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  • Essay / Involuntary treatment of schizophrenic patients in Denmark

    This reflection concerns the critical analysis of two journal articles that I had to complete for the journal club. The journal articles I was required to review were of my own choosing, but had to relate to the material covered in the Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics 3 module. There were two journal club sessions, which took place over two separate weeks with the same group. The group I was involved in had four members in total in which each of us had to discuss our paper and give a critical analysis of the paper. The two articles I chose were Article 1: “Lithium Decreases Plasma Adiponectin Levels in Bipolar Depression” (Soeiro-de-Souza et al., 2014) and Article 2: “Involuntary Treatment of schizophrenia patients 2004-2010 in Denmark (Andersen et al., 2013). When the mission was first given, I was not looking forward to it. Although I wasn't looking forward to it, I thought it was a great idea because whatever path I chose to take in pharmacy, using reputable, reliable, evidence-based materials proof will be essential, as will the detection and rejection of invalid articles. This will also be very beneficial for my fourth year project. I had already read articles but that's all I had done. I never questioned the methods used or the results given and I never really asked myself if I agreed with what was said or if, deep down, I had no opinion. My expectations for the book club were exceeded. I found that I enjoyed reading the articles and the group session worked very well. You can get a lot of information from other people about how they review journals and what questions they ask compared to mine. I also learned that I don't always realize how much of my studies from the last three years have been instilled in the middle of the paper......for relevant modules that can lead to better grades in classes and exams end of semester. The journal club definitely gave me new perspectives on how to approach articles and critique them. I have a better understanding of what to look for and, integrating my learning so far, how to decipher the meaning of certain results. Also having the chance to practice for two weeks, I was able to see the difference between me and the other members of the group. By participating in the journal club, it gave me a clear perspective on what to look for in a paper and allowed me to form an opinion on whether I thought the paper was high quality . The experiences with the other people in my group played a role in my learning and my approach. This will be of great use to me in the future and in particular when carrying out my end-of-studies project in which there will be a broad literature review...