American Psychiatric Association Statement on the Insanity Defense and Mental Illness, by Richard K. Harding, M.D.,

President, American Psychiatric Association:

The American Psychiatric Association hopes that the Yates case will lead to

broad public discussion of how our society and its legal system deals with

defendants who are severely mentally ill.  Historically, the insanity defense

was used to excuse from moral culpability, mentally ill  people who were so

deranged that they could not tell right from wrong and could not control their

actions.  However, reviews of insanity cases show that the more heinous the act,

the less likely that an insanity plea will succeed, despite the disabling

presence of severe mental illness.



Also, the standards for handling mentally ill defendants vary across

jurisdictions.  A mentally ill person tried for a capital offense in one state

may be found "not guilty (meaning not responsible) by reason of insanity," while

another person with similar severity of mental illness tried in another state

may be convicted.  Some jurisdictions use the designation "guilty but mentally

ill."



Advances in neuroscience have dramatically increased our understanding of how

brain function is altered by mental illness, and how psychotic illness can

distort reality in very subtle ways, to the degree that black becomes white.

Research also has led to development of more effective treatments.

Unfortunately, public understanding has not kept pace with these advances.



A failure to appreciate the impact of mental illness on thought and behavior

often lies behind decisions to convict and punish persons with mental disorders.



The victims of mental illness are sick--just as sick as if they had cancer or

chronic heart failure--and as human beings, deserve humane and effective

treatment for their illness.  Prisons are overloaded with mentally ill

prisoners, most of whom do not receive adequate treatment.



Defendants whose crimes derive from their mental illness should be sent to a

hospital and treated--not cast into a prison, much less onto death row.





The American Psychiatric Association is a national medical specialty society

whose more than 36,000 physician members specialize in the diagnosis, treatment

and prevention of mental illnesses including substance use disorders.

“The U.S. Congress’s General Accounting Office is investigating claims that a scientific cover-up may have been perpetrated at the very heart of the missile defense program.

The program’s two prime contractors, the American aerospace firms TRW and Boeing, have been accused of manipulating data to hide the stark fact that their system cannot tell the difference between warheads and the decoys that accompany them. The controversy dates from the first flight test in 1997, which the Pentagon said was a complete success. Although an interceptor missile was launched in that trial, it made no attempt to hit the dummy warhead. Rather, the mission was a fly-by designed to test the computer algorithm that recognizes the target and the sensors on board the intercepting missile.” Tompaine.com

I’m waiting with bated breath for tonight’s sixth test of NMD over Kwajalein Atoll, which is supposed to demonstrate that the interceptor missile can tell the difference between the target warhead and several decoys. My prediction: the Pentagon will announce another total success. We may or may not be told that the interceptor had been programmed with the vector of the warhead it was supposed to destroy…

Portrait of the director of mental health at the Mazar-i-Sharif General Hospital in Afghanistan, who says that beneath their turbans, thier Islamic rigor and their armed bluster, the Taliban were a significantly depressed group of men. Dr Nader Alemi is one of the few mental health professionals in Afghanistan, facing staggering psychiatric treatment needs. LA Times

An Israeli researcher reports that drivers who listen to fast music in their cars may have more than twice as many accidents as those listening to slower tracks. New Scientist

Camera fished from pond now takes surrealistic photos, a sampling of which accompanies the article… Lawrence Journal-World [via Spike]

Interview with Toby Lester: ‘One of the debates that continually roils the field of New Religious Movements scholarship is whether a distinction can really be made between cults and new religions—after all, many of today’s established religious movements began on the fringes of society. Does this mean that the Hare Krishnas or the Wiccans could be the next big religion? It’s unlikely, but stranger things have happened. One thing is clear, though—a hundred years from now, our religious landscape will look radically different than it does now. “What new religious movements will come to light in the twenty-first century?” ‘ The Atlantic

Paul Krugman:

‘The real reason conservatives want to drill in ANWR is the same reason they want to keep snowmobiles roaring through Yellowstone: sheer symbolism. Forcing rangers to wear respirators won’t make much difference to snowmobile sales — but it makes the tree-huggers furious, and that’s what’s appealing about it. The same is true about Arctic drilling; as one very moderate environmentalist told me, the reason the Bush administration pursues high-profile anti-environmental policies is not that they please special interests but that they are “red meat for the right.” (The real special-interest payoffs come via less showy policies, like the way the administration is undermining enforcement of the Clean Air Act.)… Oil companies are not behind the push for drilling there — indeed, they are notably unexcited by the prospect. Studies by the U.S. Geological Survey suggest why: Arctic oil is so expensive to get at that it’s barely worth extracting at current market prices. For energy companies it’s the rest of the Bush energy plan, which would give them about $35 billion in tax breaks and subsidies, that really matters.’ NY Times

For Bush, secrecy is a matter of loyalty: “Administration’s tight control over flow of information draws charges of ‘arrogance of power’ in Washington.” As Phil Agre, who pointed me to this blink, put it, “the United States is drifting into monarchy (not just secrecy but a general imperiousness and a broad pattern of nepotism).” USAToday

William Bennett announces “Americans for Victory Over Terrorism” (AVOT), a new project to support America’s war on terrorism. Bennet’s insidious message, in part, says

The threats we face today are both external and internal: external in that there are groups and states that want to attack the United States; internal in that there are those who are attempting to use this opportunity to promulgate their agenda of ‘blame America first.’ Both threats stem from either a hatred for the American ideals of freedom and equality or a misunderstanding of those ideals and their practice. “The threats we face today are both external and internal: external in that there are groups and states that want to attack the United States; internal in that there are those who are attempting to use this opportunity to promulgate their agenda of ‘blame America first.’ Both threats stem from either a hatred for the American ideals of freedom and equality or a misunderstanding of those ideals and their practice.

i.e. “anyone who doesn’t support us is pro-terrorism.” So, in response, would people care to join me in membership in AVOAVOT?

Study Finds Sexism Rampant In Nature: “According to a University of California–San Diego study released Monday, sexism is rampant throughout the natural world, particularly among the highest classes of vertebrates…”Females living in the wild routinely fall victim to everything from stereotyping to exclusion from pack activities to sexual harassment.”

Nowhere is the natural world’s gender inequity more transparent… than in the unfair burden females assume for the rearing of offspring.” The Onion

Can Lyme Disease Cause Psychiatric Disorders?

Lyme disease is no small health threat to persons living in the Northeast, the Mid-Atlantic states, Wisconsin, Minnesota, and northern California. True, the first signs of its onslaught are usually no more than flulike symptoms. But it is also capable, over the long haul, of inflicting a variety of other physiological insults—say, muscle pain, arthritis, heart inflammation, severe headache, stiff neck, or facial paralysis.

Now a new study adds one more malady to that list: psychiatric illness.

The study was conducted by Tomá Hájek, M.D., a psychiatry resident at the Prague Psychiatric Center in the Czech Republic, and his colleagues. It is reported in the February American Journal of Psychiatry.

There were several reasons that Lyme disease piqued the interest of Hájek and his colleagues. For one, Lyme disease is the most frequently recognized anthropod-borne infection of the central nervous system in Europe, as well as in the United States. Second, the bacterium that causes Lyme disease—Borrelia burgdorferi—belongs to the same family as does the bacterium that causes neurosyphilis. Around 1900 neurosyphilis accounted for some 10 percent to 15 percent of psychiatric hospital admissions, but because of penicillin treatment, it is now an uncommon disorder. And third, anecdotal reports have suggested that Lyme disease can lead to psychiatric consequences—say, mood changes or depression. Psychiatric News

I’ve written before about what has essentially been an Inquisition directed against those who claimed there is an insidious chronic outcome of some Lyme Disease infections, with prominent neuropsychiatric consequences — both the patients seeking recognition of and treatment for these effects and the medical personnel who sought to treat them. But there are both compelling theoretical and clinical lines of evidence, for those not wearing blinders, suggesting the need for this paradigm shift.

Saudi police ‘stopped’ fire rescue: “Saudi Arabia’s religious police stopped schoolgirls from leaving a blazing building because they were not wearing correct Islamic dress, according to Saudi newspapers.

In a rare criticism of the kingdom’s powerful ‘mutaween’ police, the Saudi media has accused them of hindering attempts to save 15 girls who died in the fire on Monday.” BBC