MEMORANDUM

TO: Dr. Whittemore

FROM: Matthew Diaz
DATE: October 10, 2013
SUBJECT: Science Translation Article
Discover is a popular science magazine with a robust online presence. Many of
its articles are rather short, and do not go too far into technical details, in
keeping with its broad audience. Discussing statistical considerations or
detailed chemical or biological processes would not be appropriate.
The articles seem to be written at a 7th or 8th grade level, and the science is
understandable to someone with a high school level of education.
A front page online article on stem cell treatment seems to be a reasonable
representation of writing in Discover. I also selected it because it describes a
study on the effectiveness of a medical treatment, as does the article I selected
from PubMed. The stem cell article is in three distinct sections--an overview of
stem cells and how they work, the details of the experiment itself, and the
results and their implications. The author did not make extensive citations,
not even mentioning the names of researchers, their institution, or the journal
in which they published their findings. This is in line with their audience;
presumably, a general reader is not interested in breaching a publications pay
wall and parsing a lengthy and highly technical article.
My goals deviate somewhat from the pattern established by Discover
magazine. I want to emphasize that the study was performed by actual
individuals at a particular institute, and that the conclusions of the study have
limitations, some of which are directly acknowledged by the researchers
themselves. Even though these objectives do not precisely conform to the
pattern I have noticed in Discover articles, they are things I wish to see in
popular science journalism. I hope to make the article relevant by grounding
the studys results in both broader trends and personal consequences; anxiety
and depression are relatively common disorders, so readers might be
interested as a sufferer or a relative of one, while anyone could be interested in
treating mental illness in a growing elderly population. I also want to
minimize my personal interpretation of the results. If I were to write a lengthy
article on cognitive-behavioral therapy and interview subject matter experts, I
would be more willing to venture an opinion.
The Discover article can be found here.

ARTICLE
Australian researchers have made progress in treating mental illness in a
growing elderly population, determining that certain forms of therapy are still
effective when administered automatically over the internet.
Cognitive behavioral therapy, or CBT, is a kind of psychotherapy in which
patients learn a variety of skills to overcome destructive patterns of thought
and minimize physical reactions they might cause. For example, a therapist
might instruct a patient suffering from panic disorder to use biofeedback
equipment to practice regulating their breathing during a panic attack, or
teach someone with anxiety to consider the specific sources of their distress.
CBT is widely considered effective, but researchers at Sydneys St. Vincent
hospital wanted to determine its effectiveness when administered online.
In order to do so, the researchers looked at patients using the This Way Up
clinics online CBT regimen. They used the Kessler Psychological Distress
Scale, or K10 which measures mental distress and the World Health
Organisation Disability Assessment Schedule, or WHODAS-II, which
measures quality of life and the extent of disability, before and after the six
week treatment.
The online treatment itself was made up of six sessions, which took the form
of a story about a character overcoming their disorder with the help of a
therapist. Along the way, the patient received lessons on controlling their
symptoms and making sure they did not return.
The St. Vincent researchers determined that the online CBT was effective,
based off of the pre- and post-test results of the K10 scale and WHODAS-II
measure. However, they warned of several issues that could mitigate the
effectiveness of online CBT. Seniors can have difficulty adopting technology,
but there are also physical barriers, such as reduced manual dexterity poor
eyesight. However, the researchers found that the therapy was effective in
other age groups, as well, and automatic online therapy allows large numbers
of patients to be treated, even if they are not near a counselor.
The original article can be found here. The researchers worked for the Patient
Safety and Quality Unit at St. Vincents Hospital in Sydney, Australia