Comments on: Aretaeus On Bipolar Disorder http://slatestarcodex.com/2014/01/12/areteaus-on-bipolar-disorder/ In a mad world, all blogging is psychiatry blogging Fri, 24 Jul 2015 17:56:02 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=4.2.3 By: Paul Torek http://slatestarcodex.com/2014/01/12/areteaus-on-bipolar-disorder/#comment-29755 Mon, 20 Jan 2014 01:02:21 +0000 http://slatestarcodex.com/?p=1347#comment-29755 I seriously doubt that bipolar disorder is roughly equally common in all nations and cultures. The diagnosis rate in the United States has certainly not remained constant, especially in certain age groups. Now, you might say that this is a matter of diagnosis, not prevalence. But that’s still evidence of a large cultural component: for instance, when does a certain pattern of behavior become a “problem”?

On a related note, starvation is significantly heritable, insofar as bodies differ in their reactions to calorie deprivation. But it’s not obvious that this has significant implications for the best ways to treat starvation.

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]]> By: Jeff Kaufman http://slatestarcodex.com/2014/01/12/areteaus-on-bipolar-disorder/#comment-29565 Sat, 18 Jan 2014 18:10:25 +0000 http://slatestarcodex.com/?p=1347#comment-29565 More on sleep apnea in The Pickwick Papers: http://www.charlesdickensinfo.com/novels/pickwick-papers/the-pickwick-papers-and-sleep-apnea-charles-dickens/

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]]> By: Julia http://slatestarcodex.com/2014/01/12/areteaus-on-bipolar-disorder/#comment-29548 Sat, 18 Jan 2014 17:29:04 +0000 http://slatestarcodex.com/?p=1347#comment-29548 Anorexia might count.

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]]> By: Brian http://slatestarcodex.com/2014/01/12/areteaus-on-bipolar-disorder/#comment-28012 Tue, 14 Jan 2014 17:59:49 +0000 http://slatestarcodex.com/?p=1347#comment-28012 Wikipedia lists several culture-bound syndrome among subpopulations of the US (mostly the South), but nothing common to mainstream American culture or Western culture in general. So that’s not very helpful.

What would we expect a culture-bound syndrome in the West to look like? There’s a lot of variation in symptoms between the ones Wikipedia lists, but they all appear in the local popular culture in a more or less medicalized form; many are linked to social pressures or have some sort of genital focus; spontaneous movement seems to be a theme.

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]]> By: Jed http://slatestarcodex.com/2014/01/12/areteaus-on-bipolar-disorder/#comment-27954 Tue, 14 Jan 2014 12:45:38 +0000 http://slatestarcodex.com/?p=1347#comment-27954 Before the Protestants got hold of it, sloth (“slowth”) was the emotional state of not wanting to do anything, rather than idleness per se. Dante’s description of hell-for-the-slothful uses imagery straight out of a Zoloft commercial: black clouds, breathlessness, drowsiness, turbid water, and weight. Mixed in with them are the wrathful, who trample the slothful into the fens of Styx while tearing one another to pieces. The circle above them houses hoarders and prodigals, who abuse each other in a kind of Sisyphean joust. The pair of pairings is unique in the Inferno, and the narrative underlines it by packing all four groups into a single canto.

There are a lot of quibbles. But you can tell a convincing story: Florence circa 1300 generated enormous amounts of new wealth. Sooner or later some of it would have made its way into the hands of unstable young men. Flame-outs would have been more spectacular then, because money was more concentrated, there was less to buy, and everybody knew everybody else. So someone like Dante would have gotten a good long look at some common pathologies.

But you do have to look askance at a guy whose response to the great 20th century tyrants would begin, “At least you didn’t charge any interest.”

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]]> By: Jed http://slatestarcodex.com/2014/01/12/areteaus-on-bipolar-disorder/#comment-27938 Tue, 14 Jan 2014 10:08:01 +0000 http://slatestarcodex.com/?p=1347#comment-27938 The Athenians chose leaders by drawing lots. It made sense to them because serving in the army was how you qualified for office, war between cities was fairly common, and in a phalanx almost half your protection comes from the shield of the guy to your right. So before you could be chosen, someone had to bet their femoral and carotid arteries on you.

Not that it mattered. It’s a lesson that bears repeating: bad politics comes from bad incentives, not bad people.

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]]> By: Joe from London http://slatestarcodex.com/2014/01/12/areteaus-on-bipolar-disorder/#comment-27903 Tue, 14 Jan 2014 04:43:08 +0000 http://slatestarcodex.com/?p=1347#comment-27903 Have you tried running this experiment on a few diseases you do consider to be culture-bound? I’m not sure which ones you place in that category, but it might be an interesting experiment.

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]]> By: JRM http://slatestarcodex.com/2014/01/12/areteaus-on-bipolar-disorder/#comment-27872 Mon, 13 Jan 2014 20:28:50 +0000 http://slatestarcodex.com/?p=1347#comment-27872 This. And I think we should honor Scott’s implicit request.

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]]> By: Andrew http://slatestarcodex.com/2014/01/12/areteaus-on-bipolar-disorder/#comment-27865 Mon, 13 Jan 2014 18:37:37 +0000 http://slatestarcodex.com/?p=1347#comment-27865 Comments aren’t closed on that post due to a misclick or a software bug, you know. If you’ve got something super-important to say to Scott, I imagine he’d rather you email him. If you’ve got something super-important to say to the internet, I imagine he’d rather you at least say it somewhere else.

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]]> By: Multiheaded http://slatestarcodex.com/2014/01/12/areteaus-on-bipolar-disorder/#comment-27861 Mon, 13 Jan 2014 16:33:33 +0000 http://slatestarcodex.com/?p=1347#comment-27861 Recursion ad infinitum!

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