Note: Because I receive TiPS in digest format, messages come in groups and occasionally a couple of articles can be responded to in the same post. This is such an instance.
----- Original Message ----- > Subject: Fwd: locked-in syndrome > From: Miguel Roig <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Date: Tue, 12 Jul 2005 06:50:36 -0700 > X-Message-Number: 1 > > I sent this the other day, but I didn't see it posted. Here it is again. Given the fiasco of the Schiavo case, especially when the Republican leader of the Senator Dr. Bill Frist made a medical diagnosis of Ms. Schiavo which is now known to be completely in error, I think if one were to use "locked-in syndrome" in a class an instructor needs to be sensitive to a couple of issues: (1) It is important to distinguish among (a) vegetative state (which Ms. Schiavo was in), (b) minimally conscious state (which Ms. Schiavo parents, Dr. Frist, and the "pro-life" political groups apparently believed Ms. Schiavo to be in -- it is not clear to me what the "definitive" "alternative" diagnosis was for Ms. Schiavo because her "mainstream" physicians seemed to be unanimous about her being in a "vegetative state" while the people who challenged it [such as Dr. Frist] were often not clear on what the proper diagnosis should be but by implication seem to appeal to a minimally conscious state), and (c) "locked-in syndrome" (as portrayed in the BMJ article Miguel links to). Although the article that Miguel links to does make some of these distinctions, I would also suggest the people consider looking at and perhaps using the following material in addition to the BMJ article if they will be covering this topic in a classroom: >From the Royal Hospital on Neuro-Disability: http://www.rhn.org.uk/doc.asp?catid=1268&docid=251 The provides a review of the differences among vegetative state, coma, and locked-in syndrom. The URL above is to an HTML format page; a text-only version that is more appropriate for handout/transparency is available at this address: http://www.rhn.org.uk/text/doc.asp?catid=1268&docid=251 Missing from the above presentations is a discussion of the minimally conscious state -- this is because it is discussed on a seperate page (which is linked to from the above pages), the HTML version of the page is available at: http://www.rhn.org.uk/doc.asp?docId=249&catId=244 while the plain text version is available at: http://www.rhn.org.uk/text/doc.asp?docId=249&catId=244 (2) It is quite possible that if one presents these topics in class, because of the connection to the Schiavo case, some students may have very mixed/conflicted reactions partly because of what they know/believe about the Schiavo case (e.g., a student might say: "maybe she was in a 'locked-up' state -- those doctors don't know, they disargreed about her diagnosis, etc."; indeed, as indicated in one of the articles I have linked to above shows, persistent vegetative state is misdiagnosed some small percentage of time -- but Ms. Schiavo's autopsy removes most doubt about her condition). I believe that this can become a delicate matter because issues of religious belief and attitude can quickly intrude and overwhelm scientific discussion (indeed, students with strong religious convictions may view scientific discussion not as a critical, rational examination of the issues but as the promotion of a particular viewpoint [secularist or the dreaded "L word"], converting the discussion into a political debate). I think that instructors must keep such considerations in the back of their mind and must be prepared to (a) provide an appropriate response in such conditions, and (b) recognize that discussion of such may get out of hand and one should be prepared to defuse such situations quickly, returning them back to the subject matter (unless, of course, the prupose is to engender such a discussion -- in which case I hope that you have tenure ;-).. I have a response to another message below. > M > > >Date: Fri, 08 Jul 2005 09:13:39 -0700 > >To: "Teaching in the Psychological Sciences" <[email protected]> > >From: Miguel Roig <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > >Subject: locked-in syndrome > > > >TIPSters, there is an article in the latest issue of BMJ on "Locked-in > >Syndrome" that can be of great interest to those teaching Physiological > >Psych. or even General Psychology. It can also be very useful in the > >context of discussions regarding the Schiavo case. > > > >Living with locked-in syndrome > >Nick Chisholm has been living with locked-in syndrome, also known as coma > >vigilante, since being injured on a rugby field in year 2000. Dissection > >of the vertebral arteries left him quadriplegic and without the ability to > >speak, but completely conscious. He shares his story on p 94. Interspersed > >with Nick's narrative, Grant Gillett provides information on this rare > >medical condition and discusses clinical and ethical issues that arise in > >locked-in syndrome. > > > >Here is the full link to the > >article: http://bmj.bmjjournals.com/cgi/content/full/331/7508/94 > > > >Miguel > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > Subject: holy fraud, batman! > From: "jim guinee" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Date: Tue, 12 Jul 2005 10:18:19 -0500 > X-Message-Number: 2 > > <html><div style='background-color:'><U><FONT color=#0000ff size=1> > <P>http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20050711/ap_on_sc/fake_research</U></FONT><FON T size=1> </P></FONT></div></html> The digest form of TiPS sometimes munges the format of the text of a message, like the one above, creating text that is practically unreadable. However, given the importance of the article that is linked to, I thought that I would present the URL more clearly: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20050711/ap_on_sc/fake_research A "printable" (i.e., ad-free), more text-based version of this article is available at: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20050711/ap_on_sc/fake_research&printer=1;_ylt=AjG5OMVyHOHLDpUzIFDo7oZxieAA;_ylu=X3oDMTA3MXN1bHE0BHNlYwN0bWE- Unfortunately, tinyURL won't take the longer address to the printable page but instead goes to the regular HTML formatted page. But one can get the printable page by going to the bottom of the HTML page and clicking on the "printable view" link. -Mike Palij New York University [EMAIL PROTECTED] --- You are currently subscribed to tips as: [email protected] To unsubscribe send a blank email to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
