Covid-19 - Psychological research and treatment

Merged thread


CFS, hypochondriasis, and Covid-19 (Kuwaiti society survey)

I wasn't really sure what the survey found. Maybe somebody can locate the paper or report.

Dr. Marc-Alexander Fluks
Source: Kuwait News Agency (KUNA)
Date: April 15, 2020
URL:
https://www.kuna.net.kw/ArticleDetails.aspx?id=2886062&Language=en


Coronavirus poses multiple hazards to Kuwaiti society - survey
 
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OK I actually laughed out loud at this one. It's basically extending the worst of Wessely's tropes and taking them to their most extreme absurd conclusions, in a second language, written by someone who just barely learned to write. The substance is basically the exact same, though, the only difference is the style. It pretty much says the same stuff as the latest beauty from the Oxford pamphlet, just more awkwardly.

Which really shows how the entire ME-BPS model is purely rhetorical, as without flowery rhetoric and the veneer of falsely technical arguments it just looks ridiculous. Or basically what it would look like if a high school student made a last minute book report on those same ideas. Still, the substance is basically the exact same thing in the pamphlet, because of course they derive from the same beliefs.

Production value, perception, is basically all the BPS model is. Basically The Producers meet The Aristocrats joke. Except it's not a joke and the consequences are real.

The gist of it:
The survey noted that 41.8 percent of non-Kuwaiti respondents and 38 percent of Kuwaitis have developed negative attitudes due to the impacts of the deadly virus.
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Symptom of chronic fatigue syndrome involve general tiredness, emotional, physical, behavioral and mental tiredness, which are often felt by individuals with negative attitudes.
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I have no idea what behavioral tiredness is. I doubt whoever wrote that does either.
 
tl;dr: this is a familiar danger sign.


the hazard to society message is not thickly veiled.

i only pick this article because it is there. i
could have picked nearly anything. thousands of articles.


it is normal to laugh at moronicity, but i think it is also
needed to see it as an attack on a population. whether intended as such or not.

what the public sees is what we saw in the op.

i don't think many with a passing familiarity with the
lead up to, for example, massacres
and lynchings, will find the veil convincing.


the message that gets
taken by many readers is
that certain disease populations are THEMSELVES burdens to
society, invalid, or less than completely normal or human.

it might SAY negative attudes, or illness beliefs, or
biogenetic immunobabblelific whatever, but that only allows for slipperiness.


in practice, to say that a population is a burden/hazard to society, invalid, or
less than completely human is to say that that population is
less deserving of fundamental
rights as citizens and as humans.


it could be in times of crisis, that if you are deemed to
have a negative attitude, you "don't deserve" treatment for
covid or anything else. i do not view this as implausible.

it could be gelled into policy quickly.

with m.e. or any politically similar disease on your record,
will you be triaged without bias? when the system is
overwhelmed?

social darwinism -like and eugenics-like sentiments are growing. you'vemaybe seen them.


i don't think the veil needs much attention. we know the veil is often whatever works.

it does not have to make sense. analyzing nonsense isn't needed as much as noticing the message.

in this case, there is a confusing mix of a construct called
negative attitudes, a false portrayal -- a smear agains the
population -- and a description of a construct that is more
useful to authority than humans.


the message allows for
medical care to be yanked from anybody who needs it.


the rhetorical appeals are /ethos/ with fear of an internal
ougroup, and /pathos/. you are not deserving, and society
is threatened, or beset, by you plural. you are a
member of an internal outgroup.

think back to everything said about m.e. and similarly-mistreated diseases in the press that
smeared. since 1980s and earlier to the early part of
the 1900s. in fact, earlier. the same themes crop up again and again.


regardless of overall intent -- it is not necessary to posit
conspiracy -- the wider community of m.e. and
similarly mistreated diseases might be wise to consider an
idea, sooner instead of later.

the idea is as follows:

1) this /type of/ thing can be seen as, in
effect, attacks. smears. not merely misguided
research.
2) they constitute, /ipso facto/, part of a
widespread and systematic attack on a civilian
population [viz. those who are sick with certain
diseases]. there are details here.
3) the fact that this type of attack is even possible
constitutes a human rights crisis, over and above
existing crises of not being taken seriously, no
services, potemkin research, little real research, etc.
4) the attack manifests a distinct sociopolitical
phenomenon, roughly analogous to
racism except against those who are sick.


overall intent is not needed to accept this idea.
all that is needed is a drumbeat of
attacks on populations.


i hope those who can, will take a look at my two recent
blog posts on the kafka pandemic.

the most recent post took me perhaps about 16 years to
write. i hope some of you will take a few minutes :).
the post before it sets historical bg.


i welcome comments at any level of detail in my blog
comments on my blog.

however, for this forum, i hope only that you will find the idea above worth
thinking about.
i just want to present it for your consideration.

more urgently i hope that you perceive that this type of
thing is a danger sign.

that it is not only an eddy of moronicity in a
current of arrant destruction, but PART OF something big and
latent that can get even worse suddenly in a crisis.


1) https://thekafkapandemic.blogspot.com/2020/02/crimes-against-humanity_3.html
2) https://thekafkapandemic.blogspot.com/2020/01/eugenics.html
 
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Merged thread

Multidisciplinary research priorities for the COVID-19 pandemic: a call for action for mental health science

https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanpsy/article/PIIS2215-0366(20)30168-1/fulltext

Summary
The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic is having a profound effect on all aspects of society, including mental health and physical health. We explore the psychological, social, and neuroscientific effects of COVID-19 and set out the immediate priorities and longer-term strategies for mental health science research. These priorities were informed by surveys of the public and an expert panel convened by the UK Academy of Medical Sciences and the mental health research charity, MQ: Transforming Mental Health, in the first weeks of the pandemic in the UK in March, 2020. We urge UK research funding agencies to work with researchers, people with lived experience, and others to establish a high level coordination group to ensure that these research priorities are addressed, and to allow new ones to be identified over time. The need to maintain high-quality research standards is imperative. International collaboration and a global perspective will be beneficial. An immediate priority is collecting high-quality data on the mental health effects of the COVID-19 pandemic across the whole population and vulnerable groups, and on brain function, cognition, and mental health of patients with COVID-19. There is an urgent need for research to address how mental health consequences for vulnerable groups can be mitigated under pandemic conditions, and on the impact of repeated media consumption and health messaging around COVID-19. Discovery, evaluation, and refinement of mechanistically driven interventions to address the psychological, social, and neuroscientific aspects of the pandemic are required. Rising to this challenge will require integration across disciplines and sectors, and should be done together with people with lived experience. New funding will be required to meet these priorities, and it can be efficiently leveraged by the UK's world-leading infrastructure. This Position Paper provides a strategy that may be both adapted for, and integrated with, research efforts in other countries.
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Simon's been busy (Couldn't see a thread for this.)

@dave30th
 
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Post-infectious fatigue and depressive syndromes have been associated with other epidemics, and it seems possible that the same will be true of the COVID-19 pandemic. Longitudinal studies, especially if commenced before or soon after the start of the current pandemic, will be crucial in establishing the often complex biological pathways between infection and mental health outcomes.115 , 116 , 117
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115. Wessely S History of postviral fatigue syndrome. Br Med Bull. 1991; 47: 919-941 View in Article PubMed Crossref Google Scholar

116. White PD Thomas JM Amess J et al. Incidence, risk and prognosis of acute and chronic fatigue syndromes and psychiatric disorders after glandular fever. Br J Psychiatry. 1998; 173: 475-481 View in Article PubMed Crossref Google Scholar

117. Wessely S Chalder T Hirsch S Pawlikowska T Wallace P Wright DJM Postinfectious fatigue: prospective cohort study in primary care. Lancet. 1995; 345: 1333-1338
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We urge UK research funding agencies to work with researchers, people with lived experience, and others to establish a high level coordination group to ensure that these research priorities are addressed, and to allow new ones to be identified over time. The need to maintain high-quality research standards is imperative. International collaboration and a global perspective will be beneficial.
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Say what you like about Wessely, he is exceptionally good at lobbying for taxpayer funds.
 
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I can't imagine a worst possible group of people for this task if it involves Wessely. The only response to this frankly is: haven't these people suffered enough? Apparently not. This weird framing of depression syndromes really makes it clear that nothing good will come of this. It's not even a thing and now it will be a thing that was always a thing, somehow.

I feel deep sadness for all the harm this will cause, knowing it could have been avoided entirely. All the money wasted on this, not because it's not needed but because it will be badly bungled to promote the BPS ideology, could do so much good.

At least it will expose the charlatanism but the harm done until that happens will be impossible to roll back. Hopefully economics will make it irrelevant sooner rather than later, what a waste of resources in a massive crisis. There is hardly any group of people for which society would be better off simply paying to stay home.
 
Social Connection Keeps Us Safe
Social isolation can cause the body’s defenses to overreact and lead to long-term health problems. So in this pandemic, aim for physical distancing combined with socializing—at a distance.

Ty Cannon | April 14, 2020
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George M. Slavich answered a few questions about his article “Social Safety Theory: A Biologically Based Evolutionary Perspective on Life Stress, Health, and Behavior,” from the 2020 Annual Review of Clinical Psychology

What is your article about?

In this article, I propose a new Social Safety Theory, which describes the critical importance of social safety and belonging for human health and wellbeing. Whereas maintaining close social bonds is protective for health in this model, negative experiences like social isolation and rejection can lead to changes in the immune system that include increases in pro-inflammatory activity and decreases in anti-viral activity. Although these changes may have little effect over the short term, if sustained, they can increase individuals’ risk for inflammation-related health problems, like cardiovascular disease and depression, as well as their susceptibility to viruses like the common cold and, potentially, the COVID-19 virus.
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https://www.annualreviews.org/shot-of-science/story/social-connection-keeps-us-safe

is there any scientific evidence for any of this?
 
Sly Saint said:
Social Connection Keeps Us Safe


https://www.annualreviews.org/shot-of-science/story/social-connection-keeps-us-safe

is there any scientific evidence for any of this?
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That's never bothered BPS folks before. It's a convenient narrative, though, reducing complexity to very simple aphorisms, and in the end, isn't that what medicine is all about? It's not, obviously, but ideology is oblivious to reality and BPSers never look at the outcomes so it's always right.

And anyway there's always ME patients to use as props. Almost all are socially isolated, as a consequence, and almost all have abnormal immune systems. The direction of causality is just an inconvenient detail, after all if you zoom in, arrows are just a straight line so does causality really matter when you've already decided that science doesn't?

I can't imagine a worst test for the BPS ideology than a deadly pandemic. But they are going all in on this because belief and escalation of commitment compel. An ideology that exists mainly as a cost-savings program that actually ends up costing far more. One that lacks any accountability and relies on magical thinking. During a deadly pandemic. Marvelous new Lysenkoism, a modern modest proposal.
 
Special Issue: Immunopsychiatry of COVID-19 pandemic
Special Issue: Immunopsychiatry of COVID-19 pandemic
Guest Editors: Carmine Pariante and Kuna-Pin Su

The aim of this special issue would be a substantial effort to bring together the current (pre-clinical and clinical) progress on the COVID-19 epidemiology, etiology, pathogenesis, and molecular mechanisms. We call for papers to address biopsychosocial aspects of this infection, as well as the psychoneuroimmunity (PNI) of treatment and preventive strategies. The possible list of topics may include original research, biological/clinical data-based papers, and reviews/opinion on:
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https://www.journals.elsevier.com/b...l-issue-immunopsychiatry-of-covid-19-pandemic

eta: is Carmine Pariante still on the CMRC?
https://www.s4me.info/posts/139625
 
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Sly Saint said:
Special Issue: Immunopsychiatry of COVID-19 pandemic
Special Issue: Immunopsychiatry of COVID-19 pandemic
Guest Editors: Carmine Pariante and Kuna-Pin Su



https://www.journals.elsevier.com/b...l-issue-immunopsychiatry-of-covid-19-pandemic
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Any bets on whether there'll be any discussion of people living in poverty, of the detrimental effects of dealing with a brutal benefits system.....you know, some of the issues where their input could actually be of some use.
 
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