Common infections can spark psychiatric illnesses in children • Hacker News Board

Re: Common infections can spark psychiatric illnesses in children

#91

Post by genewitch » Tue, Sep 26, 2023, 5:26 PM UTC

wizzwizz4 wrote: post #82

genewitch wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, you don't understand, "vaccines" are just biological agents now. They're no longer merely "weakened" forms of what we're trying to protect against. Don't you see? Vaccines can't cause this sort of injury, because they're not the disease! Definition of the word "vaccine": Nov, 2020: "Definition of vaccine: a preparation of killed microorganisms, living attenuated organisms, or living fully virulent organisms that…

> don't worry, i'm sure it doesn't mean anything. It means we invented mRNA vaccines, which were never organisms of any kind. But they're clearly vaccines. Whatever dictionary you picked updated its definition accordingly. Strictly speaking, according to your "Nov, 2020" definition, smallpox is a cowpox vaccine. I think that's silly. I'd prefer a definition like: > vaccine (n): a substance that supplies antigenic inf…

I submit that my problem with this is that mRNA therapeutics aren't vaccines, they're mRNA therapeutics. The word "Vaccine" comes from "cow" because of cowpox.

Changing the definition so pfizer et al can rake in $50 billion is what i take issue with. If they had said "This isn't a vaccine it's genetic modification" or whatever, no one would have signed up for it. It was a concentrated effort to change language. Control words, control thoughts - George Carlin was commenting on this in the 1990s!

I am not the only one that takes issue with all of this crap.

Re: Common infections can spark psychiatric illnesses in children

#92

Post by elwell » Tue, Sep 26, 2023, 5:30 PM UTC

dylan604 wrote: post #52

kouru225 wrote: post #32

Honestly I feel like the science community’s disregard for religion has caused them to completely fail at dealing with human psychology. Science has spent the last 1.5 centuries presenting itself as a counterpoint to religion, but they fail to understand that religion is just an early attempt at talking about the subconscious. So the science community continually misidentifies issues stemming from the subconscious as…

This is stated as if religion has never had it's own pseudo-science/medicine beliefs that conflicted with actual issues. "we don't know what's going on, so it must be a possession" type of things when it could have been something more more like schizophrenia or some other medical condition.

> "we don't know what's going on, so it must be a possession" type of things when it could have been something more more like schizophrenia or some other medical condition.

Maybe the spiritual representation is more 'accurate'. Is the concept of love more useful or the concept of oxytocin?

Re: Common infections can spark psychiatric illnesses in children

#93

Post by stephen_g » Tue, Sep 26, 2023, 5:32 PM UTC

markisus wrote: post #4

I wonder if these findings may partially explain the often derided theory that childhood vaccines can cause autism. The article directly mentions that an autism misdiagnosis can result from psychiatric symptoms resulting from an autoimmune response after certain infections.

The theory that there was never any actual evidence for? The only explanation for the theory as far as I know is fraud…

Re: Common infections can spark psychiatric illnesses in children

#94

Post by xpe » Tue, Sep 26, 2023, 5:32 PM UTC

TimTheTinker wrote: post #75

exolymph wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nerd-sniped: Free will is an incoherent idea. We don't choose our preferences, which dictate our choices. (And even supposing you can choose a preference, that's only due to the preexisting desire to have such a preference. Turtles all the way down.) What would an unconstrained choice even be? Just random, arbitrary? That doesn't sound "free" either.

Ancient religion and philosophy taught that habits influence desires far more strongly than desires influence habits. It is possible to want different desires (if you disagree, ask any recovering drug addict). So even conflicting desires can exist simultaneously on multiple planes of consciousness. A powerful way to change your desires to be what you want them to be is to change your habits.

Yes, and that raises the question: by what mechanisms do we change our habits?

I like an idea mentioned by James Clear (author of the "Atomic Habits" book) that each action we take is a "vote" towards establishing or breaking a habit.

There are connections between this notion and neurochemistry, such as Hebbian learning.

Re: Common infections can spark psychiatric illnesses in children

#95

Post by function_seven » Tue, Sep 26, 2023, 5:35 PM UTC

TimTheTinker wrote: post #75

exolymph wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nerd-sniped: Free will is an incoherent idea. We don't choose our preferences, which dictate our choices. (And even supposing you can choose a preference, that's only due to the preexisting desire to have such a preference. Turtles all the way down.) What would an unconstrained choice even be? Just random, arbitrary? That doesn't sound "free" either.

Ancient religion and philosophy taught that habits influence desires far more strongly than desires influence habits. It is possible to want different desires (if you disagree, ask any recovering drug addict). So even conflicting desires can exist simultaneously on multiple planes of consciousness. A powerful way to change your desires to be what you want them to be is to change your habits.

Sure, but what motivates that change in habits? Does it spontaneously arise? Does is trace back to some other event? Neither of these illustrate a degree of freedom.

Re: Common infections can spark psychiatric illnesses in children

#96

Post by colordrops » Tue, Sep 26, 2023, 5:36 PM UTC

goda90 wrote: post #66

colordrops wrote: post #3

I remember feeling pretty normal until I had a strep throat infection when I was 7, after which I got really introverted and twitchy/compulsive ever since. Maybe a coincidence but I sometimes wonder if that did something to me. edit: I swear I made this comment this before reading the article. It starts off with a boy at 7 with strep that got twitchy, which is 100% in line with my experience. Crazy.

I'm curious how quickly you got on antibiotics, if at all. I had strep multiple times in my life, including tonsillitis that nearly hospitalized me one time. But my family was quick to spot the signs and get me treatment and I don't recognize any long term impact from it.

Unfortunately I don't remember.

Re: Common infections can spark psychiatric illnesses in children

#97

Post by brewdad » Tue, Sep 26, 2023, 5:41 PM UTC

pixl97 wrote: post #78

mistersquid wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Not eating and getting low blood sugar can much more simply answer the question of "Do I have free will, or am I a subject of my internal chemical reactions". You cannot control what you feel, but you can control your actions.

Can you? I'm a type 1 diabetic, I have a continuous monitor that tells me what my glucose level is. This monitors actual interstitial fluid level and not blood sugar, this means there can be a pretty large delay between what's measured just under the skin versus what my blood stream is experiencing. If a rapid drop occurs there can be a lead time that I'm unaware of it, but others are because I'll behave in a 'cranky…

My mother was a T1 diabetic back in the days where insulin injections were basically a best guess based on what you had eaten and planned to eat. It was always fun as a child not knowing whether my little screw-ups would bring an exasperated sigh and a chuckle or the low-glucose demon.

I'm so happy that managing your disease is much more straightforward than it was in the 70s or 80s. It also appears that life expectancies are much higher since it's easier to avoid the extreme roller coaster of too high and too low blood sugar. Best wishes.

Re: Common infections can spark psychiatric illnesses in children

#98

Post by M1ch431 » Tue, Sep 26, 2023, 5:41 PM UTC

badcppdev wrote: post #8

This is sad: "years spent campaigning to get doctors to take the illnesses seriously." It's like that saying, "Capitalism: The worst economic system, except for all the others". Our medical system where we rely on individual doctors for primary care is really flawed but it's better than any alternatives that we have (or that we can afford anyway)

I've commented on the past on Direct Primary Care practices - it's a different model of care that is rapidly growing; you can read my previous thoughts on this model here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33682407

I largely think that doctors, especially primary care doctors, are being limited/held hostage by the insurance companies and the health care corporations that they work for.

They are not reaping the profits from the care they give, and can't focus because of patient loads being way too high. As it was explained to me by my doctor, this is because of how insurance companies pay out (per visit, no matter the duration) and the places that employ doctors usually expect that they see a certain volume of patients. Most doctors have a large amount of student loan debt, and usually feel helpless to fight against it - starting a new practice is very costly.

Once you really look into how oppressive/restrictive the system is to our doctors, the issue with our health care becomes pretty clear. People can't get timely, accurate care -- they have to wait for most prescriptions (because as long as doctors take insurance, they cannot fill medications), and they are always guessing (fearing might be more apt) how much a particular medication, test, or scan will eventually cost, causing hesitancy to seek out care. And most importantly, no longer do patients (or their doctor) have to worry if their insurance company will cover XYZ medication or treatment under this model of care.

My doctor negotiated with a local lab company, and that company offers my doctor's patients pretty much any test at-cost - this is another business dealing that is restricted by insurance companies.

DPC takes all the mystery out (I pay $45 a month for this service, all visits are free): all common procedures/lab/scan/medication costs are up on the website (they are very reasonable/wholesale/at-cost), and I don't have to fight to get that information; I don't have to fight to get an appointment, I can text/email/etc. my doctor whenever and get a prompt response. Because he limits the amount of patients he sees this is possible.

I think if primary care was overall something like this model, but perhaps a bit more accessible (more doctors practicing this way); not only would a lot of illness be treated before it is chronic, people would be less afraid to seek care out, and hospitals and specialists would be less overloaded.

Re: Common infections can spark psychiatric illnesses in children

#99

Post by neongodzilla » Tue, Sep 26, 2023, 5:43 PM UTC

mistersquid wrote: post #68

pixl97 wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>It makes you honestly question the idea of freewill. Not eating and getting low blood sugar can much more simply answer the question of "Do I have free will, or am I a subject of my internal chemical reactions". Or, much more simply stated "You're not you when you are hungry".

> Not eating and getting low blood sugar can much more simply answer the question of "Do I have free will, or am I a subject of my internal chemical reactions". You cannot control what you feel, but you can control your actions.

You have clearly never met someone having a hypoglycemic event. It can absolutely change their personality, as significantly as a head injury.

Re: Common infections can spark psychiatric illnesses in children

#100

Post by tabtab » Tue, Sep 26, 2023, 5:43 PM UTC

goda90 wrote: post #50

It seems that the Sci-fi future of medicine is one where we can closely understand what the immune system is doing and manipulate it.

A fight against a virus is all-out war in the body. In any big war, there will be significant collateral damage. The body has to "bomb" brain and nerve cells to kill infected cells, and obviously if you have enough of them taken out, it will have lasting impact on your function.

Some grow back, some don't, and even those that grow back need to be retrained. For those that don't grow back, other cells and body parts have to learn to compensate.

Please keep up on your inoculations.