Joe,
The Internet can drive you mad -- read on...
Bud
Can the Internet Drive You Mad?
by Kristen Philipkoski, WIRED
3:00 a.m. 7.Jul.99.PDT -- The Net can be scary for anyone who's never used it, but for patients suffering from paranoid delusional psychosis, it can be an extreme torment.
The June issue of the Southern Medical Journal featured two case studies of patients at the University of South Florida (USF) College of Medicine in Tampa who felt so threatened by the Internet that it became the main tormentor in their paranoid delusions.
"Back in the '50s and '60s, patients had false beliefs that the Russians were out to get them, that radio towers were beaming things to their heads," said Glenn Catalano, an assistant psychiatry professor at USF and lead author of the research.
Since he authored his original report, Catalano has seen the trend of Net-induced fears escalating, with another five people having delusions.
"Now, with the Communists of less importance and with more emphasis placed on the Internet and computers, it gives people who are newly diagnosed with this illness something else to focus on," Catalano said.
The first case study is a 40-year-old man who shot himself in the face in a suicide attempt because he thought his friends had placed images on the Internet of him masturbating and having sex with his girlfriend.
He also thought a friend in the CIA had placed "Internet bugs" in his ears that could read his mind and control his thoughts. He thought the CIA could control his appendages using certain keystrokes via a link on his Web page.
"When you first hear about it, you wonder what people can find out about you and what can the government do with this information," Catalano said. "I'm still reluctant to buy anything online. [Some] people just take it to the nth degree."
The patient fully recovered from his self-inflicted wounds and medication has his psychosis under control.
Another patient, who was 41, thought he was a witch webmaster and ran an online service giving advice to new witches. He believed his powers were so strong that he could surf the Net using only his mind.
"Sometimes when we were talking to him, he would stare straight ahead, then say, 'sorry I was at someone's Web site,'" Catalano said.
He also said that he received "magnetism" from the Internet each day at hours marked on old Dr. Pepper bottles.
Lack of Net experience did not prevent the patients from developing fears. The researchers said that the patients got their information about the Internet mainly from television.
Catalano said a recent 20/20 show, which told the story of someone who tried to damage another person's credit rating after a feud in a chat room, is one example of how TV can spark Net fears.
With ever-increasing media coverage of the Internet, researchers believe that more patients who are predisposed to psychosis will weave the Internet into their delusions. Doctors will need to be savvy in order to make an accurate diagnosis.
"At this point in time, I think we [need to] ask, 'Are there technologies out there being used against you?' in order to broaden the definition of paranoia," Catalano said.
Henry Nasrallah, professor of psychiatry and neurology at Ohio State University, has seen one case of Internet fear so far, and said it's not surprising that patients are latching onto the Net as their paranoia du jour.
"You'll see one with paranoia of the CIA, one [is afraid of] the devil, another would think of the Internet. It depends on the cultural, environmental, and educational experience of the patient," Nasrallah said.
According to Nasrallah, 10 million to 15 million people in the United States have psychotic disorders.
"When we landed on the moon, we started seeing a lot of delusional patients who believed a machine put there by astronauts is now controlling their brain. Whenever there's something in the news, a lot of the psychotic patients will incorporate it in their delusions," Nasrallah said.
"[Psychotics] think everything they see or do is related to them, and everything they watch on TV is about them," Nasrallah said.
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