More than 50 million Americans suffer from mental illness or mental disorder. Because most of them are not severe and many go untreated, it may be helpful to understand the science behind what causes mental illness and how it manifests itself in everyday life
Source: The Science of Mental Illness
Many in the media have speculated that Jared Loughner’s heavy use of marijuana could have been in some way behind his recent rampage in Arizona that cost six people their lives, and left Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords critically wounded. Is this claim just media hype or based on real science?
The experts over at BigThink take a look at this question: Link to read more
Source: BigThink
The press are often guilty for their stereotyping of mental illness following tragic events. We do not know yet what provoked this act. Its refreshing then to read Vaughan Bell’s piece in Slate following the Gifford shootings.
This presumed link between psychiatric disorders and violence has become so entrenched in the public consciousness that the entire weight of the medical evidence is unable to shift it. Severe mental illness, on its own, is not an explanation for violence, but don’t expect to hear that from the media in the coming weeks.
Of course, like the rest of the population, some people with mental illness do become violent, and some may be riskier when they’re experiencing delusions and hallucinations. But these infrequent cases do not make “schizophrenia” or “bipolar” a helpful general-purpose explanation for criminal behavior.
The fact that mental illness is so often used to explain violent acts despite the evidence to the contrary almost certainly flows from how such cases are handled in the media. Numerous studies show that crimes by people with psychiatric problems are over-reported, usually with gross inaccuracies that give a false impression of risk.
Link to read Vaughan excellent analysis in the aftermath of the Gifford shootings.
Source: Slate
Image: iStockphoto
The University of Otago study, published in the August issue of the British Journal of Psychiatry, found that people who had episodes of psychiatric disorder between the ages of 18 and 25 were – by the age of 30 – less likely to be in full-time employment, were earning less money, and had a lower standard of living than people who had not experienced mental health problems. [continue reading…]
