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Worm Running 2007-07-29 07:00:00 On September 15, 1985, a seemingly innocent package was delivered to the home of Dr. James V. McConnell, then-professor of psychology at the University of Michigan. His assistant, Nicklaus Suino, opened the package as Dr. McConnell looked on. The resulting explosion resulted in Suino sustaining injuries to his arms and abdomen. Dr. McConnell was more fortunate although he suffered a hearing loss as a result of the blast. It remains unclear exactly why Theodore Kaczynski (a.k.a. the Unabomber) targeted Dr. McConnell as he had others in the scientific community but Dr. McConnell's colourful career may provide a clue.
Considered a maverick in his time, James V. McConnell's career was marked by his unconventional research and outspokenness. In his most famous research project, he classically conditioned Planaria (flatworms) to react to bright lights using electric shocks. He then cut up his research subjects and fed them to other Planaria and h
Autoerotic Asphyxia Death Due to Full Body Wrapping 2007-07-26 07:00:00 While cases of autoerotic asphyxiation involving accidental death arising from the use of various breath-stopping techniques for sexual gratification have long been reported in the research literature, a recent case reported in the July 2007 issue of the Journal of Forensic Sciences takes things somewhat further. The authors report on the case of a 34-year old man who apparently died of asphyxiating from wearing an extremely complex plastic full-body wrap. The authors conclude that it is the "the largest and most complex plastic bag ever involved in a published case of autoerotic death".
Click here for the link. Read more:Wrapping
DSM-V Task Force Members Named 2007-07-24 07:00:00 The American Psychiatric Association has announced the members of the task force chosen to oversee the latest revision of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-V). The new task force is made up of 27 members including researchers, clinicians, and consumer advocates.
During the teleconference in which the task force members were revealed, DSM-V Chair David J. Kupfer, M.D. stated that "As the nation's dictionary of mental illnesses, the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual plays a vital role in assuring that patients get proper diagnoses and treatments for their mental health concerns. The APA has entrusted the revision of the DSM to world-renowned scientists who have vast experience in research, clinical care, biology, genetics, statistics, epidemiology, public health and consumer advocacy. They have interests ranging from cross-cultural medicine and genetics to geriatric issues, ethics and addiction."
The DSM-V revision process is expecte Read more:Force
, Members
, Task Force
Scapegoats, Then and Now 2007-07-22 07:09:00 We may never know the actual number of people who died in the Great Fire of London. The colossal blaze that raged from September 3 to September 5, 1666 left more than 80 percent of the city in ruins and destroyed an estimated 70,000 homes. While only a few verified deaths were recorded, the absence of any formal listing of London's residents and the sheer heat of the flames which likely cremated many of the fire's victims makes it impossible to know the real death toll. Almost as soon as the fire was finally extinguished, the murmurs began regarding the true reason for the blaze. Numerous conspiracy theories sprang up over who set the fires. England was then at war with France and the Netherlands so any nationals from those countries were targeted. Catholics were a familiar target ("papists" usually were). Even King Charles II was believed by some to have ordered the fire to punish the people of London for the role that they p
Is Megan's Law Working? 2007-07-19 07:48:00 The July 2007 issue of Behavioral Sciences and the Law Community presents a study examining the impact of community notification about known sex offenders (also know as "Megan
's Law") on the lives of registered sex offenders. Interviews of two hundred and thirty-nine sex offenders in Connecticut and Indiana indicated frequent problems such as job loss, threats and harassment, property damage, and suffering of household members. A minority of the surveyed sex offenders reported housing disruption or physical violence following community notification. Most of the sampled offenders reported problems with psychosocial distress, including depression, shame, and hopelessness. Given the impact that community notification has had on successful community reintegration, the researchers recommend that community notification policies would function better by relying on empirically derived risk assessment classification systems to better inform the public about sex offe
Health Care Workers in Crisis 2007-07-17 07:00:00 The April 2007 issue of the Canadian Journal of Psychiatry presents the results of a research study assessing the immediate and sustained psychological health of health care workers who were at high risk of exposure during the severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) outbreak. At the peak of the 2003 SARS outbreak, health care workers in two acute care Hong Kong general hospitals were assessed for stress. One year later, these health care workers were reassessed. High-risk health care workers who practised respiratory medicine were compared with nonrespiratory medicine workers, who acted as the low-risk health care worker group. The inital results showed that high-risk health care workers had elevated stress levels that were not significantly different from levels in low-risk health care worker subjects but more high-risk health care workers reported fatigue, poor sleep, worry about health, and fear of social contact, despite their confidence in infection-control measures. By 2004, Read more:Crisis
, Health
, Health Care
, Workers
When Spouses Kill 2007-07-17 07:00:00 The July 2007 issue of Trauma, Violence and Abuse presents an overview of risk factors associated with intimate partner homicide. While current rates of intimate partner homicide of females are approximately 4 to 5 times the rate for male victims, the rates for both have notably decreased in the past 25 years. Regardless of whether a female or male partner is killed, the major risk factor for intimate partner homicide appears to be prior domestic violence. Other risk factors for intimate partner homicide in general, and for intimate partner homicide of women (femicide) in particular are discussed including: presence of guns, relationship estrangement, stepchild in the home, forced sex, threats to kill, and choking. The review also examines demographic risk factors and the related phenomena of pregnancy-related homicide, attempted femicide, and murder-suicides involving intimate partners.
Click here for the abstract.
When Dying Becomes Fashionable 2007-07-15 07:31:00 In 1980, two young girls living in northern Sri Lanka committed suicide by eating the seeds of the Yellow Oleander, a common ornamental shrub that grows in most parts of the tropics and is cultivated across Sri Lanka in gardens and hedges. In the following year there were 23 cases of oleander poisoning, apparently spurred by the publicity of the first suicides. There were 46 in the year after that and hundreds of cases in the following years. Since oleander became associated with suicide in Sri Lanka, the number of deaths has risen steadily and health services across the island have been besieged by new cases. Suicide by oleander poisoning remains a major cause of death in Sri Lanka for young and old alike despite an aggressive government campaign to eliminate oleander plants and there seems to be no end in the foreseeable future.
Copycat suicides are not a new phenomenon by any means. In 1774, Goethe published his first novel, The Sorrows of Young Read more:Dying
, Fashionable
Dealing with Diogenes Syndrome 2007-07-12 07:00:00 The June 2007 issue of the American Journal of Forensic Medicine and Pathology outlines the forensic challenges associated with Diogenes syndrome deaths. First identified in 1975, sufferers of Diogenes syndrome are typically characterized by extreme social isolation, hoarding behaviour and squalid living conditions. Forensic evaluation of deaths is often complicated by lack of recorded medical histories, filth and clutter in the place of residence, and pet dogs that are mistrustful of strangers. Bodies are typically filthy, with parasitic infestations, and are often in an advanced state of putrefaction due to the social isolation of the deceased and the delay in the finding of the corpse. Bodies may also be characterized by postmortem gnawing by rodents or pets (eg, cats, dogs), with injuries caused by falls resulting from terminal illnesses or alcoholism. Treatable medical conditions are often present in advanced stages, and features of hypothermia may also be found. Read more:Syndrome
Fighting with Demons 2007-07-10 07:00:00 In the March 2007 issue of Transcultural Psychiatry, an overview is presented of three case histories of ogun oru (nocturnal warfare), a condition reported in southwest Nigeria involving an acute night-time disturbance that is culturally attributed to demonic infiltration of the body and psyche during dreaming. Sufferers of ogun oru episodes are usually (but not always) females who perceive the existence of an underlying feud between the sufferer's earthly spouse and a "spiritual spouse, and that they have been bewitched through eating while in the dream state. Medical problems that have been associated with ogun oru episodes include parasomnias, eg., sleep terror, sleepwalking and sleep paralysis and, to a lesser extent, nocturnal or sleep epilepsy. Sufferers reporting these problems may be referred to traditional healers as the condition is believed to be treatable through Christian prayers or elaborate traditional rituals designed to exorcise the demonic elements that ha Read more:Demons
, Fighting
Suicidal Ideation and Spousal Abuse 2007-07-31 07:00:00 A study examining factors influencing suicidal ideation in a sample of victims of partner abuse living in shelters is presented in the May 2007 issue of Health Care for Women International. Fifty women were recruited from a regional shelter for battered women in a Midwestern city in the United States. Of the women sampled, fifty-eight percent reported having experienced intimate partner rape. More than one-third of the sample confirmed experiencing suicidal ideation at least "some of the time" within the previous week. Experiencing intimate partner rape was significantly associated with suicidal ideation and symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and depression. Results also revealed that both PTSD and depressive symptoms mediated the relationship between intimate partner rape and suicidal ideation. The study results highlight the importance of assessing suicide risk in victims of spousal abuse.
Click here for the abstract. Read more:Suicidal
Is Aging A Laughing Matter? 2007-08-02 07:00:00 A research study published in the July 2007 issue of the Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society examines the effect of age-related cognitive decline on understanding humour. Previous research has suggested that comprehending humour involves a cognitive appraisal process in which the humour stimulus (such as a joke) is examined in terms of possible meaning with a "funny" outcome being selected. Therefore, impaired cognitive functioning tends to result in an inability to "get" jokes. A sample of 41 older adults (over the age of 65) and a control sample of 40 younger adults were tested on a series of tests of cognitive functioning and humour comprehension. The results indicated that older adults had a greater problem with cognitive flexibility, short-term memory, and abstract reasoning than younger adults. Age differences were also found on measures of verbal and non-verbal humour comprehension but the results suggested th Read more:Aging
, Laughing
A Meeting of Minds 2007-08-05 07:00:00 The Crimean War that raged from 1853 to 1856 is often referred to as the first "modern war" (though far from the last) and I won't get into the murky issues that were involved or the various European nations that took part. All that matters for now is a memorable encounter between two remarkable figures in the history of medicine and what came of that meeting...
Florence Nightingale, also known as the Lady with the Lamp, began her career in nursing in 1851 despite strong family objections (being a nurse was not considered a proper vocation for "respectable" ladies in those days). While she held positions in various London hospitals, it wasn't until the outbreak of the Crimean War that she began the work that made her famous. After reports started trickling back of appalling casualties, she and her colleagues travelled to Turkey to tend the wounded soldiers. Establishing themselves at a military hospital in Scutari (now a suburb in Istanbu
Do Abused Children Grow Up to Be Criminals? 2007-08-07 07:00:00 In a study reported in a recent issue of Violence and Victims (Volume 22, issue 3), a sample of 1,526 young men (14 to 24 years) in the German prison system were assessed. The sample participants were questioned about their history of early victimization and offense history and given standardized testing during their prison term. The results show that experience of abuse as a child doubles the risk for violent victimization in adolescence. Offenders who were repeatedly victimized as adolescents were also found to be at increased risk for later violent offending. This link was found both for officially registered violence and self-reported violent behavior. Experience of child abuse was found to increase the likelihood of self-reported violence as well. One interesting result was the presence of an interaction effect involving victimization in childhood and victimization in early adolescence. Sample participants who reported having been repeatedly victimized th Read more:Abused
, Children
, Criminals
Psychiatric Evaluation Planned in Malaysian Body Parts Case 2007-08-09 07:00:00 The lawyer for a 33-year old air hostess believed to be involved in a bizarre case in Malaysia has called for his client to receive a psychiatric evaluation. The woman (whose name has not been released) was taken into custody following the grisly June 29 discovery of the decayed remains of a man who have been chopped into eleven pieces and stuffed into a refrigerator. The discovery had been made when the new owner of the Mont Kiara condominium unit in which the remains called in condominium security to investigate the source of a strong stench that he had noted on entering. Security discovered the body parts packed into five garbage bags and sealed with masking tape.
The body was subsequently identified as being that of 39-year old Singaporean businessman, Goh Yoke Seng, and the suspect surrendered herself to police custody. She has not been formally charged to date and is being held on remand. Her lawyer is demanding a psychiatric evaluation under Read more:Evaluation
, Malaysian
, Parts
My Mother, The Wolf 2007-08-14 06:53:00 The February 2007 issue of Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica contains an interesting clinical lycanthropy case study. While cases in which the patient believes the he/she is being transformed into an animal have been reported in the literature, belief in the transformation of another person into an animal is considerably rarer. In the presented case study, a young male patient who had been diagnosed with first-episode mixed bipolar mood disorder , developed a delusional conviction that his mother had been transformed into a wolf. While he did not have any delusions regarding the transformation of himself into an animal, he reported drooling for months before developing a delusional belief regarding his mother. It is suggested by the authors that this delusion represents a variation on the classic lycanthropy syndrome.
Click here for the abstract.
How Scary is Your Stalker? 2007-08-16 07:00:00 The July 2007 issue of Violence Against Women presents a study examing the responses of 8,000 participants of the National Violence Against Women Survey . Logistical regression was used to study patterns in fear reported by female stalking victims with 25% of the sample respondents reporting feeling no fear of their stalker. Factors such as race ( Black women were significantly less likely to report fear compared to White respondents), frequency of being stalked, stalking by an intimate acquaintance or family member, or being stalked by physical or communicative means, affected likelihood of experiencing fear. The authors concluded that use of a fear standard to judge seriousness of stalking attempts and the need for official protection represents a significant distortion of actual incidence of stalking as well as a gross miscarriage of justice.
Click here for the abstract. Read more:Scary
, Stalker
Burning the Library 2007-08-19 07:00:00 Magnus Hirschfeld never set out to be a pioneer.
Born in the 19th century Prussian city of Kolberg (now part of Poland) as the son of a prominent Jewish physician, it seemed only natural that he would follow in his father's footsteps . After taking his doctoral degree in 1892, he maintained a practice as a general practitioner and naturopath as well as being an avid writer. His writings focused on diverse aspects of human sexuality and he had ample material from his own private life to draw from. While he tended to view his own sexual orientation as a "private mater", it is now accepted that he was a homosexual and a transvestite (and possibly even a foot fetishist). Rather than pursue the closeted lifestyle that most German homosexuals of his time pursued (under the German Penal code, homosexuality had been a criminal offense since 1871), he wrote a series of works proposing that homosexuality represented an "intermediate sex" (he also coined the ter Read more:Burning
, Library
Debugging the Patient 2007-08-23 07:00:00 In a recent issue of the International Journal of Psychiatry in Medicine (Issue 37(1)), a series of case studies describing six patients suffering from delusional parasitosis are presented. Also known as Ekbom's syndrome, delusional parasitosis is a form of psychosis in which patients believe that they are infested with parasites (eg, worms, insects, or bacteria). It can be found as a stand-alone delusion or as part of a broader diagnosis such as schizophrenia. In the presented case series, the six patients were treated with atypical antipsychotic medications including amisulpride, olanzapine, and risperidone. While non-oral administration of medication (usually intravenously) was found to be beneficial in most cases, medical complications (including one patient who had a myocardial infarction after being given amisulpride) made treatment difficult in some cases.
Click here for the abstract.
New Web Site Urges Teens to Step “Out of the Silence” 2007-08-29 12:41:21 I just received a press release for a new youth-based initiative that I'd thought I'd share:
Teenager hopes new initiative will help teens with mental illness
BRIDGEWATER, NJ – Out of the Silence, a new web-based non-profit organization that aims to offer a safe venue in which young people with mental health problems can express their emotions through artwork, prose, poetry, photography, and graphic art, will be launched on September 9 to coincide with National Suicide Prevention Week. The initiative and web site was created by 16 year-old Caitlin Carey of New Jersey to assist teens dealing with mental health problems but who feel they have no place to express their thoughts and feelings
“It’s no secret that thousands of teens today suffer in silence, not knowing where they can voice their concerns and experiences with mental illness,” said Caitlin Carey, founder of the project. “Young people tend to rely on their peers for support in everyday situations. Ho Read more:Teens
Ending the Binge 2007-09-02 07:00:00 While the 1960s tend to be viewed as a happening time when recreational drug use was widespread, those years pretty much pale against the period of history that has been colourfully referred to as the Great Binge. Beginning in the 1860s and continuing until the second decade of the twentieth century, the range of mind-altering and chemically addictive substances that could be legally purchased across much of the known world was, well, intoxicating.
Not only was cocaine (which had been invented in the 1860s) perfectly legal and available in a wide range of products, but there were numerous other drugs to compete with it. Heroin, which had been invented in the 1890s as a substitute for morphine (and opium), was freely marketed as a non-addictive pain medication (it was commonly found in cough medicines for children). Bayer also marketed it as a cure for morphine addiction (they pulled the product in 1910 when it was found to be even more addictive than morphine).&nbs Read more:Ending
Teenager Confesses to Eating Room-mate 2007-08-30 07:00:00 A 19-year old Austrian man has confessed to killing his 49-year old room-mate before removing his intestines and eating parts of his brain and internal organs. The 19-year old (identified only as "Robert A.") was living in a ground-floor flat in a Vienna shelter for the mentally ill being run by a private social care company. Police were called in by a cleaner who had entered the premises. She stated that Robert A. admitted to the murder and asked her to call police. They arrived to find Robert A. sitting next to the victim lying in a pool of blood. Body parts were spread all around the room and half-eaten parts were in a plate in the kitchen. He is reported to have greeted the officers by saying, "Look what happened here".
The murder is believed to have happened earlier in the week when Robert A. killed his room-mate following a quarrel. He confessed to crushing the victim's skull with an iron bar before remo Read more:Teenager
Attitudes and Reality Regarding Domestic Violence in Nigeria 2007-09-25 07:00:00 A recent issue of the International Quarterly of Community Health Education (Volume 25) presents the results of a cross sectional study designed to determine how prevalent intimate partner violence was among women of child-bearing age in a migrant community in southwest Nigeria
. The women in the study ranged in age from 15 to 49 years and structured questionnaires were given in the local language to learn about attitudes toward domestic violence in seven hypothetical situations as well as their personal experiences with violence. Of the women surveyed, 87% reported having experienced intimate partner violence at some point in their lives while 20% reported having experienced it in the preceding 12 months. In examining attitudes towards intimate partner violence. 79.5% of the survey respondents believed that wife beating was justified in at least one of the seven hypothetical situations that were presented. Respondents who were not living with a Read more:Domestic
, Domestic Violence
, Violence
Reining in the Prodigy 2007-09-23 07:00:00 There seems no question that William James Sidis was a genius. Born in New York City in 1898, his parents, Boris and Sarah, were Russian immigrants and intellectuals who had fled to the U.S. to escape persecution. Boris earned his M.D. and Ph.D. degrees at Harvard University and taught psychology there. He was a close friend of William James who was his son's godfather (William was also named for him). Sarah was an M.D. whose family fled the Russian pogroms ten years before William's birth. She gave up her medical career to be a full-time mother to her son (and later daughter). They both held radical notions concerning early child education (radical for the time anyway) and encouraged William to learn without using the discipline that characterized education in that era. The results were nothing less than spectacular: William could read the New York Times by the age of 18 months and taught himself eight languages by the time he was eight (he also invented a new lang Read more:Prodigy
Killer Boasts of Tricking Psychiatrists 2007-09-20 07:00:00 "It's really not hard to make up stuff," grinned David Weightman, 28, talking about how he had convinced psychiatrists he was hearing voices to receive a lighter sentence for the murder of his adoptive parents in their Sydney. Australia home. Weightman received 25 years on the grounds of "diminished responsibility" rather than the life sentence he would have otherwise received. Appearing in the Supreme Court jury murder trial of his alleged accomplice, Terry Donai, Weightman reported that he and that he and Donai had discussed the fact that as he was an only child and would inherit from his parents' deaths. The murder plan involved Weightman drugging his parents and that Donai would then smother them.
On the night of January 8, 2000, Weightman put several sleeping tablets into his parents' tea and was outside their house when he heard his mother scream from her bedroom. Donai had emerged from the house "stinking like death&quo Read more:Killer
Does Staying Active Keep Us Alive as We Get Older? 2007-09-18 07:00:00 A study reported in the August 2007 issue of Journal of Aging and Health provides a look at the important role of regenerative (e.g., resting), productive (e.g., housework), and consumptive (e.g., meeting friends) activies in helping people aged 70 and older stay alive. An observational study of 473 persons aged 70 to 103 years stratified by age and sex was carried out in the former West Berlin, Germany. Study participants lived in the community as well as in facilities for the elderly. Using structured interviews in the participants' homes to study activity levels from 1990 to 1993, the rate of survival time from time of interview to a target date (August 1, 2003) was determined. Using regression measures to examine the role of different types of activity on survival, it was found that consumptive (stimulating) activities were significantly related to survival after several confounding factors were ruled out. The effect was found to diminish over t Read more:Active
, Alive
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