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Teenager Saws off Mother's Head
2007-10-02 14:00:00
A psychiatric evaluation on a teenager who has been accused of killing his mother and sawing off her head and arm has shown no clear diagnosis of mental illness. The teen, whose name has been withheld because he is a minor, is suspected of stabbing his mother to death at their home in Aizuwakamatsu, Japan on May 15, as she was sleeping. He then sawed off her head and right arm, spray-painted the arm white and planted it in a flower pot, and took his mother's head to a police station, where he turned himself in. When questioned by police, he reportedly said, "I didn't care who I killed." and that that he had found his mother and younger brother "disagreeable."The accused had reportedly started neglecting school and was truant for about one month before the killing. Based on the results of the psychiatric evaluation, public prosecutors are likely to submit a written opinion that criminal punishment is appropriate when they send the teen to a family court in the near future. ...
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In a Flash
2007-09-30 14:00:00
The nuclear explosions that devastated the city of Hiroshima on August 6, 1945 and the city of Nagasaki three days later resulted in massive destruction and loss of life. Although the precise number of casualties has never been determined, it is estimated that 70,000 died in Hiroshima due to the immediate effects of the blast with an additional 50000 in Nagasaki (mostly civilians). Estimates of the lingering effects of radiation exposure are even more problematic although it has been suggested that many thousands of casualties occurred in the decades that followed. It would be the only time that nuclear weapons would be used in war (so far). Another legacy of the bombings is far more subtle but just as devastating for the survivors. Since 1945, there has been a lingering stigma attached to survivors and their descendants that led to them being frequently ostracized by mainstream Japanese society. Termed the hibakusha (meaning "radiation-affected people" in Japanese), there are over ...
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Hurting Yourself
2007-09-27 14:00:00
The July, 2007 issue of the Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine presents the results of a research project examing the relationship between self-harm behaviours and actual incidence of suicide.  The purpose of the study was to determine whether self-injury acts as a coping mechanism that may occur with or lead to suicidal behaviours in individuals experiencing more stress than they can effectively handle.  Using a cross-sectional data set of college-age students from two universities in the northeastern United States in the spring of 2005, a random sample of 8300 students was invited to participate in a Web-based survey.  Of the respondents, only 2875 cases were usable.  Demographic characteristics, history of trauma, distress, informal help-seeking, and attraction to life were also measured. The results indicated that one quarter of the sample reported self-harm behaviours, suicidality, or both; 40.3% of those reporting self-harm also report suicidali...

Hurting Yourself
2007-09-27 14:00:00
The July, 2007 issue of the Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine presents the results of a research project examing the relationship between self-harm behaviours and actual incidence of suicide. The purpose of the study was to determine whether self-injury acts as a coping mechanism that may occur with or lead to suicidal behaviours in individuals experiencing more stress than they can effectively handle. Using a cross-sectional data set of college-age students from two universities in the northeastern United States in the spring of 2005, a random sample of 8300 students was invited to participate in a Web-based survey. Of the respondents, only 2875 cases were usable.Demographic characteristics, history of trauma, distress, informal help-seeking, and attraction to life were also measured. The results indicated that one quarter of the sample reported self-harm behaviours, suicidality, or both; 40.3% of those reporting self-harm also report suicidality. A significant predict...

Attitudes and Reality Regarding Domestic Violence in Nigeria
2007-09-25 14:00:00
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 wit...
More About: Reality , Domestic , Violence , Attitudes

Attitudes and Reality Regarding Domestic Violence in Nigeria
2007-09-25 14:00:00
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 male partner were more likely than thei...
More About: Reality , Domestic , Violence , Attitudes

Reining in the Prodigy
2007-09-23 14:00:00
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 l...
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Reining in the Prodigy
2007-09-23 14:00:00
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 l...
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Killer Boasts of Tricking Psychiatrists
2007-09-20 14:00:00
"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&...
More About: Killer , Psychiatrists , Chia

Killer Boasts of Tricking Psychiatrists
2007-09-20 14:00:00
"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&...
More About: Killer , Psychiatrists , Chia

Does Staying Active Keep Us Alive as We Get Older?
2007-09-18 14:00:00
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 ove...
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Does Staying Active Keep Us Alive as We Get Older?
2007-09-18 14:00:00
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 ove...
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Killing President Garfield
2007-09-16 14:00:00
It was on July 2, 1881, as he was walking through a Washington, D.C. railroad station that President James Garfield was shot in the arm and lower back by a disturbed loner named Charles Guiteau.   As the President slumped to the ground, Guiteau cried out "I am the Stalwart of Stalwarts" before being taken into custody.  President Garfield was taken to the White House where doctors worked to save his life. Unfortunately, the sixteen doctors who were called in to tend the president had no notion that their own unsterilized hands and instruments were a danger to their patient (this was years before sterilization became common practice in medicine). The actual shooting had left no more than a minor wound but the doctors and their relentless poking and probing did the rest.  After Garfield finally died on September 19, an autopsy determined that he likely would have lived had the doctors simply left him alone. Although the lead surgeon later made a public ap...
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Killing President Garfield
2007-09-16 14:00:00
It was on July 2, 1881, as he was walking through a Washington, D.C. railroad station that President James Garfield was shot in the arm and lower back by a disturbed loner named Charles Guiteau.   As the President slumped to the ground, Guiteau cried out "I am the Stalwart of Stalwarts" before being taken into custody.  President Garfield was taken to the White House where doctors worked to save his life. Unfortunately, the sixteen doctors who were called in to tend the president had no notion that their own unsterilized hands and instruments were a danger to their patient (this was years before sterilization became common practice in medicine). The actual shooting had left no more than a minor wound but the doctors and their relentless poking and probing did the rest.  After Garfield finally died on September 19, an autopsy determined that he likely would have lived had the doctors simply left him alone. Although the lead surgeon later made a public ap...
More About: Resident , Killing

'Vampire' Robs Blood Bank
2007-09-15 01:14:00
Hong Kong police arrested a 29-year old suspect following a September 13, 2007 incident in which closed-circuit cameras recorded him stealing three blood vials from a hospital blood bank and apparently drinking the contents.  According to the camera evidence, the suspect apparently reached in through the drop-in window of the blood bank, located on the fourth floor of a local hospital, and removed the three vials.   While he appeared to drink the contents on camera, it remains uncertain whether he actually did so.  The vials were from three women patients awaiting testing for stomach complaints.  Psychiatrist Chan Chung-mau, chairman of the Hong Kong Association for the Promotion of Mental Health, said the suspect could be suffering from a mental illness and may believe that drinking blood can charge him with energy.  His current arrest status and whether he has a psychiatric history has not been reported. Police sources indicate that the suspect was...
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Delusional "Pseudotranssexualism" in Schizophrenia
2007-09-13 14:00:00
The Summer, 2007 issue of Psychiatry  described a case history of a 40-year old male patient with chronic schizophrenia who developed a preoccupation with changing his gender.  The authors review relevant literature and concluded that twenty percent of all schizophrenic patients experience sexual delusions at some point during the evolution of their illness (including becoming convinced that they are actually the wrong sex).  While true coexistence of schizophrenia and gender identity disorder is rare, disentangling them can be extremely tricky. Considering the irreversible consequences of gender reassignment surgery and the medical and legal implications implications, it is important that these patients be properly diagnosed. Click here for the abstract.
More About: Delusional , Schizo , Tran , Schizophrenia , Transsexual

Does Trauma Lead to Hoarding?
2007-09-11 14:00:00
In a paper published in the June 2007 issue of Behavior Research and Therapy, a study of individuals diagnosed with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) suggests that traumatic life experiences may be a catalyst for the abrupt onset of OCD symptoms (including compulsive hoarding).  The study researchers analyzed the interview responses to the Posttraumatic Stress Disorder module of the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV, (SCID) in 180 individuals diagnosed with OCD.  Compared to individuals with OCD who did not meet criteria for hoarding, participants classified as hoarders (24% of the sample) were significantly more likely to have reported at least one traumatic life experience in their lifetime. Patients who met criteria for hoarding and who had also experienced traumatic life experiences had significantly greater hoarding symptom severity than those hoarders not exposed to trauma. The relationship between traumatic life experiences and hoarding symptom severity was...
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Does Trauma Lead to Hoarding?
2007-09-11 14:00:00
In a paper published in the June 2007 issue of Behavior Research and Therapy, a study of individuals diagnosed with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) suggests that traumatic life experiences may be a catalyst for the abrupt onset of OCD symptoms (including compulsive hoarding).  The study researchers analyzed the interview responses to the Posttraumatic Stress Disorder module of the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV, (SCID) in 180 individuals diagnosed with OCD.  Compared to individuals with OCD who did not meet criteria for hoarding, participants classified as hoarders (24% of the sample) were significantly more likely to have reported at least one traumatic life experience in their lifetime. Patients who met criteria for hoarding and who had also experienced traumatic life experiences had significantly greater hoarding symptom severity than those hoarders not exposed to trauma. The relationship between traumatic life experiences and hoarding symptom severity was...
More About: Trauma , Lead

Wild Children
2007-09-09 14:00:00
There seems to be a fond literary tradition surrounding children who were raised in the wild (usually courtesy of kindly animals).  We have the Roman myth of Romulus and Remus being suckled by a she-wolf after they were abandoned,  Rudyard Kipling’s Mowgli being raised by wolves (yes, it was a book before it became a Disney movie) and Edgar Rice Burroughs’ Tarzan being raised by apes.   Unfortunately, the actual reality surrounding feral children tends not to be so entertaining.   In 1797, France was in upheaval due to the events of the French Revolution. For that reason, news of a wild boy who had been captured near Toulouse and who vanished again after a week or so of being cared for in a local woman’s house probably escaped public notice.  He was not heard of again until three years later when he apparently emerged from the woods on his own.  While he was estimated to be twelve years of age, absolutely nothing else was known about him...
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Wild Children
2007-09-09 14:00:00
There seems to be a fond literary tradition surrounding children who were raised in the wild (usually courtesy of kindly animals).  We have the Roman myth of Romulus and Remus being suckled by a she-wolf after they were abandoned,  Rudyard Kipling??????s Mowgli being raised by wolves (yes, it was a book before it became a Disney movie) and Edgar Rice Burroughs?????? Tarzan being raised by apes.   Unfortunately, the actual reality surrounding feral children tends not to be so entertaining.   In 1797, France was in upheaval due to the events of the French Revolution. For that reason, news of a wild boy who had been captured near Toulouse and who vanished again after a week or so of being cared for in a local woman??????s house probably escaped public notice.  He was not heard of again until three years later when he apparently emerged from the woods on his own.  While he was estimated to be twelve years of age, absolutely nothing else was known ...
More About: Children , Wild

Wrestler's Brain Showed Signs of Dementia
2007-09-06 14:00:00
An examination of the brain of wrestler Chris Benoit revealed evidence of extensive neurological damage at the time of his death.  Benoit, a well-known professional wrestler, killed himself in June of this year after murdering his wife and child.  At the request of Benoit's father, Dr, Julian Bailes, head of neurosurgery at a top American university, examined the brain and concluded that the extensive damage resembled what would be found in "an 85-year-old Alzheimer's patient's brain".  Stating on American TV that the damage was "striking and maybe shocking", Dr. Bailes added that  "we think we have great anatomical damage here from previous trauma. Whether it had a psychiatric or behavioral expression, we certainly think that's most likely." While the most likely cause of the damage is from the numerous concussions that Benoit sustained during his wrestling career in Japan and America, he was also known to be a heavy steroid us...
More About: Signs , Dementia , Brain

Mass Hysteria in Lebanon
2007-09-04 14:00:00
A description of what is believed to be an episode of mass hysteria in a Lebanese village is reported in a recent issue of La Journal Medical Libanais (2007 Apr-Jun;55(2):112-5).   A 16-year-old  female student was referred to a university medical centre in Beirut, Lebanon after suffering attacks of shortness of breath, muscle cramps, tremors and dizziness for several days.  She was referred because she was the first of eight cases from the same village to have similar symptoms. Community sources advanced potential causes for the epidemic including bioterrorism, noxious fumes and "bad spirits." In conjunction with inpatient multidisciplinary evaluation and treatment, meetings were held with members of the hospital Psychiatry and Psychology Department, a public health representative of the Ministry of Health of Lebanon, physicians who were taking care of the other cases and a psychologist working in the area where these cases were declared. After reachin...
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Ending the Binge
2007-09-02 14:00:00
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 Bing e.  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).&...
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Teenager Confesses to Eating Room-mate
2007-08-30 14:00:00
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 r...
More About: Mate , Room , Teenager , Eating , Ager

New Web Site Urges Teens to Step “Out of the Silence”
2007-08-29 19:41:00
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. ...
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Too Hot to Handle?
2007-08-28 14:00:00
In a new study reported in the August 2007 issue of the British Journal of Psychiatry,  a statistical link has been found linking high temperatures and incidence of suicide.  A statistical analysis of the relationship between daily termperature and daily suicide counts in England and Wales between January 1, 1993 and December 31, 2003 showed no evidence of a spring or summer peak in suicide rates.  However, at temperatures above 18 degrees Celsius, each 1 degree increase in mean temperature was associated with a 3.8 and 5.0% rise in suicide and violent suicide respectively.  During the 1995 heatwave in the United Kingdom, suicides were found to have increased by 46.9%.  On the other hand, no change in the suicide rate was seen during the 2003 heat wave.   The implication of these results suggest that increased awareness of the potential for suicide during heatwaves is needed.  Click here for the abstract.
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The Woyzeck Case
2007-08-26 14:00:00
While many famous murder trials become the basis of books, movies, and television episodes, I only know of one that later became a famous opera. Johann Christian Woyzeck, a wigmaker and barber who was born and raised in 19th Saxony (now part of Germany) certainly seemed to be an unlikely subject for musical immortality. Details of his early life are sketchy although he is known to have been a soldier at one point as well as an aimless individual who was never very prosperous. The only bright spot in his life was his relationship with Christianne Woost, a widow with whom he had been living. His obsessive jealousy over Christianne led him to murder her on June 3, 1821 after discovering that she had cancelled an arranged meeting between them to spend time with a handsome soldier. He was then taken into custody where he admitted to stabbing her seven times. There was absolutely no question concerning his guilt, only his state of mind at the time of the murder. The court case dragged on ...
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Debugging the Patient
2007-08-23 14:00:00
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.
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Sexual Assaults Against Women With Disabilities
2007-08-21 14:00:00
A study presented at the recent convention of the American Psychological Association in San Francisco indicated that sexual assault on women with physical disabilities tended to be more coercive and more physically severe than assaults on women with other types of problems.   The study was based on clients from a sexual assault clinic in Toronto and compared 1,091 women with disabilities to 1,120 women without disabilities.  Of the 81 victims with physical disabilities (including motor, visual, and hearing impairments), 66.7%  suffered physical trauma during the assault, compared with 63.8% of the women without disabilities; 63.3% of the women with a psychiatric disability, and 52.2% of the women with cognitive disability of developmental delay.   19.2% of the physically disabled victims were also subjected to forced anal intercourse compared to 8.4% for women without disabilities.  In presenting her findings, Theresa Kelly, a doctoral student at t...
More About: Women , Sexual , Disabilities , Sexual Assault , Saul

Burning the Library
2007-08-19 14:00:00
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 ...
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