User talk:PaulWicks/Archive 1

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Image:Rilutek pac.gif

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Burgundavia 10:55, Apr 27, 2005 (UTC)

Hello

Hi Paul,

Good to meet a fellow psychologist on Wikipedia. I just looked you up and I was interested to see you're at the IoP as I'm going to be starting there myself in October. Small world and all that! I'm away at the moment, but will look forward to reading your entries shortly.

- Vaughan 16:16, 11 September 2005 (UTC)

It is indeed a small world! What sort of job will you be doing there? I'm starting a postdoc in Parkinson's Disease, just finishing off my PhD at the moment.

--PaulWicks 21:40, 11 September 2005 (UTC)

Hello also Paul - you may remember working with me last year in KCLSU, as VP Ed-Rep!

Re the copyright issue at Institute of Psychiatry from the Viewpoint article:if there is useful material that you wish to transcribe, then getting that okayed would be helpful, otherwise it can always be used as a basis for a new contribution from your goodself? --Coffeelover 21:24, 23 December 2005 (UTC)

A welcome welcome

Thanks for your note, Paul. And good to meet a fellow professional. I look forward to our collaboration. Michael...Mjformica 16:37, 3 February 2006 (UTC)

Simon Wessely

Thanks for passing through, and if I can interest you in the discussion going on at Talk:Simon Wessely you'd be most welcome. The article definitely needs more eyes. - Just zis  Guy, you know? [T]/[C] 20:26, 11 February 2006 (UTC)

British neuropsych meeting

You mentioned on Talk:Conversion disorder that you recently attended a well-attended colloquium on functional movement disorders. I'd be very interested to read a published account of such a colloqium, if one exists. Do you know if such a thing is available?

Cheers, -ikkyu2 (talk) 22:45, 17 February 2006 (UTC)

Neuroscience

Welcome to WikiProject Neuroscience! It's great to see new users add themselves to our group. It seems like you've been on Wikipedia for a while, but nevertheless, should you have any questions, please feel free to contact me. If you make a neuroscience article related edits of which you're particularly proud, or if you see any articles in need, drop a message over on thproject talk page. Cheers! Semiconscious • talk 18:29, 18 February 2006 (UTC)

Hi Paul, the edits of 7 March were mine - sorry I hadn't signed in. Very nice article.Gleng 10:07, 8 March 2006 (UTC)

Card Sort

Hey buddy, thanks for all your work on the Wisconsin Card Sort :-) - Abscissa 08:44, 8 April 2006 (UTC)

Conversion Disorder

Hi Paul- in response to your question I think "Functional Neurological Deficit" is a much more accurate term. I agree with Jon Stone that "Deficit" is not the best term but for patients a loss of normal function is a deficit. It is much better than "Functional Symptoms" which I know stone prefers. However patients ultimately have to tell employers and "Functional Symptoms" is vague. By functional I mean "of no identifiable aetiology". As you will have guessed from my profile I have been diagnosed with a "Functional Neurological Deficit". David Bateman told me that 50% turn out to be MS 40% no one knows 10% are psychological. I was told by the chief consultant psychologist that I categorically did not have a conversion disorder and that my condition was post-viral caused by (hypothetical) damage to the hypothalamus. I was then told by a neurologist in Newcastle "When I send patients to a psychologist I'm always told there is nothing wrong, but there is, that's why I send them to a psychiatrist". Unfortunately in much the manner that Slater predicted (when you're not believed) I mucked up the appointment, the neurologist did likewise, breakdown in relationship, I read Freud and contacted Richard Webster who seems to have come to the same conclusions as me. So my motivation is that of the p@ssed of patient!!

I don't want to discuss my own case except to say- please, please, please try patients with fatigue related motor symptoms on 30mg of baclofen at night. I think it works by putting the brain into a deeper sleep than it has been capable of so that the next day the brain is less fatigued and therefore functions better. As time goes on and with graded exercise the brain is more rested, much fitter. After 2 years in a wheelchair I was able to do star jumps the next day. I should add that typical of post-viral illness I slept well but still woke fatigued with increasing motor symptoms as seemingly parts of my brain fell asleep. With baclofen this instantly changed. David Bateman tells me he has no idea why it works.

Simon 22:40, 12 April 2006 (UTC)Alpinist

Conversion Disorder

Hi Paul- I will start "functional neurological deficit". I will have to think very carefully about it first. I really really can't say how useful reading Arthur Hurst's "the psychology of the senses and their functional disorders was". I have no idea what Richard Webster will ultimately say when his book is published, I suspect and agree with him that psychological mechanisms cannot be responsible for the more profound symptoms such as "hysterical blindness" for example. Somatoform disorders such as general malaise, abstract pain or for example the patient with a bad limp but no changes in muscle tone would account for the 10%. They are not however "conversion disorders" which does have a Freudian origin and meaning.

Hurst is useful with regard to functional symptoms not only through his profound understanding but for a model of how diagnosis can be conveyed to patients without a breakdown in doctor patient relationship. Hurst also cured most of his patients in one consultation. I think "hysteria" and "conversion disorder" are rejected by patients, not because they offend the patient but because the patient finds them phenomenologically untrue. Medicine tends to adopt a heterophenomenology to illness which in neurology is very easily divorced from the patient's experience. For me Hurst's understanding is of the neccesity of consciousness in sustaining function. ie to move a limb we need to be aware and remember our ability to do so. In a sense it is empowering to the patient- for example with functional deafness Hurst tells his patients that they need to learn to listen again as having become unaccustomed to listening (due to slight organic illness) they have forgotten how to do so.

We thus don't have all that Freudian cr@p about the unconscious, childhood abuse, repressed emotion etc.

From my own perspective I find this fascinating as I am interested in the evolution of consciousness (which began with the work of the catholic priest and paleoneurologist Teilhard de Chardin, my degree is in English and Philosophy). I think that perhaps functional symptoms are as I have said elsewhere the downside of a hyper-conscious species. We LEARN to move, walk, see, hear etc. It is very much a conscious experience rather than an instinctual motor response. As I don't accept dualistic explanations of mind/body I would thus suggest that organic changes have taken place to facilitate this "forgetting". It may well simply be as Hurst suggests that motor circuits require continual attention in order to function. Attention and volition also of course have an organic mechanism. Certainly his ability to cure patients in one session is remarkable. If you are unable to get a copy let me know and I can scan it to PDF. That's how important I think it is.

Anyway- stopped raining at last- no climbing but a rather unkempt garden to attend to.

best wishes- Simon

Simon 15:06, 13 April 2006 (UTC)alpinist

Hurst

http://dogbert.abebooks.com/servlet/BookDetailsPL?searchurl=y=9&AID=10306626&PID=1825695&SID=22-197&bi=154165142&an=Hurst%2C+Arthur+F.+%281879-1944%29&tn=Croonian+Lectures+on+the+Psychology+of+the+Special+Senses+and+Their+Functional+Disorders

is where I got my copy from (prompted by Richard Webster). Have started Functional Neurological Deficit. Wrote it in word and pasted so it is a bit of a mess, especially the cross references. Term starts on Wednesday so rather busy with lesson prep/trying to resist another day's climbing.

Simon 12:23, 17 April 2006 (UTC)alpinist

I agree Paul- very naughty, very lazy- no time!!! I'm sure you'll do good job. Actually I'm more interested in working out why baclofen should make me less tired during the day and have fewer episodes of loss of muscle tone (lost count of how many times I've tried to work this out) There is an organic explanation for everything I feel- even God. Tizanadine with it's action on the GABA b receptors had no effect. Anyway being sent back to the neurologist as decreasing the dose of baclofen makes me very sleepy and edit wiki in a childish way- lol.


best wishes

Simon 13:04, 18 April 2006 (UTC)alpinist

Conversion Disorder

Paul I think the article is excellent now- well done. Reflecting on the above is there scope to change the defintion on God to "the dual activation of the active and quiescent modes within the limbic system" in line with D'Aquili's research? Or would this upset people?

Simon 16:57, 18 April 2006 (UTC)Alpinist

Beck Depression Inventory "Alpha" values

Paul, I am by no means an expert but wanted to ask you -- Are the values listed in the Beck Depression Inventory article for the "alpha" value for BDI-II correct? This page seems to give different values, specifically that the BDI-II value is .92. http://harcourtassessment.com/hai/ProductLongDesc.aspx?ISBN=015-8018-370&Catalog=TPC-USCatalog&Category=PsychopathologyProjectiveTechniques BDI-II (Coefficient Alpha = .92) higher than the BDI (Coefficient Alpha = .86). Cshay 15:34, 5 May 2006 (UTC)

Functional Neurological Deficit

Paul that sounds interesting with regard to the service in London. I am very interested in those patients who experience de-personalisation/ de-realisation experiences prior to hysterical motor loss. I think there is a paper which shows this to be THE most common experience rather than trauma per se. The same circuits are also implicated in "religious" experience as identified by D'Aquili et al. It seems that the subsequent deafferentation within the CNS is associated with motor loss as described in fMRI studies. The de-realisation experience has obvious evolutionary benefits in traumatic experience ie A LACK of emotional engagement allowing the animal to leave it's limb in the lions mouth and escape. In pre-modern society it also would have had a profound social significance which has obviously been lost. I would hypothesise that in humans the evolutionary pressures on the pre-frontal cortex have created a wiring problem so that higher centres require limbic input in order to maintain reciprocal function (similar to Hurst). I've discussed this a little with Vuillumier (sorry can't spell). I would also hypothesise that de-realisation is actually largely random and is a result of the relative youth of human consciousness. I'm also fascinated by the phantom limb issue which does seem to have relevance to hysteria and even fibromyalgia. What do you think??

Trying to find time to think about all this is a pain. I'm teaching a-level language rather than literature in September so lots of study, need to somehow get back to language acquisition, Vygotsky etc- otherwise I'll be spouting neurology.

Simon 19:17, 9 May 2006 (UTC)alpinist

Refs after punctuation

Thank you for your message on my talk. I know this is a delicate thing I'm doing currently with my edits "Refs after punctuation" (I'm using a modifed WP:AWB for this). Thank you for your consent to agree on a common style for Wikipedia per WP:FOOT. And of course, thank you for contributing to Wikipedia! --Ligulem 09:28, 4 June 2006 (UTC)

Email

If you turn on your email function (through Special:Preferences) it is possible to receive email from other users. Your address is only revealed if you choose to reply, so no risk of suddenly receiving spam. JFW | T@lk 19:59, 21 June 2006 (UTC)

I'm confused. Are you saying you want to email me? I'm googlable. --PaulWicks 21:24, 21 June 2006 (UTC)

Okay. JFW | T@lk 23:57, 21 June 2006 (UTC)

conversion disorder- can it survive?

Paul- just to let you know our little project on the non-existence of conversion disorder has taken a rather interesting turn via a number of patients with typical "conversion symptoms" , ie non-pyramidal weakness, inconsistency. All received organic diagnoses which explained their symptoms, all had to battle the NHS. The most interesting case is a lady whose MRI scans were all clear only to have a special hi-res stained MRI at Queen's square (where E.Slater worked)- this revealed the brain damage which explained her paralysis. All these patients do have something in common, as you suspected, and we know what it is- but you'll have to wait for publication which is likely to be much later this year. Very, very excited. The hysteria described by Hurst remains- but its cause is suggestibility, not emotional/conversion. We feel however that there is overwhelming evidence that the vast majority of "conversion" patients have been misdiagnosed. Roll on a brave new post-psychoanalytic world.

Simon 13:05, 24 June 2006 (UTC)alpinist

Image requests

Please list for every image which article you want em for. Requests without article may be removed, and your request is not clear --Chris 73 | Talk 09:43, 25 June 2006 (UTC)

On a side note, Image:Parkinson surgery.jpg may be interesting to you -- Chris 73 | Talk 09:49, 25 June 2006 (UTC)
Just uploaded Image:PET scan Parkinson's Disease.jpg from a NASA (and hence free) site. CHeck also commons:Category:Parkinson's disease -- Chris 73 | Talk 09:56, 25 June 2006 (UTC)
One more: uploaded Image:Sir William Richard Gowers Parkinson Disease sketch 1886.jpg. Also Picture of Parkinson is here, which is PD due to its age. The image is not very good, however, and I do not know the painter or other source. Ok, hope this helps, best wishes, -- Chris 73 | Talk 10:08, 25 June 2006 (UTC)


A little knowledge is a dangerous thing

Hi Paul- I think knowing about a forthcoming publication and being able to discuss it are two different things- so as it's not my book I'll keep quiet. What is interesting about the patient I mentioned is that she showed the classic non-pyramidal signs of "hysteria" yet the special MRI showed these to be organic. I've only spoken to her for an hour, the author somewhat longer. I can't really go into anymore details as ultimately this talk page is public. I am aware however of a number of other cases where the same is true. Certainly for patients to be told that these symptoms are caused by "childhood trauma" or "an emotional disturbance" is not scientifically credible. I've spoken to Vullumier about his fMRI study and I think the fundamental problem for his Freudian interpretation of it is that involvement of the limbic system does not account for the duration of symptoms ie decades in many cases. As Vullumier (sorry can't spell his name!) refers to Freud in correspondence I am deeply suspicious. Even more so having carried out some of Ramachandran's experiments- if within 30 seconds you can convince someone that another person's arm is their own, then it is only a short step to convince them that their own arm has no feeling at all- this is the suggestibility Hurst recognised. There are also of course pathogens which cause similar alterations. Neurology however remains lesion based and thus misses the point.

Never edit out of boredom

Sorry Paul- I blame the heat- not good for the brain! Average classroom temperature- 38'C- no joke! I think the article is becoming more useful for those given this diagnosis- even though many seem to nod politely in appointments then be prepared to go to their graves thinking they have MS, hang out on MS forums etc. Which does suggest the diagnosis is a waste of breath- (as well as being a diagnostic mess POV).

Simon 19:03, 5 July 2006 (UTC)alpinist

Misinformation

Mr, Wicks, you have deleted "rob borsellino" from your notable people with ALS page. Mr. Borsellino is one of the most famous people to have had ALS and he has appeared on fox news, CNN's Newsnight with Aaron Brown, as well as in USA today, the chicago tribune, and the washington post. Bob Dylan and Merle Haggard played a benefit concert for him that raised over sixty thousand dollars for ALS research. Mr' Borsellino's book is sold in major book stores all across the country. I ask that you put his name back on your list. Just because you in particular have never heard of him does not mean his isn't nationally known. Please refer to this as one of the many articles about him as well: http://www.alsa.org/news/article.cfm?id=929 —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Dawgsplayinpoka (talk • contribs) .

References

Hi Paul- I'll add the references once term ends. If you can find a reference to hysterical pregnancy that would be useful- I've looked but so far the only "source" is our vet. Ironically our dog is in the process of having a phantom pregnancy- swollen abdomen, lactating "nesting" behaviour. When one thinks of the many women who have received psychiatric "help" for this one can only despair. Does make me even more sceptical of the whole conversion disorder thing.

Simon 15:21, 10 July 2006 (UTC)alpinist

Thanks Paul

Cheers, I now know how to reference web links. Superb reference to false pregnancy in howler monkeys. I'll do the rest once term ends.

Simonalpinist

Tojo

FYI, I have expanded Wikipedia:Long term abuse/General Tojo. Adding his hometown seems to have hit a nerve, since he even vandalized his own vandalism using five different IP's/Usernames. I also sprotected the page. -- Chris 73 | Talk 01:14, 22 July 2006 (UTC)

References

Ok, where would you like to see references. Bit lost off. Must be the heat.

Oh- if you haven't seen these articles:

http://ajp.psychiatryonline.org/cgi/content/full/1 59/4/528?ijkey=648a47b2e928072546d2bbaed2604f3da73 b1bff&keytype2=tf_ipsecsha

and the response:

http://ajp.psychiatryonline.org/cgi/content/full/1 60/2/391

They are worth a look.

Oh and you might like to look at the Royal Marsden outbreak of ME and consider how it helped to perpetuate the notion of hysteria. Historically it begain in the community but in the echelons of pscyhiatrist's "memory" it was only the medical staff who caught it and inconsistently didn't pass it on to patients. Thus the notion of hysteria grew to encompass ME as a psychogenic condition. Which does rather point to what a mess the diagnosis is in the first place. And there is a connection between patients- but you'll have to wait. Very exciting times.

Simon 21:05, 25 July 2006 (UTC)alpinist

Psychology Wiki

The Logo for the Psychology Wiki.
The Logo for the Psychology Wiki.

Hi Paul,

I noticed that you are a Psychologist of some description, and thought you might be interested in this project which I am involved in, The Psychology Wiki.

I won't say too much, as I'd like you to judge it for yourself, but you should find that it is different from Wikipedia, because approximately 90% of our contributors so far are psychologists, either professionals like yourself, academics, or students and trainees.

Our site is hosted by a company called Wikia, which was founded by Jimmy Wales and Angela Beesley. There are Google Ads on the site, but we dont make money from the project, they're just to pay for the bandwidth, storage and technical support that Wikia give us.

Have a look and see what you think

Mostly Zen 23:44, 30 July 2006 (UTC)

Protect your userpage?

Why not just have your user page protected? May seem drastic, but not in comparison to Chris73's blocking of thousands of IPS... And yes, the eejit will move on to another, but it'll give you a break! All the best, JackyR | Talk 16:59, 3 August 2006 (UTC)

Because the vandal pulls Paul's (and my) user contributions, then runs around pooping on those, not just the user page. Protecting all those is maybe less drastic than blocking Tiscali, but still, that's a lot of pages. --Dan 17:23, 3 August 2006 (UTC)
If he goes for several specific pages, semi-protecting these is still less drastic than blocking thousands of users. You could also try editing under a different user name (perfectly legit if it's not to evade a block).
You guys don't deserve this, but nor do all the blocked users (and you were quite enthusiastic about defending that ludicrous block of Tiscali UK - which I suspect is responsible for the probs I've been having this week, getting logged out every few minutes). I agree that these are not long-term solutions, but they might make your life easier in the short-term, on the "vandals get bored" principle. Semi-protection would also have the advantage that it can be discussed article by article, whereas blocking IPs from editing/email/new accounts means the very people affected cannot comment on it... JackyR | Talk 17:53, 3 August 2006 (UTC)
Thanks for the bit of sympathy; we've been getting little enough of it. I sure do wish there were other tools; this guy is not likely to get bored based on experience so far. The other big problem is that the vandal also has been seen using open proxies, and blocking those affects editors/users in China. So, who ya gonna call? (cue "Trollbusters" theme music). --Dan 20:45, 3 August 2006 (UTC)

On the article talk page I've been deleting his comments from the history. Let me know if you want me to do that on your User or Talk pages. Tom Harrison Talk 18:10, 3 August 2006 (UTC)

Thanks for the offer, Tom, but I'll decline for now - the history may be useful for the nonce. --Dan 20:45, 3 August 2006 (UTC)

Banned users

Contributions by banned users should be summarily undone. If a particular contribution is useful, it would be better for someone else to do it. Tom Harrison Talk 14:14, 4 August 2006 (UTC)

Non-motor symptoms of Parkinson's disease

Non-motor symptoms of Parkinson's disease hasn't been edited much. I was thinking that it could be consolidated with the main Parkinson's disease page, to avoid potential forks. Andrew73 17:13, 26 August 2006 (UTC)

GT template on User talk:70.72.19.133

Why did you add the General Tojo sock template to this user's talk page? The template states that the user has been blocked, which does not appear to be the case, nor do I see any evidence for the claim of sock puppetry.--Eloquence* 23:46, 3 September 2006 (UTC)

Whoops. Error. --PaulWicks 06:31, 4 September 2006 (UTC)

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