Neurobiological Underpinnings

Hello all and welcome to Week 6 of the weekly Danielle blog!

This week I focused on reading and dissecting the papers chosen for the neurological underpinnings section of my systematic review. By the end of this process, I was left with more of the chosen papers excluded than included, and oftentimes I would decide to not use a paper after I had already read and taken notes on the entire paper, which was a little frustrating. However, by the last couple papers, I had developed a more effective method of dissection, which should make the coming weeks a little simpler and more exciting. Some of the reasons for why I decided to not include chosen papers were: a lack of original material, a lack of neurological focus, or a lack of large quantities of information. There was a particular disorder, PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder), which I was particularly dismayed upon realizing that none of the chosen papers from my original search which focused on it would be included. In the case of papers on PTSD, I found that papers tended to emphasize the behavioral aspects of the disorder rather than the physical aspects, eliminating it from my paper. I was excited to learn more about this disorder due to its complexity (after this week I realized that finding a psychological condition which can be described as "simple" would be a Herculean task), similarity with other conditions, and comorbidity with other conditions. I hope I didn't geek out too much right there but if you weren't able to tell...I just really want to know how the brain works.

After organizing my notes a bit and outlining the section, Patherica and I met to discuss how to order the section and to clear up some of my confusion. We decided that since some of the conditions my paper will talk about are specific disorders and others are conditions which include different aspects of other disorders but are not part of a specific umbrella group of psychiatric taxonomy, the conditions should be ordered as such: chronic stress, anorexia nervosa, anxiety, trichotillomania, chronic pain (and fibromyalgia), self-harm (suicidal and non-suicidal), substance abuse (including opioid and methamphetamine dependence), then attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. We decided that chronic stress should be the first because it can lead to the development of almost any other disorder or condition. Anorexia nervosa was put next due to its similarity to anxiety, which is very closely related to trichotillomania due to the two's similarities with OCD, which I did not find any suitable papers on. Also, if any oh you are not aware (which I imagine must be many of you), trichotillomania is a disorder which is characterized by compulsive hair pulling. Next, we put chronic pain and fibromyalgia - which is a type of chronic pain (Patherica reminded me to emphasize that while not all chronic pain is fibromyalgia, all fibromyalgia is chronic pain). Since chronic pain has a high comorbidity with self-harm and substance abuse, both often serving as coping mechanisms, we decided that they should follow chronic pain. Last but not least came ADHD. While this disorder is not specifically similar to any of the previously mentioned disorders and conditions, we thought it should be mentioned last, serving as a way to show that ACT is effective as a treatment for non-stress-related disorders as well as stress-related ones.

I hope this post was as exciting for you all as it was for me :)

I can't wait to give you all another update next week. Godspeed in your adventures my followers.