effective measure to help prevent obesity-related health problems and deaths, according to a Viewpoint in the September 19 issue of JAMA, and theme issue on obesity.

Thomas A. Farley, M.D., M.P.H., Commissioner of the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, presented the article at a JAMA media briefing.

"Americans consume many more calories than needed, and the excess is leading to diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and premature mortality. Since the 1970s, caloric intake has increased by some 200 to 600 calories per person per day. Although it is unclear how important changes in physical activity are to the surge in obesity prevalence, it is quite clear that this increase in calorie consumption is the major cause of the obesity epidemic—an epidemic that each year is responsible for the deaths of more than 100,000 Americans and accounts for nearly $150 billion in health care costs," writes Dr. Farley.

The entire story is here.

Thursday, September 27, 2012

IOM: Military Needs Better Care for Addicts

By David Pittman
MedPage Today
Originally published September 17, 2012


The U.S. Defense Department needs more providers trained in treating substance abuse in the armed forces, according to an Institute of Medicine report.
The prevalence of comorbid behavioral conditions "necessitates access to providers with advanced levels of training rather than certified counselors or peer support by individuals in recovery," the report, released Monday, read.
The Department of Defense (DOD) asked the IOM to assess the way it handles the prevention, screening, diagnosis, and treatment of substance use disorders (SUDs) for service members, National Guard troops, members of the Reserves, and military dependents.
IOM researchers held public information gathering meetings, conducted five site visits to military bases to meet with primary care and behavioral health providers, and received information and data on services from the military.
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Specifically, the IOM found:
  • Shortages of SUDs counselors across all branches
  • Wide variation in training and credentialing requirements for counselors across the branches
  • Outdated training manuals for Air Force and Navy substance abuse counselors
  • A noticeable shortage of a workforce trained in SUD prevention including physicians trained in addiction medicine or psychiatry


Wednesday, September 26, 2012

J&J Settles Lawsuit Alleging Injury From Antipsychotic


By Peter Loftus
The Wall Street Journal
Originally published September 10, 2012

Johnson and Johnson agreed to a last-minute settlement of a lawsuit claiming that a boy's use of its antipsychotic drug Risperdal caused abnormal breast growth.

The settlement—whose terms were confidential—averted a civil trial scheduled to begin Monday in which plaintiffs' lawyers intended to summon J&J Chief Executive Alex Gorsky as a witness. Mr. Gorsky previously held leadership roles at the J&J division responsible for marketing Risperdal during the period when the boy's alleged injury occurred.

Robert C. Hilliard, an attorney for the plaintiff, told a judge in the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas Monday "this case has reached a final resolution." He said the settlement amount was confidential.

Tuesday, September 25, 2012

Administrative Detail: Email Subscription Services Interrupted

Hi Folks!!

For those who have followed this blog, powered by Blogger.com (a Google product), the last several days have likely appeared normal.  Behind the curtain, there have been some difficulties.

Since September 18, 2012, the Ethics Education and Psychology Blog (along with likely all Blogger.com blogs) has been experiencing problems.  The most visible to readers is the possibility that someone attempted to sign up for email services without success.

If you have attempted to sign up for email subscription services from September 18 through the 25th, 2012, then you likely are not receiving email from Ethics Education and Psychology.

I apologize, in advance, for any inconvenience.  If you attempted to sign up for email between these dates, then you will need to do so again.  Apparently, Google was in the midst of changing templates and the email subscription services (among others) had been temporarily interrupted.

Thank you for following the blog.

Special thanks to those who send notes about news stories, PowerPoint presentations, and other blog-worthy information.

John Gavazzi, PsyD ABPP
Blog Founder

False positives: fraud and misconduct are threatening scientific research

High-profile cases and modern technology are putting scientific deceit under the microscope

By Alok Jha
The Guardian
Originally published September 13, 2012

Dirk Smeesters had spent several years of his career as a social psychologist at Erasmus University in Rotterdam studying how consumers behaved in different situations. Did colour have an effect on what they bought? How did death-related stories in the media affect how people picked products? And was it better to use supermodels in cosmetics adverts than average-looking women?

The questions are certainly intriguing, but unfortunately for anyone wanting truthful answers, some of Smeesters' work turned out to be fraudulent. The psychologist, who admitted "massaging" the data in some of his papers, resigned from his position in June after being investigated by his university, which had been tipped off by Uri Simonsohn from the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. Simonsohn carried out an independent analysis of the data and was suspicious of how perfect many of Smeesters' results seemed when, statistically speaking, there should have been more variation in his measurements.

The case, which led to two scientific papers being retracted, came on the heels of an even bigger fraud, uncovered last year, perpetrated by the Dutch psychologist Diederik Stapel. He was found to have fabricated data for years and published it in at least 30 peer-reviewed papers, including a report in the journal Science about how untidy environments may encourage discrimination.

Monday, September 24, 2012

Simple tool may help evaluate risk for violence among patients with mental illness

News Release
University of California at San Francisco

Here are some excerpts:

Mental health professionals, who often are tasked with evaluating and managing the risk of violence by their patients, may benefit from a simple tool to more accurately make a risk assessment, according to a recent study conducted at the University of California, San Francisco.

The research, led by psychiatrist Alan Teo, MD, when he was a UCSF medical resident, examined how accurate psychiatrists were at evaluating risk of violence by acutely ill patients admitted to psychiatric units.

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The first part of the study showed that inexperienced psychiatric residents performed no better than they would have by chance, whereas veteran psychiatrists were moderately successful in evaluating their patients' risk of violence.

However, the second part of the study showed that when researchers applied the information from the "Historical, Clinical, Risk Management?-Clinical" (HRC-20-C) scale - a brief, structured risk assessment tool - to the patients evaluated by residents, accuracy in identifying their potential for violence increased to a level nearly as high as the faculty psychiatrists', who had an average of 15 years more experience.

"Similar to a checklist a pilot might use before takeoff, the HRC-20-C has just five items that any trained mental health professional can use to assess their patients," Teo said.

"To improve the safety for staff and patients in high-risk settings, it is critical to teach budding psychiatrists and other mental health professionals how to use a practical tool such as this one."

The entire study is here.