Barrett, The Honors College Thesis/Creative Project Collection
Barrett, The Honors College at Arizona State University proudly showcases the work of undergraduate honors students by sharing this collection exclusively with the ASU community.
Barrett accepts high performing, academically engaged undergraduate students and works with them in collaboration with all of the other academic units at Arizona State University. All Barrett students complete a thesis or creative project which is an opportunity to explore an intellectual interest and produce an original piece of scholarly research. The thesis or creative project is supervised and defended in front of a faculty committee. Students are able to engage with professors who are nationally recognized in their fields and committed to working with honors students. Completing a Barrett thesis or creative project is an opportunity for undergraduate honors students to contribute to the ASU academic community in a meaningful way.
Sacred plant medicines and psychoactive compounds have been used globally throughout indigenous cultures for spiritual and medicinal purposes as early as 3500 BCE. In 1970, the United States Drug Enforcement Administration criminalized entheogens, claiming they had no medical benefit whatsoever and that they were dangerous to the population. Scientific research over the past 60 years has demonstrated the therapeutic potential of entheogens in relation to depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder, autoimmune disease, analgesia, and more. With this new research and the demonstration of entheogens' safety in clinical settings, the U.S. DEA needs to reevaluate their 50-year-old classification of entheogens. This reclassification does not necessarily designate entheogens as recreationally legal for all to use, but rather should allow for further medical research and experimentation to improve understanding of these substances' mechanisms of action and therapeutic potential for a multitude of psychiatric and physiological diseases and disorders.
In the US, underrepresented racial and ethnic minorities receive less than adequate health care in comparison to White Americans. This is attributed to multiple factors, including the long history of structural racism in the US and in the medical field in particular. A factor that is still prevalent today is the lack of diversity within the healthcare workforce. Racial and ethnic minorities are underrepresented in most healthcare occupations. Moreover, many physicians may continue to harbor implicit biases that may interfere with giving adequate care to patients of different backgrounds. We propose that diversity in healthcare should be increased through educational programs and a revamp of existing systems such as medical schools. The increased diversity would mitigate some of the health disparities that exist amongst minorities, as medical professionals are more likely to give adequate care to those who are members of the same community. Increased diversity would also help to increase the cultural competency of physicians as a whole.
During a joint ASU-Prescott College visit to the Maasai Mara in Kenya in June-July 2018, it became obvious that many Maasai women produce beadwork sold locally to help support their families. The difficulties they face include inconsistent sales due to lack of customers, lulls in tourism, and unfair competition. During this visit, the idea of selling the crafts online via Etsy was suggested. It received overwhelming support from the community through MERC, the The Maasai Education, Research and Conservation Institute.
The goal of this thesis is to better understand the outcomes of both treated and untreated maternal depression on fetal development and birth defects. We focus on a class of antidepressant drugs known as selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs). We hope to gain insight into how these effects might carry on into childhood and adolescent years. While research shows there are potentially significant consequences for the fetus in both treated and untreated scenarios, it remains unclear whether depression itself or SSRIs play the larger role in the outcomes of children born from these women. We begin with a general history of depression and the introduction of SSRIs, followed by a review of the physiology of depression and SSRI treatment. We then narrow our focus to the history of maternal depression, SSRI usage in pregnant women, and potential risk factors. Following this, we analyze studies on the effects of depression and SSRI usage on the fetus and at birth, paying careful attention to the cortisol pathway that results from depression itself and the biochemical effects that SSRIs have on embryogenesis and fetal development. While there is limited research on the long-term effects of fetal exposure to SSRI-treated and untreated maternal depression, one of the aims of this thesis is to understand the potential risks for children throughout their developmental years and into adolescence. Therefore, we also researched the effects of depression and SSRI use in children and adolescents themselves, comparing this information to the effects of both SSRI-treated and untreated maternal depression. We believe there is sufficient evidence of causal connections involving cortisol (in untreated depression) and SSRIs (in pharmacologically treated depression) to warrant caution regarding the use of SSRIs in a clinical setting. We suggest alternative treatments for depression such as Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), which have been shown to be effective, and which have very little chance for harm. Notably, such treatments can be of real benefit regardless of the underlying biological, psychological, and social causes of depression. Finally, we conclude by suggesting some preventative treatments for maternal depression. While we do not believe the use of SSRIs needs to be completely avoided in the case of maternal depression, we believe that better practitioner education in preventing depression could go a long way in making them unnecessary in most cases.
