Providentia

New Psychology Today Blog Launched

Just to let you all know that I've launched a new blog on the Psychology Today site.   The new blog,  Media Spotlight, is described as a "psychological twist on the news" and will run at least once a week or whenever I get a chance to post.    I'll continue posting regularly here as well and I'll include links to my other blog as they are publish.  My first post, "When Suicide Comes in Clusters" is already up.  

Focusing on copycat suicides and how media and word of mouth influences can lead to suicide clusters, the post discussed community responses that can prevent further deaths.  Read more here.

 

 

After the Transplant: How Patients and Their Spouses Adjust

While a number of studies have dealt with the psychosocial consequences of transplantation for patients, we know comparatively little about the strains faced by their spouses. A study published in a recent issue of the Swiss Journal of Psychology investigates the psychosocial health of transplant patients and their spouses, as well as the link between these groups’ physical and psychosocial status, on the one hand, and their degree of burnout and level of life satisfaction on the other.  In a cross-sectional study, 121 patients and their spouses are surveyed by questionnaire following heart, lung, liver, or kidney transplant.  The psychosocial parameters investigated in both patients and spouses are sense of coherence, quality of life, quality of the relationship, life satisfaction, and burnout. Results showed that patients rate the quality of the relationship higher than their partners do, and they are more satisfied with the relationship than their spouses are (p < .001). Regression analyses show that patients’ life satisfaction is associated with quality of the relationship. Evidence of a full burnout syndrome can be found in three of the patients and two of the spouses. Burnout in the case of both patients and their partners is associated with limitations in one’s own sense of coherence and in one’s mental and physical health (multiple R2 = 0.79 for patients and 0.76 for spouses). The authors concluded that, because of the importance of the couple’s relationship, psychosocial counseling should pay more attention to relationship satisfaction. Psychotherapeutic techniques should be used to improve the sense of coherence in both patient and spouse.

For the abstract.

The Van Gogh Perspective (Part 1 of 3)

There have been few artists whose lives have been more thoroughly dissected than Vincent van Gogh.  

The enormous range of fiction and non-fiction books, movies, plays and music inspired by his life and art could fill a library all by itself.   Almost as fascinating as the details of his mental illness and how it shaped van Gogh's life was the speculation over the exact diagnosis involved.   Considering the bizarre set of symptoms that he displayed, especially during the ten prior to his death on July 29, 1890., medical experts and biographers have suggested possible medical diagnoses including neurosyphilis, schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, epilepsy, and even poisoning due to his chronic absinthe use.   The only actual clues to what motivated Van Gogh's mental deterioration  are the letters that he wrote to his brother Theo and sister-in-law, Johanna.  

Those letters make fascinating reading, not only by the glimpses that they provide into the life of a struggling artist but also the changes in his personality that preceded many of the bizarre episodes that have made him famous.    Johanna Van-Gogh-Bonger, Theo's widow, admitted in her introduction to her 1913 book that she was uneasy about her decision to publish the Van Gogh letters.   She expressed her very real fear that her brother-in-law's dramatic life might well overshadow his artistic work (and she was likely right).  

For all Van Gogh's amazing art, it is almost certainly the mythology surrounding his life that has driven the fascination that he still holds today (and makes his paintings fetch such amazing prices in international art aucti0ns).    As many biographers point out, Van Gogh's chief ambition was to be a "painter of modern portraits" who enjoyed portraying peasant life but he is largely seen as a madman who died for the sake of his art. 

A Gift For Rachel

Although Vincent Van Gogh had numerous episodes of mental illness during his lifetime, the most notorious one occurred when he cut off part of his left ear while living in the southern French city of Arles.   By late 1888, Van Gogh and Paul Gauguin were sharing rooms in Arles at the now-famous Yellow House and their strained relationship made life difficult for both of them.    As Vincent described in a letter that he wrote to Theo on December 23, 1888, " I think that Gauguin was a little disenchanted with tje good town of Arles, the little yellow house where we work, and above all with me.  Indeed there are serious problems to overcome here still, for him as well as for me...  But these problems lie more in ourselves than anywhere else."   Although Vincent added that "Gauguin is very strong, very creative, but he needs peace precisely because of that.  Will he find it elsewhere if he doesn't find it here?  I await his decision with absolute equanimity", what happened later that day suggested that his relationship with Gauguin exploded in a way that neither of them anticipated.

After Gauguin returned from a walk through a nearby garden, Van Gogh suddenly approached him and threatened him with a straight-edge razor.  Although Gauguin managed to calm him down, he wisely decided to spend the night in a hotel and left his roommate alone.  Later that same night, Van Gogh went to an Arles brothel and asked for Rachel, a favourite prostitute of his.  He then gave her a piece of his earlobe that he had cut off, carefully wrapped in newspaper.   After asking Rachel to "keep this object carefully", he then staggered home.   Gauguin found him the next morning unconscious in his bed which was covered in blood.   He then contacted the police and Van Gogh was taken to a local hospital.  Although the actual police reports are long gone, Theo rushed to Arles after Gauguin sent him a telegram.    While in the hospital, Van Gogh was treated by a sympathetic doctor and his condition was stabilized.  Considering this was in an era before blood transfusions and antibiotics were available, he likely came close to dying.   

In a note that Van Gogh wrote to Theo on January 2, just a few days after the ear-mutilation incident, he played down what had happened.   He also added that "I hope that I have had no more than a perfectly ordinary attack of artistic temperament, followed by a high fever as a consequence of the loss of a very great deal of blood because an artery had been severed"  Despite being open about his physical recovery, and the excellent medical care he received in hospital, his main concern was dealing with insomnia.   He was also honest about what the episode meant for his career as an artist.  Closing the note to Theo, he said "If I recover, I must start afresh, but I shall never again be able to reach the heights to which the [mental] illness to some extent led me...".    

Van Gogh  also wrote letters to Gauguin in which he tried to make amends for threatening him and even made an attempt to see Rachel to apologize for his actions and the "gift" he left for her.    As he pointed out to Theo in a February 3, 1889 letter, "Yesterday I went to see the girl to whom I had gone when I was off my head.  they told me that theres nothing surprising about things like that in this part of the world.  She'd been upset and had fainted but had regained her composure  And indeed, they spoke well of her.     But it won't do for us to think that I am completely sane.  The people from round here who are ill like me have told me the truth.  You can be old or young, but there will always be times when you take leave of your senses.  So I don't ask you to tell people that there is nothing wrong with me, or that there never will be...  as long as you have no false shame and say frankly how you feel, you cannot go wrong".

Although he was was formally discharged from hospital on February 17, his long road to recovery was only beginning.  For all that Vincent Van Gogh is a major Arles tourst attraction today, the people of Arles were understably leery of his staying there after the ear-mutilation incident. 

To be continued

 

 

 

Suicide in the NFL: a Deadly Trend that Can't Be Ignored

Is there a suicide epidemic among former National Football League players?  And can it be linked to repetitive head injuries?   The Huffington Post features a new blog post that I wrote on the recent suicide death of former linebacker Junior Seau and its disturbing resemblance to other recent deaths of former NFL players.  Can future deaths be prevented?

Suicide in the NFL

 

 

Trial Rescheduled in Psychologist's Murder

As David M. Tarloff told investigators afterward, he had planned to go to the New York office of psychiatrist, Kent D. Shinbach to commit a robbery.  The 39-year old Tarloff was also blaming the elderly psychiatrist for institutionalizing him 17 years previously.   When he arrived at the East 79th Street office on February 12, 2008, numerous witnesses saw him rolling two large suitcases (also recorded on closed-circuit television).   After informing building security that he wished to see Dr. Shinbach, Tarloff found him in his office as well as Dr. Kathryn Faughey.   A 56-year old psychologist, Dr. Faughey shared the offices with Dr. Shinbach and had just completed a therapy session with a patient.  

Knowing that she was alone in her office, he entered and then stabbed her repeatedly.  Although Dr. Shinbach attempted to help his colleague, he was assaulted as well and seriously wounded in the face and neck before Tarloff fled the scene.    Police investigators would later report that Dr. Faughey's office was covered with blood.   The two suitcases that Tarloff left behind were later found to contain a woman's fluffy slippers, adult diapers, a blouse, rope and duct tape.   Tarloff was later arrested at his home in Queens and confessed to the murder freely.

 Family and friends of Dr. Faughey were shocked at her death since she was a prominent cognitive behavioural psychologist who was well-liked in the community.  There was also some confusion over Tarloff's motive for the murder since he had never been her patient and it is not clear whether he had ever actually been Dr. Shinbach's either.   The case has renewed public dialogue over the need for better safety measures with therapists working alone with potentially violent patients.  

After being arraigned, Tarloff was ordered to undergo a psychiatric assessment and found competent to stand trial.    Despite this finding (which his lawyers did not challenge), trying this case has been a nightmare for prosecutors due to Tarloff's frequent psychotic outbursts in the courtroom.   A mistrial was declared in 2010 due to Tarloff's outbursts during jury selection.   These outbursts appear designed to show that he is not mentally competent.   According to a New York Times story, Tarloff said during one outburst that "Since I was 20, I’ve been having hallucinations about God and the devil".  Although further psychiatric assessments have provided different opinions about Tarloff's mental state, prosecutors maintain that he is fit to be tried.  

In the most recent court decision, a new hearing has been scheduled for January 2013.   Members of Dr. Faughey's family attended the hearing and expressed hope that the case would be settled eventually so that they can get on with their lives.

For more information

Social Media, Depression and Young Adults

A recent article published in Psychology of Popular Media Culture presented two studies which examined associations between social networking and depressive symptoms among youth. In Study 1, 384 participants (68% female; mean age = 20.22 years, SD = 2.90) were surveyed. In Study 2, 334 participants (62% female; M age = 19.44 years, SD = 2.05) were surveyed initially and 3 weeks later. Results indicated that depressive symptoms were associated with quality of social networking interactions, not quantity. There was some evidence that depressive rumination moderated associations, and both depressive rumination and corumination were associated with aspects of social networking usage and quality. Implications for understanding circumstances that increase social networking, as well as resulting negative interactions and negative affect are discussed.

For the abstract.

How Dangerous is the Night Shift?

In a modern world with 24-hour service becoming increasingly expected from a wide range of businesses around the world, what kind of pressure does this place on people doing shift work when most people are still asleep?   In a recent article published in the British Medical Journal,  a team of  Canadian and Norwegian medical researchers looked at thirty-four previous studies examining the medical and psychological effects of shift work on over two million workers.   Based on their meta-analysis, the researchers found that shift work was associated with increased risk of myocardial infarction (risk ratio 1.23, 95% confidence interval 1.15 to 1.31; I(2)=0) and ischaemic stroke (1.05, 1.01 to 1.09; I(2)=0).  There was also an increased risk of coronary events although this varied widely across studies.   Overall, the study reviewed information on 6598 myocardial infarctions, 17 359 coronary events, and 1854 ischaemic strokes occurring in shift workers.   Given that 32% of workers in Canada alone are shift workers, the potential health costs for society as a whole are immense.  Although overall mortality was no greater for shift workers than in the general population, shift workers are prone to increased risk of problems with poor sleep, high blood pressure, and other related health problems.  The researchers carefully examined socioeconomic status and smoking in their study and ruled them out as contributing factors.

According to University of Western Ontario researcher D.G. Hackam, one of the authors of the study,  "night shift workers are up all the time and they don't have a defined rest period. They are in a state of perpetual nervous system activation which is bad for things like obesity and cholesterol."    To prevent potential health problems, the study authors suggest that prospective shift workers could be screened for high-risk factors such as hypertension and high cholesterol.  Shift workers could also be educated about lifestyle factors that could contribute to medical problems including disrupted sleep patterns, eating habits, domestic and emotional issues, psychological isolation, and dependence on chemical stimulants or sedatives.  

Disturbed sleep and related problems can also mean that shift workers are more prone to impaired judgment and increased likelihood of work-related errors.  To prevent problems associated with shift work,  health authorities recommend limiting night shifts to no more than twelve hours at a time and ensuring a minimum of two full nights of sleep between day and night shifts.  Since work safety regulations controlling the use of shift work is limited in many jurisdictions however, the health problems associated with shiftwork are likely to continue.

Which might be something to consider when you're arguing with that night clerk at 4 am over receiving the correct change...

For more information.

Can Motivation Prevent Dementia?

Midlife motivational abilities, that is, skills to initiate and persevere in the implementation of goals, have been related to mental and physical health, but their association with risk of mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and Alzheimer's disease (AD) has not yet been directly investigated.   A study recently published in Psychology and Aging examined data from the German Study on Ageing, Cognition, and Dementia in Primary Care Patients (AgeCoDe). A total of 3,327 nondemented participants (50.3% of a randomly selected sample) aged 75–89 years were recruited in primary care and followed up twice (after 1.5 and 3 years). Motivation-related occupational abilities were estimated on the basis of the main occupation (assessed at follow-up II) using the Occupational Information Network (O* NET) database, which provides detailed information on worker characteristics and abilities. Cox proportional hazards models were used to evaluate the relative risk of developing MCI and AD in relation to motivation-related occupational abilities, adjusting for various covariates. Over the 3 years of follow-up, 15.2% participants developed MCI and 3.0% developed AD. In a fully adjusted model, motivation-related occupational abilities were found to be associated with a reduced risk of MCI (HR: 0.77; 95% CI: 0.64–0.92). Motivation-related occupational abilities were associated with reduced risk of AD in ApoE ε4 carriers (HR: 0.48; CI: 0.25–0.91), but not in noncarriers (HR: 0.99; CI: 0.65–1.53). These results suggest that midlife motivational abilities are associated with reduced risk of MCI in general and with reduced risk of AD in ApoE ε4 carriers. Revealing the mechanisms underlying this association may inform novel prevention strategies for decelerating cognitive decline in old age.

For the abstract.

Police Crack Down on Cannibal Vigilante Cult in Papua New Guinea

In Papua New Guinea, they're known as sangumas (sorcerers who practice black magic) and the widespread belief in their supernatural powers has guaranteed numerous customers for their services.   Since many people in parts of Papua New Guinea often reject non-supernatural explanations for illnesses, natural disasters or accidents, sangumas have been in high demand to remove curses and provide magical cures for various illnesses.    They are also in a good position to charge extremely high prices for their services including large sums of money, food and livestock.  Some have even demanded sex as payment and cases of sorcerors threatening men and women with magic (also know as puripuri) to extort money and sex have been reported.   Belief in puripuri remains strong and cases of people starving themselves to death over fear of being bewitched have been reported.

These extortion practices has generated long-term resentment among the inhabitants of villages across remote regions of the country.   Since police have been reluctant to arrest errant sorcerors, an anti-sorceror backlash has developed among frustrated villagers.   The anti-sorceror brigade (dubbed a cult by many local sources)  reportedly began after learning from village elders how to "possess" their weapons to kill sorcerers.   In a gruesome series of recent attacks directed against accused sorcerers, the crusade has already claimed numerous lives.   With an estimated five hundred to a thousand members, the brigade has been linked to numerous murders, often involving ritual cannibalism.  The ritual reportedly calls for the eating the brain of the dead sorceror and the harvesting of organs for village elders to brew more magic for brigade members to use against other sorcerors.   The cannibal brigade has also become feared by local villagers in their own right and one local political activists told the Sydney Morning Herald that "It used to be a good thing, but now it’s turned into a kind of cult. They killed [the first victim] on the roadside. They cut out his heart, they cut out his brains they drank his blood."

Police have begun cracking down on the anti-sorceror brigade due to the cannibalism deaths as well as widespread fear of violence.  In one recent arrest, twenty-nine brigade members have been charged with the murders of at least seven people since April.   The arrested members,  including eight women and a thirteen-year old boy, all admitted to eating the victims' brains although only twelve of the arrestees are believed to have committed the actual murders.  The brigade leader, a local councillor, is still at large.    Based on information provided by arrested members,  the brigade claims to hunt down suspected sorcerers through guidance by "spirits".   To protect themselves against magical attacks, accused sorcerers are never killed during the day and the bodies are carefully mutilated and ritually eaten.  In some cases, a stew is made from the sex organs. 

The brigade attacks have disrupted local elections and villagers, fearing violence, have avoided going to the polls.   This fear, along with widespread reports of vote-rigging and the difficulty in retrieving ballot boxes from remote villages,  has delayed national elections.   While one local authority has gone on record to say that the brigade's activities are "insane and the cannibalism goes beyond the local culture",  the arrests to date are regarded by the police as being only the tip of the iceberg.  In Papua New Guinea's Madang province alone, there are believed to be hundreds of brigade members still at large.   According to Madang police commander, Anthony Wagambie in an interview with a New Guinea newspaper, "More needs to be done to educate locals to eradicate the movement.   Police cannot do it alone. It requires collective effort from government, responsible agencies, non-governmental organisations and the churches to work together."

For more information.

The Fruit Machine Saga (Part 3)

Continued from Part 2

After the Fruit Machine

Even as early as 1967, changes in Canadian society made the RCMP's crusade against homosexuals harder than ever.   Despite a formal partnership with the morality divisions of city police forces (which allowed them to threaten suspects with arrest for failing to name fellow homosexuals),  the improving legal situation for gay men and lesbians made the paranoia surrounding homosexuals in the  public service harder to justify.  Along with the passage of the 1967 Sexual Offenses Act in the U.K. (which effectively decriminalized homsexuality) and the fight to decriminalize homosexuality in Canada.   Then Justice Minister Pierre Trudeau defended decriminalization with his famous line that "there's no place for the state in the bedrooms of the nation".   Canada's Criminal Law Amendment Act was finally passed in 1969 despite a massive anti-gay campaign by conservative and religious groups and allegations that the new law was motivated by "communism, socialism, and atheism".   While the situation was slowly improving for sexual minorities in Canada, attitudes in the public service were slow to change and many gay men and lesbians were still fired for being "not advantageously employable".  Even as recently as 1992, Michelle Douglas' firing for being a lesbian led to the groundbreaking legal decision removing the ban on homosexuals openly serving in the Canadian military .    Virtually all government documents outlining the anti-gay security campaign, as well as the fruit machine project vanished into government archives until the Associated Press forced their release in the 1990s.  Despite Canada's reputation as being a liberal country,  it's still hard to estimate how many thousands of lives were ruined by the RCMP's security campaign.   As Gary Kinsman poand Patrizia Gentile pointed out in their gripping book, The Canadian War on Queers, it was the national security campaign that likely spurred the growth of the gay liberation movement in Canada.  

While F. Robert Wake died in 1993 (with obituaries carefully avoiding any mention of his security work), that was hardly the end of the quest to build a successful "fruit machine".   Ironically, a far better approach to measuring sexual arousal became widely available in Canada when Dr. Kurt Freund arrived in 1968 to begin a new position at the Clarke Institute of Psychiatry (now the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health).   Through the penile plethysmograph technique he pioneered in Europe, Dr. Freund created the first practical method for detecting sexual interest in males by measuring bloodflow to the penis.   Although he had initially been commissioned to develop the test by the Czech military to weed out homosexuals in the military, Dr. Freund's early research in aversive conditioning led him to conclude that homosexuals could not be "cured" in this fashion and called for the decriminalization of homosexuality in Czechoslovakia.    After coming to Canada as a refugee in 1968, he successfully resisted any attempt to use his penile plethysmography technique to identify homosexuals in Canada and pushed for decriminalization instead.  While this won him few friends in the largely Freudian psychiatric community of that time, his laboratory became one of the first in the world to use penile plethysmography (now more commonly known as phallometry)  to detect sexual arousal in men accused of pedophilia and related sexual offenses. 

Although Dr. Freund opposed attempts to use his phallometry technique to detect homosexual men during his lifetime, reports have surfaced of phallometric testing of homosexuals have surfaced in other countries (including Dr. Freund's birthplace, the Czech Republic).   As recently as last year, the European Union Commission issued a statement declaring the Czech Republic's ongoing use of sexual arousal tests on gay asylum seekers to be in direct violation of EU asylum laws.  In citing several recent cases of gay refugees being forced to undergo phallometry as part of their application for asylum in the Czech Republic, the EU's Fndamental Rights Agency has flagged the Czech Republic for being the only country in Europe to demand such testing for refugees.

Despite the Czech Republic coming under the spotlight due to being part of the European Union, the use of phallometry and other tests of sexual arousal in non-European countries is not so well documented.  Given that homosexuality is still a criminal offense in numerous countries around the world, using widely available sexual arousal testing to identify and prosecute homosexual men and women may well be far more prevalent than anyone realizes.

Perhaps the "fruit machine" saga isn't quite over yet.