[ExI] "Feral" humans, NOT

[Keith Henson]

On Thu, Jan 13, 2011 at 5:00 AM,  BillK <pharos at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> On Thu, Jan 13, 2011 at 6:22 AM, Keith Henson  wrote:
> <snip>
>> If schizophrenia is the result of a reactivated infection of HERV-W,
>> then we no longer have to think of the person who has schizophrenia as
>> being at fault any more than a person who has TB or cancer.
>>
>> And perhaps we can be more observant, especially if people can be
>> tested for antibodies to the virus. ?You see a friend start acting
>> weird and withdrawing, maybe they should be tested and treated because
>> it there might be a cause for the odd behavior that they have no
>> control over.
>>
>> It's possible that a high level of HERV-W should be reason to keep
>> people from buying guns.
>
> Yes, if someone acts weird (like not supporting the government) then
> they should be treated for dangerous behaviour.  Millions of children
> in the US already get fed psychiatric drugs to treat behavioural
> problems.

It's has potential for abuse I fully admit.

ADD kids on attention concentration drugs is a ghodsend in some cases.

But what I am concerned about here is late adolescence or early adult
onset schizophrenia.

Caught early and treated most people who have it can lead productive
lives.  Untreated it seems to have a bad feedback loop and the
prognosis is not good.

One of the most serious problems is that people withdraw from people
who start acting weird--like happened in Jared's case.  This has
negative effects similar to being put in solitary confinement.

Shooting up a political gathering is 6 or 7 sigma out even for florid
schizophrenia.  But I know of at least two incidences where
schizophrenia was untreated because of a certain cult's belief against
any psychiatric treatment.  They did not end well.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elli_Perkins
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientology_in_Australia#Revesby_murder
In both cases relatives prevented the administration of anti psychotic
drugs.

*IF* HERV-W is causal and is something that can be tested, then wide
spread awareness of the behavior and thinking changes that go with the
onset of schizophrenia might result in people being referred into
medical treatment early.  This would take fairly serious education of
people to watch for these kinds of changes in their friends.  Or it
might be that everyone should be tested for active HERV-W and maybe
treated if they show signs that this retro virus is active.

Testing and treating might reduce or eliminate MS as well as bipolar disease.

Sixty million years is a *long* time for an infection.

Keith