Providentia

Learning About Sex

A recent paper published in the January 2008 issue of the Journal of Adolescent Health takes a look at the relationship between sex education in adolescents and later sexual behaviour. The researchers focused on three specific factors: whether the subject ever had sexual intercourse, the age when the first episode of sexual intercourse occurred, and whether birth control was used. Data was collected from the 2002 National Survey of Family Growth to provide a nationwide sample. The respondents included 2019 never-married males and females aged 15-19 years. Statistical analysis of the data collected found that receiving sex education was associated with not having had sexual intercourse among males and postponing sexual intercourse until age 15 for both females and males. Males attending school who had received sex education were also more likely to use birth control the first time they had sexual intercourse. No association was found for females concerning sex education and birth control use. The results were found to vary depending on socioeconomic and demographic factors. Based on these results, the authors concluded that formal sex education enables youths to learn to make healthy and informed decisions about sex and can effectively reduce adolescent sexual risk behaviors when provided before sexual initiation. Sex education was found to be particularly important for subgroups that are traditionally at high risk for early initiation of sex and for contracting sexually transmitted diseases.

Click here for the abstract.

Murder Suspect Seeks Custody Of Her Children

A Nashville, Tennessee woman who has been charged with the murder of her estranged husband is seeking to regain custody of her three children. Kelley Cannon, 41,is charged with murdering her husband, Nashville attorney James Cannon. Cannon's body was found in his home on June 23 and the children were subsequently located in her apartment. An autopsy determined that he had been strangled.

James Cannon had filed a divorce petition in February of this year and was granted temporary custody of their three children. The divorce papers allege that she is a diagnosed schizophrenic who refuses to comply with medication. Police sources indicate that Kelley Cannon had a history of violence and addiction to Oxycontin and alcohol. She faces additional charges for contempt of court for violating an order of protection preventing her from seeing her children. A warrant for evading arrest and endangerment was also issued stemming from an altercation with her husband in May.

Kelley Cannon has been recently released on a $500 000 bond which was posted by her family and emphatically denies killing her husband. She is seeking to regain custody of her children who are currently with her husband's sister. She states that she hasn't seen her children since her husband's murder.

Click here for more information.

And here.

Does Borderline Personality Disorder Affect Pain Sensitivity?

A research study published in the January 2008 issue of the World Journal of Biological Psychiatry compared pain sensitivity in patients with different psychiatric diagnoses under baseline and stress conditions. The study used a sample of 76 female subjects: 16 patients with borderline personality disorder (BPD), 16 patients with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), 20 patients with bulimia nervosa and 24 healthy controls. Using a contact thermal probe, heat and cold pain thresholds were determined under baseline and stress conditions while mental stress was induced with a cognitive task (Paced Auditory Serial Addition Task). The results showed that pain thresholds in patients with BPD were significantly higher compared to healthy controls under baseline conditions. Patients with PTSD and bulimia nervosa did not show significant differences in pain thresholds compared to healthy controls. Under stress conditions, the difference between BPD patients and healthy controls became even more prominent, whereas the results in the other patient groups remained insignificant. The authors conclude that reduced pain sensitivity is a prominent feature of BPD, which may differentiate this disorder from other stress-related psychiatric conditions.

Click here for the abstract.

Cult Members Charged in Starvation Death of Toddler

Three members of a Philadelphia-based cult have been charged with first-degree murder in the starvation death of a 19-month old boy. Also charged is the boy's mother, Ria Ramkisson who is currently undergoing a psychiatric assessment while in custody awaiting a bail review. The body of 19-month old Javon Thompson was found in an abandoned suitcase in April of this year by Baltimore police acting on an anonymous tip. The cult relocated from Baltimore to Philapelphia in 2007.

According to court documents, Ramkisson joined I Mind Ministries shortly after Javon was born. Her two other children have reported that cult members began starving Javon in December, 2006 because his refusing to say "Amen" after eating made them believe he was a demon. After his death, the body was placed in a suitcase which was then disinfected to hide the odor. The children have since been taken away by authorities.

Ramkisson's family maintains that she was not responsible for her actions as she was under cult control.

Click here for more information.

Infidelity and the Capgras Delusion

A fascinating case study described in the June 2008 issue of Clinical Neurophysiology concerns a patient who presented visual hallucinations and identification disorders associated with a Capgras syndrome. During his Capgras episodes, the patient not only misidentified his wife's face, but also perceived her as being an entirely different sexual partner. Not only did he have sexual intercourse with his wife's "double" without having the slightest recollection of any familiarity towards her, he even changed his sexual habits. According to the authors, he is the only known neurological patient who ever made his wife a mistress. In discussing the case, the authors discuss the mechanism of Capgras delusion with reference to the processes involved in face recognition. The complete loss of familiarity not only with face but also with all aspects of sexual intimacy suggests a specific disconnection between the neural pathways linked to face identification and the systems involved in emotional and episodic memory.

Click here for the abstract.

No Progress in L.A. Rathouse Standoff

A bizarre lawsuit involving two 78-year old twins and the countless thousands of rats running around in their exclusive Pacific Palisades home has posed a major challenge to local health regulations. Marjorie and Margaret Barthel are being sued by their neighbours, Scott and Liz Denham. The Denhams maintain that the Barthel sisters have been fanatically feeding the growing rat population for decades and may have added as many as 500,000 new rats to the Los Angeles' Westside. They were driven to the lawsuit after moving into their new home next door to the Barthels in 2007 (they also sued the previous owner for failing to warn them of the health problem). After calling in an exterminator to deal with the rats they found on their own property, the link to the house next door was quickly discovered. The Denhams later learned that the Barthel sisters were virtual recluses who never left the house at the same time.

Marjorie and Margaret Barthel had been living at that address since 2002 and apparently made a frequent habit of feeding wild animals, including rats. After attempting to involve the L.A. County Department of Public Health and the City Attorney's Office, the Denhams were basically ignored despite ample evidence of health infractions. Exterminators who had been called in to deal with the rat problem in the past reporting seeing the rats eating and drinking from plates containing dog food and milk with the sisters looking on approvingly.

Representatives of the Barthel sisters claimed that the Denhams had frightened them with threats of adverse publicity and lawsuits. The sisters themselves defended their actions by quoting scripture and maintaining that their actions were in keeping with their religious beliefs. Although their bizarre hoarding behaviour suggests an extreme form of Diogenes syndrome, no psychiatric assessment has been done in the case.

Last December, the Barthels agreed to have the rats exterminated and called in a team of exterminators (who seemed a little shell-shocked afterward given the scope of the rat problem). Attempts at resolving the lawsuit have failed due to the Barthels' insisting that the Denhams withdraw their request for a permanent injunction against keeping rats.

Click here for more information.

Losing Your Reputation

A study published in the June 2008 issue of Australasian Psychiatry takes a look at the relationship between reputation damage and suicide. By examining public record of the last 20 years, Fifteen cases were identified of individuals with no evidence of mental disorder who suffered actual or threatened reputation damage and committed suicide shortly thereafter. An additional eighteen cases that were less completed were also examined. Of the 15 individual cases, the average age was 55 years, with a range of 40 to 76 years. The available details of the 18 additional cases were consistent with these findings. The authors conclude that middle-aged males without clear evidence of mental disorder, who suffer actual or threatened reputation damage, may be at increased risk of suicide. They particularly caution against the use of "naming and shaming" media campaigns which may have fatal consequences.

Click here for the abstract.

Investigation Underway in Ohio Necrophilia Case

A former employee of the Hamilton County Coroner's Office in Cincinnati, Ohio has been indicted for allegedly abusing the corpse of a 1982 murder victim. Prosecutor Joe Deters says 54 year-old Kenneth Douglas was charged after his DNA matched semen taken from a victim's body. He had worked at the coroner's office from 1976 to 1992. Douglas remains jailed under a $700,000 cash bond on one charge of gross abuse of a corpse. He's alleged to have sexually abused the body of murder victim 19-year old Karen Range while he worked as an a morgue attendant. Both Hamilton County Prosecutor Joe Deters and Hamilton County Coroner Dr. O'dell Owens say they have no explanation why anyone would commit such a crime.

The charge emerged following an analysis of semen taken from Range's body at the insistence of the attorneys of the man convicted of her murder. David Steffen was convicted in 1983 and is currently on Ohio's death row. Physical evidence had never been able to determine who had sexually assaulted her and had ruled out Steffen and Range's fiance. Steffen's attorneys had been arguing that he deserved a new trial because of the mystery surrounding the fluid.

Prosecutors now believe that Douglas had assaulted the corpse in the morgue before an autopsy could be held. Douglas' DNA was entered into a nationwide database on March 17, 2008 after being convicted of a drug trafficking offense. Prosecutors and the Coroner's office plan to review cases that Douglas handled to see if there are any others similar to the Range case. After leaving the Coroner's office in 1992, he later worked at a Cincinnati funeral home. The Coroner has been besieged by calls from concerned family members who have threatened litigation.

While Douglas is suspected of necrophilia, a formal psychiatric diagnosis has not been made. He faces twelve months in prison if convicted.

Click here for more information.