Monday, 17 May 2010

Could mental illness be contagious?

The biomedical model of illness would consider this impossible however within a biopsychosocial model this is a possibility.

A study was done at Harvard a couple of years ago using data from the Framington Heart Study to do a longditutional analysis of happiness and social networks. This research is in its infancy and the authors hadn't considered the complexity of the definition of happiness. Instead they used a psychopathological scale and considered the opposite of depression to be happiness. This is useful to show that the opposite of depression can be transferred between people, or that the opposite of mental illness can spread through social networks with an influence factor of up to three degrees of separation. I can't remember if the author explained the mechanisms for this contagious effect however the paper was enough for a media headline "Happiness is infectious."

Research paper: Dynamic spread of happiness in a large social network: longitudinal analysis of the Framingham Heart Study social network 
BMJ Online

Research paper: Detecting implausible social network effects in acne, height and headaches: longitudinal analysis 
BMJ Online

Editorial: Happiness, social networks and health 
BMJ Online

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthnews/3548303/Happiness-is-infectious-and-spreads-through-friends-and-family.html

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We It comes in part from an appreciation that no one can truly sign their own work. Everything is many influences coming together to the one moment where a work exists. The other is a begrudging acceptance that my work was never my own. There is another consciousness or non-corporeal entity that helps and harms me in everything I do. I am not I because of this force or entity. I am "we"