Category: Behavior/Psychology Page 14 of 28

Long-Term Study Sees the Big Picture of Cannabis Use

On November 21, 2017

In Behavior/Psychology, Global Health, Lecture, Medicine

Seventy percent of the United States population will have tried marijuana by the age of 30. As the debate on the legalization of the most commonly used illicit drug continues throughout the country, researchers like William Copeland, PhD, and Sherika Hill, PhD, from the Duke Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences are interested in patterns of marijuana use and abuse in the first 30 years of life.

Marijuana is the most commonly used illicit drug.

The Great Smoky Mountain Study set out in 1992 to observe which factors contributed to emotional and behavioral problems in children growing up in western North Carolina. The study included over 1,000 children, including nearly 400 living on the Cherokee reservation. In addition to its intended purpose, the data collected has proven invaluable to understanding how kids and young adults are forming their relationship with cannabis.

The Great Smoky Mountains Study collected extensive medical and behavioral research from 11 counties in western North Carolina.

Using the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5) and patterns of daily use of the drug, Copeland and Hill found some unsurprising patterns: peak use of the drug is during young adulthood (ages 19-21), when kids are moving out of the home to college or to live alone.

But while most people adjust to this autonomy and eventually stop their usage of the drug, a small percentage of users (7%) keep using into their adulthood. Hill and Copeland have observed specific trends that apply both to this chronic user group as well as an even smaller percentage of users (4%) who begin using at a later stage in life than most people, termed the delayed-onset problematic users.

Looking at the demographics of the various types of users, Hill and Copeland found that males are twice as likely to engage in marijuana use to any extent than females. Of those who do use the drug, African Americans are five times more likely to be delayed-onset users, while Native Americans are twice as likely to decrease their use before it becomes problematic.

For both persistent and delayed-onset problematic users, family instability during childhood was 2-4 times more likely than in non-problematic users.

Persistent users were more likely to have endured anxiety throughout childhood, and delayed-onset users were more likely to have experienced some kind of trauma or maltreatment in childhood than other types of users.

The identification of these trends could prove a vital tool in predicting and preventing marijuana abuse, and the importance of this understanding is evidenced in the data collected that elucidates outcomes of marijuana use.

Looking at various measures of social and personal success, the team identified patterns with a resounding trend: recent use of marijuana is indicative of poorer outcomes. Physical health and financial or educational outcomes displayed the worst outcomes in chronic and delayed-onset users. Finally, criminal behavior was increased in every group that used; in other words, regardless of the extent of use, every group with use of marijuana fared worse than the group that abstained.

The results of Copeland and Hill’s work has important implications as legislators debate the legalization of marijuana. While understanding these patterns of use and their outcomes can provide useful insight on the current patterns of usage, decriminalization will certainly change the way marijuana is manufactured and consumed, and will thus also affect these patterns.
By Sarah Haurin

Who Gets Sick and Why?

By Lydia Goff

On November 8, 2017

In Behavior/Psychology, Data, Environment/Sustainability, Faculty, Lecture, Medicine, Statistics

During his presentation as part of the Chautauqua lecture series, Duke sociologist Dr. Tyson Brown explained his research exploring the ways racial inequalities affect a person’s health later in life. His project mainly looks at the Baby Boomer generation, Americans born between 1946 and 1964.

With incredible increases in life expectancy, from 47 years in 1900 to 79 today, elderly people are beginning to form a larger percentage of the population. However among black people, the average life expectancy is three and a half years shorter.

“Many of you probably do not think that three and half years is a lot,” Brown said. “But imagine how much less time that is with your family and loved ones. In the end, I think all of us agree we want those extra three and a half years.”

Not only does the black population in America have shorter lives on average but they also tend to have sicker lives with higher blood pressures, greater chances of stroke, and higher probability of diabetes. In total, the number of deaths that would be prevented if African-American people had the same life expectancy as white people is 880,000 over a nine-year span. Now, the question Brown has challenged himself with is “Why does this discrepancy occur?”

Brown said he first concluded that health habits and behaviors do not create this life expectancy gap because white and black people have similar rates of smoking, drinking, and illegal drug use. He then decided to explore socioeconomic status. He discovered that as education increases, mortality decreases. And as income increases, self-rated health increases. He said that for every dollar a white person makes, a black person makes 59 cents.

This inequality in income points to the possible cause for the racial inequality in health, he said. Additionally, in terms of wealth instead of income, a black person has 6 cents compared to the white person’s dollar. Possibly even more concerning than this inconsistency is the fact that it has gotten worse, not better, over time. Before the 2006 recession, blacks had 10-12 cents of wealth for every white person’s dollar.

Brown believes that this financial stress forms one of many stressors in black lives including chronic stressors, everyday discrimination, traumatic events, and neighborhood disorder which affect their health.

Over time, these stressors create something called physiological dysregulation, otherwise known as wear and tear, through repeated activation of the stress response, he said. Recognition of the prevalence of these stressors in black lives has lead to Brown’s next focus on the extent of the effect of stressors on health. For his data, he uses the Health and Retirement Study and self-rated health (proven to predict mortality better than physician evaluations). For his methods, he employs structural equation modeling. Racial inequalities in socioeconomic resources, stressors and biomarkers of physiological dysregulation collectively explain 87% of the health gap with any number of causes capable of filling the remaining percentage.

Brown said his next steps include using longitudinal and macro-level data on structural inequality to understand how social inequalities “get under the skin” over a person’s lifetime. He suggests that the next steps for society, organizations, and the government to decrease this racial discrepancy rest in changing economic policy, increasing wages, guaranteeing work, and reducing residential segregation.

Post by Lydia Goff

Library’s Halloween Exhibit Fascinates and Thrills

By Daniel Egitto

On November 1, 2017

In Art, Behavior/Psychology, Science Communication & Education, Students

Research is not always for the faint of heart.

Screamfest V combed through centuries of Rubenstein materials to find the very spookiest of artifacts

At least, that’s what Rubenstein Library seemed to be saying this Halloween with the fifth installment of its sometimes freaky, always fascinating “Screamfest” exhibition. With everything from centuries-old demonology textbooks, to tarot cards, to Duke-based parapsychology studies, Screamfest V took a dive into the deep end of the research Duke has gathered throughout its long history.

There’s a lot to unpack about this exhibit, but one of the most unsettling parts has to be the 1949 written exchange between Duke parapsychologist Joseph Rhine and Lutheran Reverend Duther Schulze, speaking about a boy they thought could be demonically possessed.

“Now he has visions of the devil and goes into a trance and speaks a strange language,” Duther wrote.

Anything about that sound familiar? If so, that might be because this case was the basis for the 1973 horror classic The Exorcist. (And people say research isn’t cool!)

The Rubenstein also exhibited a pack of cards used by Rhine’s parapsychology lab to test for extrasensory perception. Inscribed with vaguely arcane symbols, one of these “Zener cards” would be flipped over by a researcher behind a screen, and a test subject on the other side would attempt to “sense” what card the researcher displayed.

A pack of “Zener cards” Duke researchers once used to test for ESP

Although the results of this test were never replicated outside of Duke and are today widely considered debunked, Rhine’s research did create a stir in some circles at the time. One of the most interesting things about this exhibit, in fact, was the way it showed how much methods and topics in science have changed over time.

A 1726 publication of the book Sadducismus triumphatus: or, A full and plain evidence concerning witches and apparitions, for example, was loaded with supernatural “research” and “findings” every bit as dense and serious as the title would suggest. The section this tome was opened to bore this subheading: “Proving partly by Holy Scripture, partly by a choice Collection of Modern Relations, the Real EXISTENCE of Apparitions, Spirits, & Witches.”

A similar book titled The Discoverie of Witchcraft, was also on display—only this one was printed over two centuries later, in 1930.

A Depression-era miniature of the Duke mascot, somewhat worse for wear.

Other historical gems the exhibit offered included an a threadbare ‘blue devil’ doll from the ‘30s; a book made up of a lengthy collection of newspaper clippings following the case of Lizzie Borden, a reported axe murderer from the 1890s; and an ad for the 1844 “Life Preserving Coffin … for use in doubtful cases of death.”

It’s not every day research will leave the casual viewer quaking in their boots, but Screamfest V was quick to live up to its name. Covering a broad swath of Duke materials from several centuries, this exhibit successfully pulled off vibes of education, spookiness, and Halloween fun, all at the same time.

Post by Daniel Egitto

Piloting Aviation Mental Healthcare

By Sarah Haurin

On October 24, 2017

In Behavior/Psychology, Lecture, Medicine

With more than 100,000 flights taking off per day, the safety of air travel is a far-reaching issue.

Air travel remains one of the safest forms of transportation, but are there things we can do to make it safer?

While air travel is by far the safest method of transportation — you are more likely to die from a car crash or even a shark attack than from an airplane crash — accidents do happen and can result in highly publicized fatalities.

Chris Kenedi is working with the ICAO to improve treatment of mentally ill pilots.

Auckland Hospital internist and psychiatrist Chris Kenedi, MD, MPH, is working with the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) to improve safety of air travel by focusing on an issue that is usually only questioned in instances of tragedy: the mental health of pilots.

While screening procedures do currently exist, they are not enough for the extent of risk factors that are present in the pilot population.
Being a pilot is a high-stress job. It involves long hours, separation from family, and irregular sleep schedules, all of which can contribute to or exacerbate mental conditions.

Many pilots experiencing symptoms are unwilling to ask for help, because admitting mental illness can lead to a pilot’s license being revoked, which would not only affect financial circumstances but also be felt as a loss of identity.

Although data regarding aviation mental health is sparse, what is available suggests mental health issues are among the greatest contributing factors to suicide and homicide-suicide incidents of plane accidents.

When Kenedi completed a systematic review of all data on the mental health of pilots and the current standard procedures, he found a deeply flawed system. Case studies of crashes caused by suicidal pilots showed that psychiatrists cleared them for flight even after episodes indicating a much deeper psychological imbalance.

One pilot who drove his car into a barrier, attempted to steal the car of a woman trying to help him, and slit his wrists so deeply that he required two years of rehabilitation before regaining all of his mobility, was diagnosed with a general anxiety disorder and cleared to fly without proper treatment.

In order to prevent further grave oversights, Kenedi suggests requiring the psychiatrist who assesses a pilot’s ability to fly to be separate from the treating psychiatrist. This separation prevents the assessing psychiatrist from having his or her judgement confounded by a relationship with the patient and thus becoming an advocate rather than an impartial assessor.

Kenedi said that alcohol and substance abuse treatments for pilots have been effective, however. Rather than relying on random drug and alcohol tests to disqualify impaired pilots, the system provides non-judgmental treatment and an opportunity to return to piloting.

Kenedi recommends a shift to treating mental illness in pilots in a similar way, so that individuals are not afraid to step forward and ask for help. Educating mental healthcare providers is also important, so that pilots are receiving the best care possible.

With proper resources and treatment, pilots with mental health concerns should be able to maintain their identity as pilots while gaining renewed resilience and support through the mental health system. This shift would hopefully help to prevent some of the small amount of air travel accidents that occur because of pilot issues.

By Sarah Haurin

Smoking Weed: the Good, Bad and Ugly

By Will Sheehan

On October 17, 2017

In Behavior/Psychology, Biology, Data, Global Health, Students

DURHAM, N.C. — Research suggests that the earlier someone is exposed to weed, the worse it is for them.

Very early on in our life, we develop basic motor and sensory functions. In adolescence, our teenage years, we start developing more complex functions — cognitive, social and emotional functions. These developments differ based on one’s experience growing up — their family, their school, their relationships — and are fundamental to our growth as healthy human beings.

This process has shown to be impaired when marijuana is introduced, according to Dr. Diana Dow-Edwards of SUNY Downstate Medical Center.

Sure, a lot of people may think marijuana isn’t so bad…but think again. At an Oct. 11 seminar at Duke’s Center on Addiction & Behavior Change, Dow-Edwards enlightened those who attended with correlations between smoking the reefer and things like IQ, psychosis and memory.

(https://media.makeameme.org/created/Littering-and-SMOKIN.jpg)

Dow-Edwards is currently a professor of physiology and pharmacology and clearly knows her stuff. She was throwing complicated graphs and large studies at us, all backing up her primary claim: the “dose-response relationship.” Basically the more you smoke (“dose”), the more of a biological effect it will have on you (“response”).

Looking at pot users after adolescence showed that occasionally smoking did not cause a big change in IQ, and frequently smoking affected IQ a little. However, looking at adults who smoked during adolescence correlated to a huge drop of around 7 IQ points for infrequent smokers and 10 points for frequent smokers. Here we see how both age and frequency play a role in weed’s effect on cognition. So if you are going to make the choice to light up, maybe wait until your executive functions mature around 24 years old.

Smoking weed earlier in life also showed a strong correlation with an earlier onset of psychosis, a very serious mental disorder in which you start to lose sense of reality. Definitely not good. I’m not trynna get diagnosed with psychosis any time soon!

One perhaps encouraging study for you smokers out there was that marijuana really had no effect on long-term memory. Non-smokers were better at verbal learning than heavy smokers…until after a three week abstinence break, where the heavy smokers’ memories recovered to match the control groups’. So while smoking weed when you have a test coming up maybe isn’t the best idea, there’s not necessarily a need to fear in the long run.

(Hanson et al, 2010)

A similar study showed that signs of depression and anxiety also normalized after 28 days of not smoking. Don’t get too hyped though, because even after the abstinence period, there was still “persistent impulsivity and reduced reward responses,” as well as a drop in attention accuracy.

A common belief about weed is that it is not addicting, but it actually is. What happens is that after repetitively smoking, feeling high no longer equates to feeling better than normal, but rather being sober equates to feeling worse than normal. This can lead to irritability, reduced appetite, and sleeplessness. Up to 1/2 of teens who smoke pot daily become dependent, and in broader terms, 9 percent of people who just experiment become dependent.

In summary, “marijuana interferes with normal brain development and maturation.” While it’s not going to kill you, it does effect your cognitive functions. Plus, you are at a higher risk for mental disorders like psychosis and future dependence. So choose wisely, my friends.

By Will Sheehan

Will Sheehan

Disaster Plans and the Mentally Ill

By Sarah Haurin

On October 2, 2017

In Behavior/Psychology, Climate/Global Change, Environment/Sustainability, Global Health, Medicine

Houston, Miami, San Juan — Category 5 hurricanes, the most destructive storm systems, have made a record-breaking 6 landfalls this year. This represents a quarter of the total category 5 hurricane landfalls that the Atlantic has seen since 1851.

With statistics like these, disaster relief plans are becoming more important than ever. But do these plans do enough for marginalized groups, specifically the mentally ill?

Allan K. Chrisman, M.D., believes more can be done. As a career psychiatrist who has been deployed by the Red Cross in the aftermath of storms like Katrina and Matthew, Chrisman has seen and experienced the importance of including the mentally ill in disaster relief plans.

At his talk to physicians in Duke’s Hospital on Sept. 28, Chrisman, an emeritus professor at Duke, highlighted specific aspects of disaster relief that are not doing enough for the one in four U.S. adults suffering from mental illness each year.

According to Chrisman, this part of the population is often less prepared for impending storms. When storms do hit, existing symptoms can be exacerbated, or new symptoms can appear. Disruption of routine, inconsistency of taking medication and the overall stress that comes with emergencies all contribute to this exacerbation of mental illness.

While the Red Cross has an “everyone is welcome,” policy for their shelters, not being able to identify the needs of the mentally ill seeking sanctuary limits the organization’s ability to help. As a deployed psychiatrist, Chrisman worked with displaced mentally ill people to ensure they continued to get the care they needed even during the stress of a weather emergency.

One tool used by Chrisman and his colleagues to help these groups is the C-MIST framework. This system categorizes “functional-based needs” based on communication, maintaining health, independence, service and support, and transportation. It seeks to ensure not only that individuals are being given an option for a safe space in the wake of emergencies, but also that these spaces offer them the specific services they require.

Chrisman emphasized the need “to provide round-the-clock access to qualified mental health resources.”

He said that by following these inclusive protocols, disaster relief programs can do even more to protect the most vulnerable parts of the population.

By Sarah Haurin

New Blogger Nirja Trivedi: Neuroscience Junior with Infinite Curiosity

By Nirja Trivedi

On September 27, 2017

In Behavior/Psychology, Business/Economics, Global Health, Neuroscience, Students

My name is Nirja Trivedi and I’m a junior from Seattle interested in the intersections between health, technology and business. At Duke, I’m the co-president of P.A.S.H., a writer for the Standard and a member of B.O.W.

Nirja Trivedi

During high school, I considered liberal arts and scientific research to be separate disciplines: if technology was my strength then philosophy must be my weakness. In my two years at Duke, I have experienced the duality of these fields through participating in the Global Health Focus Program, developing my own research projects, working with professors and now applying to write for Duke Research. Science truly is for everyone; no matter your field, interests or opinion. Research and discovery are conduits for every mind. Research isn’t just the forefront of innovation, it paves the way for the future.

Growing up with a passion for service and influenced by my family in the medical field, the research I leaned towards combined aspects of community and health. My senior project in high school examined traumatic brain injury (TBI) in youth sports, which provided the research-based approach for designing my own Concussion Prevention Program. After my first semester, I wanted to discover what kinds of research I wanted to fully integrate myself in. I began research with the Duke Institute of Brain Sciences and spent my summer volunteering for the Richman Lab, which examines the effects of psychosocial factors like discrimination, social hierarchies and power. After I declared my Neuroscience major, I spent the year assisting in studies at the Autism Clinic, sparking my interest in technology.

Nirja Trivedi on a mountain top.

Now going into my third year, my interests in scientific discovery have only grown. From insight into the human psyche and social economic behavior to medical advances, I love the complexity of the human mind and how it fuels innovation.

My unrestricted interests guided me to the Innovation & Entrepreneurship Certificate as well as this writing position, both which foster an environment of curiosity and inspiration. Through writing, I hope to connect with faculty, discover areas of research I never knew existed, widen my breadth of scientific knowledge, and connect students to research opportunities. The threshold of knowledge is where you draw the line – why not make it infinite?

Post by Nirja Trivedi

Happy Patients, Healthy Lungs

By Sarah Haurin

On September 25, 2017

In Behavior/Psychology, Biology, Lecture, Medicine

Evaluating a patient’s mental health before and after lung transplant surgery can help improve long-term outcomes. Source: tikyon, Flickr.

Diseases like Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) and Cystic Fibrosis (CF) are hard to treat. Lung transplant is important option for people who do not benefit from other treatments, and understanding the outcomes for these patients is crucial.

Patrick Smith, PhD, a clinical psychologist at Duke Hospital, shared his research into predictors for outcomes of lung transplant with a group of transplant physicians and surgeons at the Duke Hospital on Sept. 14.

“Patients receive transplants to live longer and to feel better,” Smith said.

Focus on the first goal has increased the median survival time after a lung transplant to six years. But Smith began his research because of an interest in the second goal.

An incredibly complex, long, and difficult procedure, transplants require extensive testing and therapies before a patient enters the operating room (OR). Among the pre-operative testing is a mental health assessment to determine if any psychological issues exist that could make recovery more difficult. Mental health issues can affect adherence, or a patient’s commitment to continuing the prescribed post-op medication after release from the hospital.

Smith’s research found that some of these tests can be incredibly useful at predicting outcomes not previously explored; patients who show cognitive impairments before surgery were found to be more likely to fall victim to delirium, a post-operative state of confusion and psychosis that has been linked to an increased risk of complications and death.

While acknowledging the usefulness of pre-operative testing, Smith also pointed out the inadequacy of this model. Failing to continue psychological assessments after the surgery and throughout the recovery means that doctors are missing important clues that could indicate how well patients will recover.

Through his research, Smith has found that the presence of depressive symptoms after transplant is actually a much more useful and accurate tool for predicting risk of mortality than symptoms exhibited before surgery.

This point is strengthened by a previous study that found that successful treatment of depressive symptoms in liver transplant patients reduced the mortality rate of depressive patients to that of their non-depressive counterparts.

These results are promising for the possibility of improving transplant outcomes; by valuing and treating both pre-operative and post-operative signs of risk, doctors can improve the outcomes for their patients and ensure the limited supply of organs is being used in the best and most successful way possible.

Post by Sarah Haurin

Durham Traffic Data Reveal Clues to Safer Streets

By Kara Manke

On September 7, 2017

In Behavior/Psychology, Computers/Technology, Data, Field Research, Mathematics, Students, Visualization

Ghost bikes are a haunting site. The white-painted bicycles, often decorated with flowers or photographs, mark the locations where cyclists have been hit and killed on the street.

A Ghost Bike located in Chapel Hill, NC.

Four of these memorials currently line the streets of Durham, and the statistics on non-fatal crashes in the community are equally sobering. According to data gathered by the North Carolina Department of Transportation, Durham county averaged 23 bicycle and 116 pedestrian crashes per year between 2011 and 2015.

But a team of Duke researchers say these grim crash data may also reveal clues for how to make Durham’s streets safer for bikers, walkers, and drivers.

This summer, a team of Duke students partnered with Durham’s Department of Transportation to analyze and map pedestrian, bicycle and motor vehicle crash data as part of the 10-week Data+ summer research program.

In the Ghost Bikes project, the team created an interactive website that allows users to explore how different factors such as the time-of-day, weather conditions, and sociodemographics affect crash risk. Insights from the data also allowed the team to develop policy recommendations for improving the safety of Durham’s streets.

“Ideally this could help make things safer, help people stay out of hospitals and save lives,” said Lauren Fox, a Duke cultural anthropology major who graduated this spring, and a member of the DATA+ Ghost Bikes team.

A map of Durham county with dots showing the locations of bicycle crashes

A heat map from the team’s interactive website shows areas with the highest density of bicycle crashes, overlaid with the locations of individual bicycle crashes.

The final analysis showed some surprising trends.

“For pedestrians the most common crash isn’t actually happening at intersections, it is happening at what is called mid-block crossings, which happen when someone is crossing in the middle of the road,” Fox said.

To mitigate the risks, the team’s Executive Summary includes recommendations to install crosswalks, median islands and bike lanes to roads with a high density of crashes.

They also found that males, who make up about two-thirds of bicycle commuters over the age of 16, are involved in 75% of bicycle crashes.

“We found that male cyclists over age 16 actually are hit at a statistically higher rate,” said Elizabeth Ratliff, a junior majoring in statistical science. “But we don’t know why. We don’t know if this is because males are riskier bikers, if it is because they are physically bigger objects to hit, or if it just happens to be a statistical coincidence of a very unlikely nature.”

To build their website, the team integrated more than 20 sets of crash data from a wide variety of different sources, including city, county, regional and state reports, and in an array of formats, from maps to Excel spreadsheets.

“They had to fit together many different data sources that don’t necessarily speak to each other,” said faculty advisor Harris Solomon, an associate professor of cultural anthropology and global health at Duke. The Ghost Bikes project arose out of Solomon’s research on traffic accidents in India, supported by the National Science Foundation Cultural Anthropology Program.

In Solomon’s Spring 2017 anthropology and global health seminar, students explored the role of the ghost bikes as memorials in the Durham community. The Data+ team approached the same issues from a more quantitative angle, Solomon said.

“The bikes are a very concrete reminder that the data are about lives and deaths,” Solomon said. “By visiting the bikes, the team was able to think about the very human aspects of data work.”

“I was surprised to see how many stakeholders there are in biking,” Fox said. For example, she added, the simple act of adding a bike lane requires balancing the needs of bicyclists, nearby residents concerned with home values or parking spots, and buses or ambulances who require access to the road.

“I hadn’t seen policy work that closely in my classes, so it was interesting to see that there aren’t really simple solutions,” Fox said.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YHIRqhdb7YQ&w=629&h=354]

Data+ is sponsored by Bass Connections, the Information Initiative at Duke, the Social Science Research Institute, the departments of Mathematics and Statistical Science and MEDx.

Other Duke sponsors include DTECH, Duke Health, Sanford School of Public Policy, Nicholas School of the Environment, Development and Alumni Affairs, Energy Initiative, Franklin Humanities Institute, Duke Institute for Brain Sciences, Office for Information Technology and the Office of the Provost, as well as the departments of Electrical & Computer Engineering, Computer Science, Biomedical Engineering, Biostatistics & Bioinformatics and Biology.

Government funding comes from the National Science Foundation. Outside funding comes from Accenture, Academic Analytics, Counter Tools and an anonymous donation.

Community partnerships, data and interesting problems come from the Durham Police Department, Durham Neighborhood Compass, Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies, Duke Marine Lab, Center for Child and Family Policy, Northeast Ohio Medical University, TD Bank, Epsilon, Duke School of Nursing, University of Southern California, Durham Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Commission, Duke Surgery, MyHealth Teams, North Carolina Museum of Art and Scholars@Duke.

Writing by Kara Manke; video by Lauren Mueller and Summer Dunsmore

New Blogger Sarah Haurin, Neuroscience Sophomore With a Thing for Criminal Minds

By Sarah Haurin

On September 6, 2017

In Behavior/Psychology, Neuroscience, Students

Hello! My name is Sarah Haurin (rhymes with Heron), and I am a sophomore at Duke. Along with being pre-med, I am pursuing a double major in neuroscience and German. I grew up outside of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and I originally fell in love with Duke both because of its vast research opportunities and also its mild winters. In grade school, a requirement to read nonfiction books led me to start reading popular science books for fun. Beginning with books about forensic science and articles about the chemistry of cooking, I soon expanded my interest to include natural and health sciences.

Since then, I have discovered my favorite genres to be abnormal psychology and biomedical research (my favorites being You Are Not So Smart and The Psychopath Whisperer), which interestingly enough make great beach reads (as evidenced by this picture of me from my family’s most recent vacation to Hilton Head Island, SC). In high school, I decided to take this love of reading scientific literature to a new place, and I joined the school newspaper, which allowed me to share recent and exciting findings with my peers through my articles in our health and science pages.

Sarah reading non-fiction at the beach.

I have always loved writing, which is what originally led me to joining my high school newspaper, and through my roles as section editor and eventually editor-in-chief, I came to appreciate the whole writing and publishing process. At Duke, I have written several articles for The Chronicle about the impressive and diverse ongoing research going on here at Duke.

I hope that being a well-rounded person, by allowing myself to enjoy activities not directly related to my majors, will eventually help me to be a better doctor, but for now I just enjoy the ability to combine my loves of writing and science. I hope to be able to further pursue this combination by writing for the Duke Research Blog.

One of the aspects of Duke’s community that I love the most is its diversity, which extends from the people who make up the student and faculty to the passions and interests that they pursue. I hope that writing for the Duke Research Blog will provide me with the opportunity to meet more of the incredibly passionate people who make up Duke’s campus.

Post by Sarah Haurin