Articles

The Effects of Air Quality on Mental Health, and A Comparative Study of Teenagers Aged 12-18 During January and February in Lampang, Phranakhon Si Ayutthaya, and Bangkok

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Nowadays, populations around the world are suffering from mental health issues, especially depression, and the number is estimated to increase every year. Not only depression issues but also air pollution that is surging. Air pollution has been shown to affect people’s respiratory systems and may even have an impact on mental health, leading to various diseases, for instance depression and Alzheimer’s disease. These disorders tend to occur in people of all age groups and in all countries and regions. Interestingly, each area has different air qualities, which raises concern of its impact on mental health. To investigate this issue, a cross-sectional survey was performed focusing on teenagers aged 12-18 in three different provinces in Thailand to compare the effect of air quality on mental health. This survey used a questionnaire consisting of 34 questions to collect data from 629 individuals participating in this research. The data analysis was performed using the statistical package for the social sciences (SPSS) program. Our results display the mean score of mental health and air quality as 2.62 and 3.02, respectively, which states that there is an average rate of these 2 variables. Furthermore, the one-way ANOVA test comparing mental health levels in 3 residents shows no significant difference (p-value = 0.225), however, one-way ANOVA comparing the air quality shows a significant difference between the 3 provinces (p-value less than 0.001). We also conducted a t-test to compare the 2 variables between pupils who have underlying medical conditions and pupils who don’t have them. Unfortunately, we found no significant difference for mental health in pupils with and without medical conditions (p-value = 0.75) and for air quality in pupils with and without medical conditions (p-value = 0.52). Nevertheless, the correlation analysis obtained an r-value of 0.30, which indicates that the survey produced a weak positive correlation between mental health and air quality. This type of study is rarely conducted in Thailand, which means there will need to be more studies in this field. Regarding this research, it is apparent that air quality has an effect on mental health, so an open mind of caring for ourselves and others about this issue would be practical.

Cannabis as an Alternative Treatment for 11 Medical Conditions: a Literature Review

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Over the past years, the use of medical cannabis is becoming of interest in the medical world. It has been recognized as an alternative treatment and has been legalized in many countries for medical purposes. Although there have been numerous claims of what cannabis can do, conclusive findings regarding its properties remain elusive. While access to cannabis is high, information accessible to consumers is still limited. Countless past studies have been done on cannabis’ effect on health issues. Hence, the purpose of this literature review was to conclude and summarize the past findings on the therapeutic effect of cannabis, focusing on the Delta-9-Tetrahydrocannabinol (Δ9-THC) and Cannabidiol (CBD), on the following medical conditions; chronic pain, opioid use disorder (OUD), obesity, sleep disorders, cancer, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), psychosis, epilepsy, traumatic brain injury (TBI), Parkinson’s disease (PD), and Alzheimer’s disease. The risks of cannabis consumption for these issues were also identified. The results suggested that cannabis has the ability to assist in chronic pain, OUD, sleeping disorders, and Alzheimer’s disease. Regarding PTSD, psychosis, and TBI, there have been findings only about CBD which showed a beneficial effect on the diseases. It could not be concluded that cannabis can be used to treat obesity, cancer, epilepsy, and Parkinson’s disease due to limited evidence. The majority of the studies also demonstrated that high doses of CBD and low doses of THC should be used to maximize benefits. More clinical trials and research need to be conducted as there are research gaps and insufficient information in various subjects.