An idea for treatment for schizophrenia from Japan

This is some fucking interesting shit.

Comparison of Current Schizophrenia Therapy in the United States and Japan
Sayuri Yamaguchi
The University of Arizona
http://juns.nursing.arizona.edu/yamaguchi.htm

(PWS stands for people with schizophrenia)
"
Family and Folk Therapy in Okinawa, Japan

In the Okinawa prefecture of Japan, the family is actually considered to
be the first source of mutual help and support for the PWS. The ties
within the Okinawan family are strong, and easily run through three
generations. The problem of one family member is usually regarded as
being a problem of the whole family, and all the family members unite to
deal with any given situation. This cultural characteristic of Okinawans
offers many advantages. The strong family and social ties provide the
security, care, and emotional and material support that are very much
needed by the discharged chronically ill PWS (Matayoshi, 1996).

In Okinawa there is a unique "ethno-medicine" family therapy, which is
practiced by a therapist/healer known as a "Yuta." The Yuta's role is
primarily an advisor who closely relates to the patient's daily life,
providing spiritual counsel concerning health problems and general
counsel for mental health matters (Naka, Takaishi, Ishizu, and Sasaki,
1983). One example is that the Yuta uses the examination of a patient's
family tree to identify a mental illness in the patient's ancestors, so
as to make the PWS aware of this connection. By doing so, the family
member and the client see schizophrenia as an inherited family problem,
rather than as an individual's behavioral problem (Matayoshi, 1996).
This therapy is effective because it takes into full consideration the
cultural, societal, and personal needs of the PWS. The Yuta's
credentials are totally reliant on reputation rather than education, a
factor that seems to reduce patient/therapist boundaries; the PWS
therefore feels more relaxed and less distanced from the advice that
they are receiving. A conceptual model of current comparison therapy for
a PWS in the U.S.A. and Japan is presented (Figure 1). Cultural
diversity in the U.S.A. and Japan are shown, as well as differences and
similarities in patient management.
"

A note to a friend

There's a friend who my senses tell me needs some support. I have no
information on this other than the sense that she is going through what
I am going through. It is a sense I very, very, very rarely act upon.

If you need me I wish I could be there for you right now. I know I
probably don't help much but I take you away from your troubles for a
moment, or at least that's my hope. Sometimes that small thing is enough
to lift a person out of the doldrums of distress.

My jug is totally empty. Of course I can keep on giving but when I'm in
this state I'm not sure I'd be able to distract you with my waffle and
childish japery. I'm sorry but there are times when I just need to try
and help myself instead of helping others in order to help myself.

Yes, there's an implicit admission that I may be going through a hard
time however I'm internalising it and working through it on my own as
part of my process. I will come out soon.

I may be wrong.

What if you thought someone was lying when they were telling the truth?

I deal with paranoia on a daily basis. One of my paranoias is that some
people think I lie about stuff. In a sense I do though usually it's an
error of omission. I rarely tell outright lies. They usually cost me a
lot so I avoid them. My most common form of lie is witholding evidence,
for example I'll often justify the impression that it's not that bad
having a severe mental illness by leaving out some of the details of
just how shit it really is.

One of my recent paranoias has been that people think I'm lying about my
past. I don't know why this is happening. The reason may be a distrust
of my friends and it's all I can do to fight the paranoia. My past is as
unusual as I am, and perhaps that's why the paranoia might be true (and
therefore not paranoia?).

I've got some amazing stories too - too many for a normal person to
have. Some people would see me as some sort of pathological liar though
my old friends who know the truth are probably just bored of the same,
old insane stories. For them there's no incredulity when I tell them I
stumbled across a gay nudist night on a Monday evening in London and
tried to get in. If I tell them I wrote 25,000 words in 5 days they'll
say "I know you idiot, you emailed it to me as you wrote it."

But I don't know what the truth is. It takes faith but sometimes it's
really bloody hard.

Link for info on dreams and mental illness

http://www.psyplexus.com/excl/dicp_2.html

Disability law in Indian

From
Banerjee, G. (2001) The concept of disability and mental illness. Mental Health Reviews,  Accessed from <http://www.psyplexus.com/excl/cdmi.html> on May 23, 2010
http://www.psyplexus.com/excl/cdmi.html

"
At present, measurement of the extent and nature of disability in relation to mental illness is a crying need for both academic and administrative purposes. Such measurements will ensure scientific basis for further study of disability in relation to mental illness. Objective and precise measurement of disability is also necessary for determination of extent of social security benefits for each individual.
"

There's some other useful snips.
"

In 1993 the United Nations declared that the term “Disability” summarized a great number of different functional limitations occurring in any population in any country of the world. People may be disabled by physical, intellectual or sensory impairment, medical conditions or mental illness. The U.N. has thereby broadened the ambit of the concept of disability and specifically included mental illness in addition to mental retardation as a cause of disability. This authoritative statement has had an appreciable impact on the academicians, administrators, legislators and other policy makers in favour of mentally disabled persons. From a clinical point of view WHO (1992) accepted disability as one of the consequences of mental and behavioral disorders.

Disability in the context of mental disorders may involve following areas of a person’s functioning:

1. Activities of daily living including health care, grooming, dressing, bathing, looking after one’s health etc.

2. Social relationship including communication skill, ability to form relationships and sustain them.

3. Occupational functioning – ability to acquire a job and hold it, cognitive and social skills required for the job, doing home-work or studying as a student.

"

And a little on the development of the Indian equivalent of the DDA
"

In 1993 the United Nations declared that the term “Disability” summarized a great number of different functional limitations occurring in any population in any country of the world. People may be disabled by physical, intellectual or sensory impairment, medical conditions or mental illness. The U.N. has thereby broadened the ambit of the concept of disability and specifically included mental illness in addition to mental retardation as a cause of disability. This authoritative statement has had an appreciable impact on the academicians, administrators, legislators and other policy makers in favour of mentally disabled persons. From a clinical point of view WHO (1992) accepted disability as one of the consequences of mental and behavioral disorders.

Disability in the context of mental disorders may involve following areas of a person’s functioning:

1. Activities of daily living including health care, grooming, dressing, bathing, looking after one’s health etc.

2. Social relationship including communication skill, ability to form relationships and sustain them.

3. Occupational functioning – ability to acquire a job and hold it, cognitive and social skills required for the job, doing home-work or studying as a student.

"

Assorted wildlife

I've been playing with my old Sigma 400mm f5.6. It's another independent
lens that doesn't work on modern Canon digital SLR except at the widest
aperture. Getting an in focus shot is very hard because of the small
depth of field at long focal lengths and wide apertures which make for a
small depth of field. The quality is also awful and made worse by the
high ISOs needed to get a high enough shutter speed. 1/750s is the
minimum shutter speed required to get acceptably sharp shots with
minimal blur from hand movements with this lens whereas 1/90s is
sufficient for a 50mm lens. Lenses are invariably worst at their widest
aperture. There is significant purple fringing that can be seen on some
of the edges and a modern lens designed for digital sensors would be
significantly better but cost in the region of £1000 whereas when I
bought this second hand it cost me just over £100. The autofocus is
faster than the Sigma 70-200mm f2.8 because the simpler and lighter
optics are easier to move and the len's focus range is insensitive, i.e.
a small adjustment can make a large change in the point of focus.

A useful figure on the rate of homicide by "patients" in the UK

From P34 of National Confidential Inquiry into Suicide and Homicide by People with Mental Illness Annual Report July 2009
http://www.medicine.manchester.ac.uk/psychiatry/research/suicide/prevention/nci/inquiryannualreports/AnnualReportJuly2009.pdf

"During 1997-2005, 510 people convicted of homicides (10% of all those convicted) were identified as patient homicides, i.e. the person had been in contact with mental health services in the 12 months prior to the offence."

The figure is for convictions of homicide and I am unsure if that covers manslaughter, diminished responsibility and not guilty by reason of insanity. It also only covers people who have been in touch with services within the year.

P 33 has information on the number of people in psychotic or abnormal states however I'm too lazy today to analyse the data on the page.

There is a figure I'm hunting to find a reference for
"95% of homicides are committed by people who have not been diagnosed with a mental health problem"

I can't find the source and the high quality sources indicates the figure would be higher.

The chance of being killed by someone experiencing the symptoms of a mental illness is also about 10%. (http://www.mind.org.uk/help/research_and_policy/dangerousness_and_mental_health_the_facts#_edn5)

As with all these sort of things the percentages are meaningless in relation to the risk. The risk of being murdered is tiny though there is a high degree of public paranoia and hysteria about the risk of death.