Insane physicists and mathematicians

[zoobyshoe]

I couldn't follow the reasoning in the study about hippocampal atrophy. They start by proposing it is a cause of schizophrenia and depressive disorders and to check this they suddenly switch to studying epileptics? The epileptics are compared against a control group without hippocampal atrophy, but who rank high in "psychopathology". What does that mean? What was wrong with them? Why were they the control for epileptics in a study supposedly about schizophrenia and depressive illness?

The point that bilateral hippocampal atrophy may be the cause of Geschwind's is clear. The rest of it confused me.

At any rate, to the extent that the Lymes encephalopathy can mimic Geschwind's, but also be cured, it might be safe to start speculating that the encephalopathy incapacitates the hippocampi in the same way atrophy does, without causing the actual permanent damage of atrophy. I'm glad that can be cured, even after people have had it for years (the Lymes).

-Zooby

 

[hitssquad]

Teen suicide rates in perspective

Originally posted by adrenaline
let's not forget that teenagers have the highest rates of successful suicides

Suicides per 100,000 people:


5-14      0.8
15-24    11.1
25-34    13.8
35-44    15.4
45-54    14.8
55-64    13.1
65-74    14.1
75-84    19.7
85+      21.0

all ages 11.4

(Source: Microsoft Encarta 2002, quoting from the National Center for Health Statistics Deaths: Final Data for 1998.
http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/





-Chris

 

[NanoTech]

Speaking of suicide, Ludwig Boltzmann (1844-1906).
Made pioneering contributions in kinetic theory of gases and statistical mechanics. Extended Maxwell's distribution of gas velocities which became known as Maxwell-Boltzmann distribution. Introduced the Boltzmann probability factor, formulated the Boltzmann Equation for dynamics, and proved the H Theorem of the increase of entropy. Also known for the derivation of the Stefan-Boltzmann law of blackk-body radiation. He also Committed suicide, because he couldn't find the connections between the physics fields! Inscription on his grave S=klogW is well known. (Sounds insane to commit suicide over something like that, but hey, I'm not Boltzman either)...

 

[adrenaline]

Originally posted by hitssquad

Suicides per 100,000 people:


5-14      0.8
15-24    11.1
25-34    13.8
35-44    15.4
45-54    14.8
55-64    13.1
65-74    14.1
75-84    19.7
85+      21.0

all ages 11.4

(Source: Microsoft Encarta 2002, quoting from the National Center for Health Statistics Deaths: Final Data for 1998.
http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/

Considering its the third most common cause of death in teenagers, vs. say, the geriatricians, it still puts a priority on how we should not undertreat teengager's depression. I could not get the link but absolute deaths per population may be falsely erroneous due to the larger and growing population of geriatricians (now that the baby boomers are close to retiring) versus the shrinking younger, teenage population. Completion ratio/attempts versus strict prevalence. It does bring up a great point about how underrecognized and prevalent + depression and suicide is among the elderly.
http://namiwi.nami.org/helpline/teensuicide.html

 

[holly]

I know lots and lots of stories about physicists acting/going crazy, but they aren't really famous physicists. Some are well-known in their particular area of expertise...A quick sampling of things some of them did: One guy always wore a tiara around the lab, and ladies' clothes. Another guy took off all his clothes (this is a popular behavior) and stuffed those OB tampons, remember them? up his nose and ran up and down the hall. Another guy, and this guy teaches at a big, big university overseas RIGHT NOW, likes to urinate on himself to get attention in public. Another guy (sorry, it's almost all guys) liked to dress up in a green zoot-suit sort of outfit and go try to impress the strippers at the local strip-joint by confiding how he'd like to kill all women and blow up the federal government (and yes, this was fine with his colleagues, this sort of talk). THIS IS NOT WHERE I LIVE NOW, WE HAVE A CLEAN-LIVING CITY. One female physicist I knew liked to hit dogs running alongside the roadway, thought that was funny. These are all PhDs...

I think the above is all pretty crazy.

DISCLAIMER: I'm just trying to share stories about people possibly driven crazy by their thoughts, or already nuts. I'm not *against* them. I do think they could use help, but many times, people get sidetracked about how "intelligent" someone is, as if that's all that matters, and these "intelligent" people neither control their behavior nor get help! People do this with sports stars, too...excuse behavior instead of trying to get the person help. Do they need help? Well, that's another question. Depends on the definition of positive versus destructive behavior, I would guess.

 

[motai]

Originally posted by holly
I know lots and lots of stories about physicists acting/going crazy, but they aren't really famous physicists. Some are well-known in their particular area of expertise...A quick sampling of things some of them did: One guy always wore a tiara around the lab, and ladies' clothes. Another guy took off all his clothes (this is a popular behavior) and stuffed those OB tampons, remember them? up his nose and ran up and down the hall. Another guy, and this guy teaches at a big, big university overseas RIGHT NOW, likes to urinate on himself to get attention in public. Another guy (sorry, it's almost all guys) liked to dress up in a green zoot-suit sort of outfit and go try to impress the strippers at the local strip-joint by confiding how he'd like to kill all women and blow up the federal government (and yes, this was fine with his colleagues, this sort of talk). THIS IS NOT WHERE I LIVE NOW, WE HAVE A CLEAN-LIVING CITY. One female physicist I knew liked to hit dogs running alongside the roadway, thought that was funny. These are all PhDs...

That's what happens when stress get to ya.

 

[rick1138]

adrenaline, do you know anything about recent studies that relate chemical sensitivity to pathologies of the hippocampus?

 

[adrenaline]

Originally posted by rick1138
adrenaline, do you know anything about recent studies that relate chemical sensitivity to pathologies of the hippocampus?

I'm not sure what you mean by this. You mean like psychiatric diseases associated with hippocampal problems? Just form my internist perspective of what I deal with as part of my diferential these incude:

Temporal lobe epilepsy and interictal aggressive behavior or intermittent explosive disorder (IED) associated with hippocampal sclerosis.

Picks disease (a form of dementia)has more involvement of this area vs. Alzheimer's dementia that is more diffusse but also involves this area

Borna virus infection causing hippocampal sclerosis and is a differential when we see newly diagnsoed schizophrenia in people of Japanese ethnicity and from that area of the country (spinal tap to look for this infection)

I also know drug withdrawel reactions may be tied into to prior hypercoritsol stimulation and its effect on this area of the brain. (Don't know the specifics)

I believe they are starting to show that even bipolar disorders may be related to having a smaller hippocampal area on the left side vs. say a schizophrenic which has a larger one.
http://www.umm.edu/patiented/articles/what_causes_bipolar_disorder_000066_3.htm

Anxiety disorders may be tied into this area,... I think everyone is jumping on the bandwagon studying this area since it is such a major crossroad in our brain.