Maia Szalavitz on February 13, 2008 9:21 AM
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New York Magazine has a fascinating first-person account of one man's experience with Chantix, the new anti-smoking medication which is currently generating reports of bizarre side effects like creepy dreams and suicidal or homicidal thoughts.
The author describes a series of experiences that are eerily reminiscent of accounts of schizophrenia. There is paranoia and difficulty determining what is real: "I tried to shake a weird, paranoid sense that I’d just been psychically raped by a household appliance," the author writes.
There are delusions of reference, the idea that particular experiences are being aimed specifically at you: "Mundane details began to strike me as having deep, hidden significance. The neon arch above McDonald’s: The lights blinked on and off in some sort of pattern, and I needed to crack the code. One of my co-workers was messing with some papers: What is he trying to imply with all that damned crinkling?"
Continue reading 'New antismoking drug Chantix: a true psychotomimetic?' >
Joey Seiler on November 29, 2007 3:13 PM
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"Exposure to violent electronic media has a larger effect than all but one other well-known threat to public health. The only effect slightly larger than the effect of media violence on aggression is that of cigarette smoking on lung cancer," said L. Rowell Huesmann, author of a new study in a special edition of the Journal of Adolescent Health looking at over 50 years of research.
While smokers can remain excited that they're still living on the edge as by far the most badass people in the world, people have been ragging on violent media for, obviously, over 50 years (actual date closer to 2000 years.) But it looks like this study was promoted by the government. At the very bottom of the press release is this tidbit: "The supplement was funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention."
Continue reading 'The CDC wants you to know that video games are almost as bad as smoking' >
Ted Alvarez on November 29, 2007 2:23 AM
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