Post-traumatic embitterment disorder?

My first response is to roll my eyes and mutter, “Puh-leese.” Some psychiatrists are saying that the bitterness of people when their relationships fall apart is a traumatic event that causes permanent brain changes. And so it probably is. But that doesn’t make it a mental disorder. When the ground opens beneath your feet, you learn to tread carefully. It’s not a disorder, it’s just a scar. We accumulate damage, which we resist with greater or lesser resilience. And one day we die.

In fact, life is hard, love wears out, you can’t trust everybody all the time and, yes, relationships fail. The person who leaves often goes through the disillusionment and pain first, then the one who is left behind. Their expectations may have been realistic or un-. Their relationship skills may have been good or bad. Their relationship may have been doomed or thrown away. But to expect that experience won’t leave its mark is like demanding your own reality, one without loss or pain. I could probably pick out people in a crowd whose spouses were unfaithful, but the bitter turn of their lips.

Should we also expect that work won’t leave calluses and old age won’t leave wrinkles?

On the other hand, if people are stuck with brooding over how mean the world has been to them, they are probably better off getting counselling than brooding over their ills. I suppose it’s just as unbalanced as megalomania or sex addiction. In a sense, it is megalomania—how dare the world not be what I thought it was? Of course, it’s in the financial interest of psychiatrists to increase the number of people who need to consult them and whose insurance companies will pay—not that they’re short of custom.

Bitterness should be classified an official brain illness, according to psychiatrists who say people who experience prolonged bitterness over a breakup or conflict at work are “ill” and need treatment.

They are proposing that “post traumatic embitterment disorder” be included in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, psychiatry’s official catalogue of mental dysfunction.

Now in its fourth edition, DSM is undergoing its first major revision since 1994. DSM-V is due to be published in 2012, and other possible new contenders for inclusion include Internet addiction disorder, apathy disorder, compulsive buying disorder, compulsive pathological overeating, hoarding, “premenstrual dysphoric disorder” and “partner relational problem” — “a pattern of interaction between spouses or partners characterized by negative communication (criticisms, for example), distorted communications (such as unrealistic expectations) or non-communication (withdrawal).”

I hope they include bitterness at being fired; maybe it will stop someone from “going postal.” But why stop there? Maybe we can include the bitterness of being scammed out of one’s life savings, being crippled by a drunk driver, having one’s son gunned down, being forced to flee one’s country, watching one’s neighbours get murdered in a genocide, being expected to starve to death politely because of red tape in the foreign aid, having one’s country’s economy crippled by restrictive trade practices of the rich countries, being allowed to immigrate but not to practice one’s profession, and all the other less than salubrious experience of modern life.

Notice that the old character-builders, watching one’s wife die in childbirth or illegal abortion or one’s husband succumb to lockjaw or an industrial accident or losing one’s children to the usual childhood diseases, have pretty much been eliminated in the rich countries, leaving us with only these pale substitutes.

What is natural?

Last week was gay Pride Week in Toronto. Thousands of visitors poured into the city to celebrate love and acceptance—of their children, their chosen life partners, and the people around them who insist on equal rights and tolerance for those who are born different from the usual pattern or develop differently. Human sexuality is complex and I’m not surprised to find variations in what “turns people on.” Outside narrow limits such as height, weight, coloration, or bustiness, some other people condemn the way it develops and would reject those people unless they deny their inner reality.

'WHO CARES if my MOMMIES get married?'

Meanwhile, some people have a developing fetus whose characteristics are incompatible with life or with growing up. There are groups (and web sites) dedicated to convincing us that we should accept everything that God sends us and appreciate the deformed fetus, letting it enjoy its “brief but wonderful life”—with or without a brain, a functioning heart, cancer, functional bones, or the need for multiple painful surgeries. They encourage women to disregard the emotional strain and physical danger of giving birth to such a baby, alive or dead or dying.

Conjoined twins

I wonder: why the acceptance for drastic and life-limiting birth defects and the rejection of relatively minor and common variations in forms of love

What causes third-trimester abortions?

After the murder of abortion provider George Tiller for doing third-trimester abortions, there were a lot of hysterical accusations about the number of abortions he did and the reasons for them. I looked for solid research on the reasons. I read the personal experiences of people who had to face third-trimester abortions. They wanted to have a baby, but genetic or developmental errors intervened. Given the frequency of these defects, Dr. Tiller probably did about a 100 – 200 a year, but that’s just a rough estimate on my part. It’s certain he didn’t do 60,000, which would keep him working feverishly every day for two lifetimes.

The reasons they gave were basically the same as those I found in a research paper from 1999. This paper studie second-trimester and third-trimester abortions at one hospital over several years. Only “singletons” were studied, so none of the fetuses were conjoined twins. About 2/3 were done in the second trimester and 1/3 in the third trimester. The reasons for a third-trimester abortion were:

* In 40%, an earlier test indicated that a defect existed but not how serious it was. Doctors delayed and re-tested to see if the defect was serious enough to be life-threatening. Some genetic conditions can be mild or severe, so to prevent unnecessary abortions the doctors waited.
* In 37%, an earlier test failed to find the serious defects that showed up later.
* In 18%, a diagnosis for this kind of defect can’t be made until the third trimester. This often seems to include anencephaly, a fatal birth defect.
* And in the remaining 5%, doctors or parents delayed the decision to abort. I correlated this with what I’ve read about doctors ordering yet another another test to make sure, waiting for a referral, parents not able to believe the news, having hysterics and going home, and praying for a miracle.

Reference:
Dommergues M, Benachi A, Benifla JL, des Noëttes R, Dumez Y., British Journal of Obstetrical Gynaecology, 1999 Apr;106(4):297-303. The reasons for termination of pregnancy in the third trimester. PubMed ID: 10426234.

If third-trimester abortions are outlawed, some parents may choose earlier abortions when it’s not certain they are needed.

Some critics mentioned club foot as a reason for abortion. Club foot means that at least one foot is turned in. It is not a reason for abortion, but it is a warning to screen very carefully for other health problems. The same goes for other deformities of the digits or limbs. Club foot is associated with spina bifida and anencephaly and other birth defects, some of them fatal.

One defect that can be missed at the second-trimester scan is anencephaly, in which the brain fails to develop. It is uniformly fatal, often before or during birth.

Anencephaly, view of back of head

Origins of the swine flu pandemic

Research blogging from Not Exactly Rocket science:

In the time since the words “swine flu” first dominated the headlines, a group of scientists from three continents have been working to understand the origins of the new virus and to chart its evolutionary course. Today, they have published their timely results just as the World Health Organisation finally moved to phase six in its six-tier system, confirming what most of us already suspected – the world is facing the first global flu pandemic of the 21^st century.The team, led by Gavin Smith at the University of Hong Kong, compared over 800 viral genomes representing a broad spectrum of influenza A diversity. The viral menagerie included two samples of the current pandemic strain (the virus formerly known as swine flu and now referred to as swine-origin influenza virus (S-OIV)). Also in the mix were 15 newly sequenced swine strains from Hong Kong, 100 older swine strains, 411 from birds and 285 from humans.

The team used these genomes to build a viral family tree that shows the relationships between the strains and dates their origins. They found that S-OIV was borne of several viruses that circulate in pigs, with contributions from avian and human strains. The virus made the leap to humans several months before we twigged to its presence. It was spreading right under our noses, undetected because of our lack of surveillance of flu viruses in pigs.

Read more.

Chiropractors try to erase web clues

At least one chiropractic association has told its members to remove their wilder unproven claims from their web sites. This follows the decision of science writer Simon Singh to appeal against a conviction of libelling chiropractors by saying that their claims of being able to cure colic and other infant troubles were “bogus.” Unfortunately for Mr. Singh, he defined “bogus” in his article as meaning invalid; but the judge invoked mind-reading powers to conclude that Mr. Singh meant “deliberately fraudulent.” That’s a bogus decision, Judge.