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  Substance Use and Shame in Minority and Immigrant Communities

  Zane Alroshood, Hassan Barade, and Jeffrey Guina

  Publication Date: 5-2025

  Substance use disorder (SUD) has increased worldwide, especially in the United States, with millions struggling with drug and alcohol problems. Substance use (SU) can lead to significant adverse health outcomes along with stigmatization in healthcare settings. Shame plays a complex role in the development and mitigation of developing substance use problems, influenced by cultural contexts such as dignity, face, and honor. A systemic review attempted to identify the relationship between SU and shame, stating shame was reliably associated with SU, but revealing mixed results in which it served both adaptive and maladaptive functions in its development.

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  Venlafaxine Exposure in Pregnancy and its Association with Pre-eclampsia Development

  Jhanvi Patel

  Publication Date: 5-2025

  Venlafaxine, a serotonin-norepinephrine reuptake inhibitor (SNRI), is widely used to manage depression and anxiety, including in pregnant women. However, its known hypertensive side effects raise concerns about a potential link to pre-eclampsia, a serious pregnancy complication characterized by new-onset hypertension and proteinuria. Pregnant women with psychiatric disorders already have an increased risk of hypertensive disorders, and while untreated depression can lead to adverse outcomes such as preterm birth and fetal cortisol elevation, the safety of venlafaxine remains uncertain. Current research lacks wellcontrolled studies assessing its association with hypertensive complications in pregnancy. This systematic review aims to evaluate whether venlafaxine use in the peripartum period is associated with an increased risk of pre-eclampsia, helping guide safer prescribing practices for pregnant women requiring psychiatric treatment.

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  Hypofractionated Regional Nodal Irradiation in Breast Cancer

  Joseph Salib, Allison Hazy, and Joshua T. Dilworth

  Publication Date: 5-2024

  • In women with breast cancer requiring whole breast irradiation therapy (WBI), current guidelines endorse moderately hypofractionated whole breast irradiation (HWBI), which includes a shorter, 3-4-week regimen of radiation with a higher dose per daily fraction in comparison to conventional whole breast irradiation (CWBI), which includes a 5-6.5-week regimen.
  • Patients with certain risk factors may benefit from treatment to the regional lymph nodes (RNI), which include the ipsilateral axillary, internal mammary and supraclavicular chains.
  • Some centers have been slower to adopt short-course treatment when regional lymph nodes also require treatment (H-RNI), despite a reduction in the number of treatments for the patient, less restriction on time for the treating facility and an increase in cost effectiveness for hospital systems. This is in part due to the lack of data surrounding the use of H-RNI.
  • In this study, we report the acute and chronic toxic effects in patients treated with H-RNI.

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  Barriers to Mental Health Treatment Among Medical Students: Preclinical vs. Clinical Years

  Urvashi Singh and Agnes Wrobel

  Publication Date: 5-2024

  Our study aims to:

  • Investigate medical students’ attitudes towards seeking assistance from mental health professionals.
  • Compare the importance of various barriers that deter help-seeking in preclinical vs. clinical years of medical education.

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  Imposter Syndrome and Depressive Symptoms in Medical Students

  Christopher Gilbert and Varsha Karamchandani

  Publication Date: 5-2-2022

  INTRODUCTION
  Imposter syndrome (IS), characterized by chronic feelings of self-doubt as well as fear of being discovered as an intellectual fraud, has been reported to have a high prevalence among medical student populations. Many forms of psychological distress, such as depressive symptoms, have also been found to have a high prevalence among medical student populations. Combined, these can lead to poor scholastic performance and poor mental health. The object of this research is to gather data by survey about the prevalence of IS within the medical student community and explore its potential relation to depressive symptoms.