Matching Items (5)
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- All Subjects: Adolescence
- All Subjects: ICSS
Description
The use of synthetic cathinones or "bath salts" has risen dramatically in recent years with one of the most popular being Methylendioxypyrovalerone (MDPV). Following the temporary legislative ban on the sale and distribution of this compound , a multitude of other cathinone derivatives have been synthesized. The current study seeks to compare the abuse potential of MDPV with one of the emergent synthetic cathinones 4-methylethcathinone (4-MEC), based on their respective ability to lower current thresholds in an intracranial self-stimulation (ICSS) paradigm. Following acute administration (0.1, 0.5, 1 and 2 mg/kg i.p.) MDPV was found to significantly lower ICSS thresholds at all doses tested (F4,35=11.549, p<0.001). However, following acute administration (0.3,1,3,10,30 mg/kg i.p) 4-MEC produced no significant ICSS threshold depression (F5,135= 0.622, p = 0.684). Together these findings suggest that while MDPV may possess significant abuse potential, other synthetic cathinones such as 4-MEC may have a drastically reduced potential for abuse.
ContributorsWegner, Scott Andrew (Author) / Olive, M. Foster (Thesis director) / Presson, Clark (Committee member) / Sanabria, Federico (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry (Contributor) / Department of Psychology (Contributor)
Created2013-05
Description
Romania is in the midst of an identity emergency due to its relatively recent departure from a communist dictatorship. This paper will take a look at identities within Romania while paying close attention to the way that emerging political, economic, religious and gender identities have been and are being used to oppress the Romanian queer population. This paper seeks to justify an application of Western values towards the call for enfranchisement of Romanian queers. Western values, in this sense, will be based on Enlightenment notions of equality in all people and based on philosophers whose writings and paradigms are centered in the Western world. Furthermore, it will discuss violence and masculinity in hopes that understanding and critically examining these topics may be used in application towards the emerging Romanian identities and statistics which highlight and implicate queer oppression. Again, this paper will not seek to definitely link as causal any one emerging identity towards the oppression of the queer minority in Romania nor will it seek to undermine any single Romanian institution, but rather question the correlative elements of Romanian society that may be implicated in potential oppression, violences, and a neglect of the Romanian queer minority.
ContributorsWoodmansee, Jon Wessley (Author) / Montesano, Mark (Thesis director) / Brake, Elizabeth (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / School of Politics and Global Studies (Contributor)
Created2014-05
Description
In recent years the abuse of synthetic cathinones, "Bath Salts," has increased. The purpose of this study was to analyze two synthetic cathinones, methylone and α-pvp, for hedonic properties or the potential to be abused. This was tested using an intracranial self-stimulation paradigm, a robust measurement for reward. It was found methylone resulted in an abuse potential similar to MDMA, ecstasy, abuse. Moreover, the results for α-pvp showed a high liability for abuse.
ContributorsJohnson, Craig Trevor (Author) / Olive, Foster (Thesis director) / Presson, Clark (Committee member) / Montesano, Mark (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Program (Contributor) / Department of Psychology (Contributor)
Created2013-12
Description
Substance use during adolescence is a significant predictor of developing a later substance use disorder. An encouraging trend is that there have been recent declines in rates of adolescent substance use, including alcohol and marijuana. However, these two substances may be decreasing differently from one another as a result of age, period, and cohort effects. Therefore, the overall trend of decreased substance use in more recent generations of adolescents may be greater for one substance than the other. The current study tested declines in adolescent alcohol and marijuana use across two generations measured in 1988-1990 and 2006-2012. Methodological strengths include controls for demographic characteristics and for parental alcohol disorder (as a proxy for genetic risk). Moreover, we tested whether findings would replicate using two methods—first comparing all assessed members of one generational cohort with all assessed members of the other generational cohort, and then comparing only matched parent-child pairs. Testing this second matched sample removes some potential demographic and risk confounds that might occur across cohorts in typical epidemiological studies. Results demonstrated that the younger cohort of adolescents used both substances less than the older cohort, and this effect was stronger for alcohol than for marijuana. These results were replicated in both samples over and above demographic variables. The parent-child sample showed that children used less alcohol and marijuana than did their parent during the same age period, suggesting that these trends cannot simply be due to changes in the demographics of the adolescent population over time. Taken together with epidemiological studies, these findings suggest encouraging declines in adolescent substance use rates but also indicate less decline in marijuana use compared to alcohol use. This prompts further surveillance to determine if marijuana use rates may start increasing among adolescents in the future.
ContributorsWatters, Shannon Marie (Author) / Chassin, Laurie (Thesis director) / Presson, Clark (Committee member) / Department of Psychology (Contributor) / School of Social Transformation (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2020-05
Description
Family influences are known predictors of adolescent health and well-being trajectories, yet little research has investigated how adolescents’ orientation to family may be associated with their physiological stress responses. Influenced by the strength-based approach to culture, this study evaluated 418 Hispanic adolescents' familism values and perceived life stress in family, school, and peer domains to investigate prospective associations with hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis stress responses to the Group Public Speaking Task for Adolescents (GPST-A). Prior growth-mixture modeling on this sample revealed a five-class solution of cortisol responding to the GPST-A that was used here as the dependent variable: one class showed a more pronounced pattern of reactivity, potentially indicative of hyper-responsivity to the stress task; two classes showed evidence of a low to moderate cortisol response, potentially indicative of an adaptive physiological response to the challenge; and two classes showed patterns of non-responsivity, potentially indicative of hypo-responsivity. Results demonstrate that the role of familism is nuanced in the context of stressors, potentially offering both promotive and risk-amplifying effects for the physiological stress response system. This study offered several novel findings in the relation between cultural factors, salient stressors of adolescence, and HPA activity.
ContributorsSmola, Xochitl Arlene (Author) / Gonzales, Nancy (Thesis director) / Presson, Clark (Committee member) / Doane, Leah (Committee member) / Department of Psychology (Contributor) / School of Mathematical and Statistical Sciences (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2020-05