Posts for 6-7-21, misc

JAMA commentary reviews the history of the obnoxious term “provider,” advocates restricting its use to organizations that provide health care; “ If a broad generic term is needed to describe individuals who deliver patient care services, then clinician or health care professional should suffice.”

The author advocates that the term provider is ambiguous, confusing and even offensive.  It implies that patients are “consumers” of health care. The author also advocates that professional societies take the lead in adopting these changes.  From: JAMANetwork.com

“Study suggests mindfulness meditation helps cultivate self-transcendence through the process of decentering” – learning to “decenter” (to observe internal experiences “as a dispassionate observer”) has been theorized to be an important part of learning mindfulness meditation; now a study supports this and associated benefits of “transcendence.” From: PsyPost.org

“Childhood Air Pollution Exposure Linked to Poor Mental Health at Age 18” – multi-decade study of a cohort of 2K young adults finds a “modest” link between childhood exposure and mental health symptoms as a young adult, but the number of people affected is significant. “Air pollution effects on mental health were observed across these subdomains of psychopathology, with the strongest links to thought disorder symptoms.”  From: NeuurscienceNews.com

The “Hispanic paradox” explained; why Spanish speakers are less likely to die from heart disease even though they have higher risk factors, may be related to how the Spanish language offers more options for appraising stress.  The article discusses how “language may influence how people think,” and Spanish allows more options for expressing emotions and attribution for problems, has more options for “happy words,” and more.  From: PsychologicalScience.org (This article comes to our attention courtesy of the prolific psychology posting service provided by Ken Pope, PhD)

APA Journal Clinical Psychology: Science and Practice published a special issue about “harmful” therapies, discusses treatment, research and policy issues.  Among the therapies discussed: Sexual orientation change efforts (“conversion therapy”); group therapy for adolescent substance abuse (risk of “deviancy training processes”); psychiatric hospitalization for suicidal risk (some research has found an increased risk during hospitalization and after discharge); and attachment therapy (many attachment therapy practices are not based on current theory and solid research, and may be experienced as “coercive and dangerous”; and more.  From: APA.org