ANU links ice to psychosis

LSWCHP said :

For a bit of practical experience, my ex-wife revealed to me after we were married that she’d been snorting ice for a couple of years and had only recently kicked the habit. “Well that’s good, then” I naively thought to myself at the time, not having the slightest idea what ice was, or what she was talking about.

As it turned out, she would periodically alternate between being a normal kind and gentle person, and a violent, incoherent shrieking banshee who would beat me with fists, feet and whatever came to hand. Her thought process would also regularly appear to be incoherent, and she had a whole bunch of other oddball symptoms and behaviours that could be considered unusual. It was certainly interesting to come home from work one day to discover that with one blow she’d punched her fist entirely through the gyprock in the dining room because one of the boys (aged 18 months) wasn’t eating his baby food.

I think she wasn’t all that stable to begin with due to a fairly weird upbringing, but I also think that a few years of frying her brain with ice contribute greatly to her looniness. It’s bad stuff, and it makes people do bad things.

Your ex- sounds like she suffers from Borderline Personality Disorder, and probably used drugs because of this, rather than developing the disorder because of the drug use. You did hint at this. But unless she was actually using Ice during your relationship, the Ice use probably doesn’t have much to do with her unpredictable behaviour during that time. If she was going to have had long-term consequences of her Ice use, they would probably have been detectable at all times (i.e. she’d basically have developed schizophrenia).

Most people in prison, and probably most drug abusers (not casual users, I mean abusers/addicts) have experienced an abusive or neglectful upbringing. Often by someone in the same boat. It’s a vicious circle. If we could break that circle, we could virtually close our prisons.

IP

wildturkeycanoe said :

If the ANU can track 278 ice users, why can’t the AFP do the same, get these folks off the drugs and then the dealers won’t have anyone to sell to? Problem solved. No more psychosis, no more needle exchanges, no more drug related crime etc. Why can users like these be protected for years from prosecution when it is OBVIOUS that they are not only breaking the law but supporting even worse cretins [suppliers]???
And all this is done by supposedly “educated” people earning big dollars. Why does nearly everything that comes out of the ANU make me just want to scream “Duh, I knew that already….”?

Because the users buy their Ice illegally on the black market, and the AFP don’t know they’re buying it nor who they’re buying it from.

IP

bikhet said :

NoAddedMSG said :

The Sydney Morning Herald article gives a clear reason for why this research is significant. A lot of the existing research shows correlation not causation (meaning that it could be that psycotic people take ice or it could be that people who take ice end up with psycosis). This study specifically looked at causation, and over a longer period of time than usual.

It is relatively easy to prove correlation, proving causation takes a lot longer and so by the time you get the research out all the people who can’t distinguish between causation and correlation get on their high horses about “we already knew this” when actually we didn’t know this for sure, we just strongly suspected.

The research doesn’t, and doesn’t claim to, show causation – in part because no causal mechanism is proposed. It does, however, investigate several factors that indicate that causation is likely.

It’s interesting that the odds ratios for methamphetamine combined with either alcohol or cannabis are similar.

But longituinal studies are better able to make inferences about causation than cross-sectional (single point in time) studies. So this one’s a step in the right direction.

IP

LSWCHP said :

bikhet said :

Stevian said :

I don’t wish to criticize your rigorous scientific methodology, but you sample size seems a little on the small side

The sample size is small, but I don’t think LSWCHP was making any claims to rigorous scientific methodology. I interpreted it as him relating an anecdote.

That’s pretty much it. My one experience with an Ice user ruined my life for a decade. Maybe I’m completely wrong, but I reckon her drug use contributed a lot to my misery. Nothing scientific about that, just my story and make of it what you will.

This is not an isolated story. I know several people who have used other drugs, including dope, who have basically destroyed their brains and lives. This isn’t a scientific study either, and maybe these people were nutjobs waiting to happen, but I think there is definitely a link of some kind. Describing and quantifying that link conclusively is the hard part.

LSWCHP said :

bikhet said :

Stevian said :

I don’t wish to criticize your rigorous scientific methodology, but you sample size seems a little on the small side

The sample size is small, but I don’t think LSWCHP was making any claims to rigorous scientific methodology. I interpreted it as him relating an anecdote.

That’s pretty much it. My one experience with an Ice user ruined my life for a decade. Maybe I’m completely wrong, but I reckon her drug use contributed a lot to my misery. Nothing scientific about that, just my story and make of it what you will.

Don’t mind stevian, a champion for the scum. Any one with brains can see you were telling a personal experience and did not even allude to saying all ice users are violent scumbags(you don’t need to say that all of already know).

bikhet said :

Stevian said :

I don’t wish to criticize your rigorous scientific methodology, but you sample size seems a little on the small side

The sample size is small, but I don’t think LSWCHP was making any claims to rigorous scientific methodology. I interpreted it as him relating an anecdote.

That’s pretty much it. My one experience with an Ice user ruined my life for a decade. Maybe I’m completely wrong, but I reckon her drug use contributed a lot to my misery. Nothing scientific about that, just my story and make of it what you will.

bikhet said :

Stevian said :

I don’t wish to criticize your rigorous scientific methodology, but you sample size seems a little on the small side

The sample size is small, but I don’t think LSWCHP was making any claims to rigorous scientific methodology. I interpreted it as him relating an anecdote.

Agreed and while there is conclusive empirical evidence that excessive consumption of alcohol is a trigger for mindless,stupid,violent behaviour, apparently the jury is still out as to whether ice is quite as problematic.Mind you Giordian Fulde head of Emergency St Vincents has said ‘I’ve never seen anything as violent. It is just like a berserk animal. Nothing, no other drugs medical or illegal has anybody just as berserk’. They even have an isolation cell there to cope with the ice violence.

Stevian said :

I don’t wish to criticize your rigorous scientific methodology, but you sample size seems a little on the small side

The sample size is small, but I don’t think LSWCHP was making any claims to rigorous scientific methodology. I interpreted it as him relating an anecdote.

LSWCHP said :

For a bit of practical experience, my ex-wife revealed to me after we were married that she’d been snorting ice for a couple of years and had only recently kicked the habit. “Well that’s good, then” I naively thought to myself at the time, not having the slightest idea what ice was, or what she was talking about.

As it turned out, she would periodically alternate between being a normal kind and gentle person, and a violent, incoherent shrieking banshee who would beat me with fists, feet and whatever came to hand. Her thought process would also regularly appear to be incoherent, and she had a whole bunch of other oddball symptoms and behaviours that could be considered unusual. It was certainly interesting to come home from work one day to discover that with one blow she’d punched her fist entirely through the gyprock in the dining room because one of the boys (aged 18 months) wasn’t eating his baby food.

I think she wasn’t all that stable to begin with due to a fairly weird upbringing, but I also think that a few years of frying her brain with ice contribute greatly to her looniness. It’s bad stuff, and it makes people do bad things.

I don’t wish to criticize your rigorous scientific methodology, but you sample size seems a little on the small side

stonedwookie said :

yes we already know this poindexter you could of just checked google amphetamine psychosis
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stimulant_psychosis
This is common knowledge already it has been for years why are they wasting money on this?

You accuse someone else of ‘sub-intellectualism’ yet your first sentence says ‘you could of checked’.

Try ‘could have checked’, Einstein. Arguments using English are best offered…..in English (not bogan).