Saturday, January 25, 2020

sleep apnea Essay -- essays research papers fc

Sleep Apnea Human Physiology – Biology 60 The dictionary defines sleep as â€Å"The natural periodic suspension of consciousness during which the powers of the body are restored† (Webster’s 638) If one is waking up on an average of 300 times per night, the chances of complete body restoration are minimal. The Greek word apnea literally means â€Å"without breath†. An estimated 30 million Americans stop breathing during their sleep sometimes 30-40 times per hour and often for a minute, or longer each time. Of these, about 20 million are in the early stages, and about 10 million have progressed to a level of severity that requires treatment. According to the National Commission on Sleep Disorders Research, about 38,000 Americans die of sleep disorder related problems each year (Internal Medicine Alert 98). Obstructive Sleep Apnea (OSA) is a potentially deadly sleep disorder, where by the uvula and soft pallet collapse on the back wall of the upper airway causing the cessation of breathing and a d rop in blood pressure. The hearts need for oxygen increases during apneic episodes, when someone stops breathing carbon dioxide slowly builds up in the bloodstream and the oxygen level quickly decreases (Melville 52). Eventually a signal from the brain triggers the body to partially wake up, this action causes blood pressure to increase, breathing, then resumes, and the cycle begins again. (See figure 1)1 Once the breathing resumes the oxygen level then begins to rise, the heart starts pumping much faster than normal, raising the blood pressure to dangerously high levels. These occurrences night after night increase the risk of damaging small organs and can trigger small strokes. Figure 1 There are three types of apnea: Obstructive Sleep Apnea (OSA), the most common, caused when the soft tissue in the rear of the throat collapses and closes. The second type is Central Sleep Apnea; instead of the airway collapsing the brain fails to signal the muscles to breath. The third type is Mixed Apnea and as the name suggests it is a combination of OSA and Central Apnea. This paper will focus on OSA, the history, risks, diagnosis, and treatment. OSA is a vastly undiagnosed and untreated disorder and is becoming one of America’s most serious general health issues. As more rese... ... to recognize sings and symptoms seem to be a thing of the past. Works Cited Alonso-Fernandez, Alberto, et al. "Cardiac rhythm disturbances and ST-segment depression episodes in patients with OSA-Hypopnea syndrome and its mechanisms." Chest 127 (2005): 15-23. Dement, William C. The Promise of Sleep. New York: Dell, 2000. 167-193. Dreher, H. Michael, and Regina M. Willard. "Wake up call for sleep apnea." Nursing 2005 Mar. 2005: 46. Holten, Keith B. "How should we diagnose and treat obstructive sleep apnea?" Journal of Family Practice 53 (2004): 202. Melville, Nancy A. "Sleep apnea's O2 disruption has diverse effects." Family Practice News 34 (2004): 52-53. Parsell, D.. "Sleep on it: fitful slumber tied to diabetes risk." Science News 25 Sept. 2004: 195-196. "Risk factors in sleep disorder breathing." Internal Medicine Alert 23 (2003): 97-100. Sleep Apnea screening and diagnosis. 21 July 2004. Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Reasearch. 22 Mar. 2005 . Sullivan, Michele G. "Palatal implants decrease snoring, may lessen obstruction." Family Practice News 34 (2004): 52.

Friday, January 17, 2020

Behaviorist psychology Essay

The cornerstone of behaviorist psychology was the view that behavior should be studied as a product of objectively observable events instead of appealing to internal processes of the mind. John B. Watson famous â€Å"Little Alert Experiment† was best known as a case study showing and proving evidence of classical conditioning and also an example of stimulus generalization. It was carried out by John B. Watson and his graduate student, Rosalie Rayner, at Johns Hopkins University and its’ first findings were published in the Journal of Experimental Psychology. Little Albert at the age of eight months was given many emotional tests which included, being exposed briefly for the first time, to a white rabbit, a rat, a dog, a monkey, masks with and without hair, cotton wool, burning newspapers, etc (Schultz, D.2011). Little Albert showed no signs of fear toward any of these items. A white laboratory rat was placed near Albert in which he was allowed to play with. He began to reach out to the rat as it roamed around him without fear. In later trials, Watson and Rayner made a loud sound behind Albert’s back by striking a suspended steel bar with a hammer when the baby touched the rat Little Albert responded to the noise by crying and showing fear. After several such pairings of the two stimuli, Albert was again presented with only the rat. Now, however, he became very distressed as the rat appeared in the room. He cried, turned and tried to move away from the rat. Apparently, Little Albert associated the white rat which was the original neutral stimulus, now conditioned stimulus with the loud noise which was the unconditioned stimulus and was producing the fearful or emotional response of crying which is the originally the unconditioned response to the noise, now the conditioned response to the rat (Wiki 2014). A patient may be desensitized through the repeated introduction of a series of stimuli that approximate the phobia (Brink 2008). Desensitization which is used to cure phobias was first developed by Mary Cover Jones in 1924 with her famous study of Little Peter. Cover Jones began her experiment with the goal of finding the most effective way to eliminate irrational fears in children. Peter was chosen for the study because in all other aspects of infant life he was considered to be normal except for his fear of rabbits. Peter was not only afraid of rabbits, but Cover Jones showed he would also cry when presented with other similar items such as, feathers, a fur coat, a fur rug and cotton. Cover Jones first conducted her experiments using a range of different treatments in order to eliminate the fear response in Peter. Cover Jones described her methods used in the Peter study as â€Å"patient, meticulous and painstaking procedures,† in order to understand what was taking place. Cover Jones initiated the study having the rabbit 12 feet from Peter and brought the rabbit closer until it was nibbling on Peter’s fingers. As the rabbit was gradually brought closer to Peter with the presence of his favorite food, his fear subsided and he eventually was able to touch the rabbit without crying (Jones, M. C. 1924). These famous experiments in the history of psychology have laid the foundation of modern day APA ethical principles because in my opinion early psychology focused on measuring and understanding the mind. It focused on getting a better understanding of how our mind works and what triggers our thoughts to cause our actions or reactions. Without these experiments, APA ethical principles wouldn’t exist. Our modern day APA ethical principles have been shaped by experiments conducted in the history of psychology due to accuracy, determination and in my opinion devotion. To provide beneficence and no maleficence, fidelity and responsibility, integrity, justice, and respect for people’s rights and dignity for those that psychologist work with and serve. These historical experiments demonstrated these principles without hesitation, always putting the subjects’ wellbeing first and foremost. I believe that the historical experiment, such as Little Albert that was conducted by John Watson did indeed violate with modern day APA ethical. I believe this because Watson may have had the child’s wellbeing at heart, but in my opinion he could have cause health related issues such as hearing problems and etc. due to the loud noise associated with the rat, that caused the child to become frightened of it. As for Mary Cover Jones, I do believe that that she indeed complied with the modern day APA ethical because she always had the child’s best interest. Instead of frightening the child she took the sense of fear from the child. In conclusion, these historical psychologist and experiments have paved the way for psychology in its entirety. These psychologist have demonstrated drive and passion of the field of psychology that has made it what it is today. I can only hope that one day I too, may contribute my logical and illogical thinking, to this big bold world of psychology. References Jones, M. C. (1924). A Laboratory Study of Fear: The Case of Peter. Pedagogical Seminary, 31, 308-315 Retrieved from: http://psychclassics.yorku.ca/Jones/ Schultz, D. (2011). A History of Modern Psychology [VitalSouce bookshelf version]. Retrieved from http://online.vitalsource.com/books/1133173624/id/P13-123 T.L. Brink (2008) Psychology: A Student Friendly Approach. â€Å"Unit 6: Learning.† pp. 101 [1] Wikipedia (2014) The Little Albert Experiment Retrieved from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_Albert_experiment