Domestic Abuse

Domestic abuse can be an embarrassing thing to admit to; doctors from around the world often struggle with obtaining the truth from their patients regarding possible domestic abuse.  They may go to a doctor’s appointment to check up on health symptoms, but never reveal to the doctor that they have been victim to domestic abuse.  The doctor is put in a compromising position.  He is supposed to treat his patients, but does not possess the ability to.

That problem may be close to answered; thanks to a new computer program that has learned to pick up on possible clues left on the medical reports of patients.  The computer program can be used to save lives in predicting possible domestic abuse.  Patients that are victims of domestic abuse may do anything to avoid the embarrassment of being detected.  They may take measures to lie to doctors about injuries caused by their partner, or even travel to a different hospital to avoid detection.

The computer program has learned to pick up on clues that even the trained eye of a doctor or nurse may overlook.  The result?  A computer that understands the empirical differences between the medical reports of normal patients and the reports filed by victims of domestic abuse.  This was made possible by Ben Reis, a doctor from Harvard Medical School, who used the computer to compare the medical records of 561,000 people over a period of 6 years in an unnamed US state.  Of these 561,000 people, 19,000 were known to have been victims to domestic abuse.

The computer program then produced an algorithm that focused mostly around common patterns of injuries and mental illnesses of victims.  A few of these indicators are listed below:

- The computer found that certain patterns of injuries pointed to the specific violence of domestic abuse.  A few of these visible physical injuries include: bruises, bite marks, fractures in the face, and laceration.

- It also found that headaches, chronic pain, sleep disorders, fatigue or other signs of stress-related illnesses

- The computer found that alcoholism was a big predictor in women, and that depression and mood disorders were predictors of domestic abuse in men.

The computer program was not without error, however.  It was inconsistent with its detection, which can be expected for a new, free running program.  At times the program would suspect a case up to 6 months before the doctors did.  At other times, however, it failed to detect a case of domestic abuse at all.  The program will be tweaked to obtain both accuracy and a better success rate.

Either way, the program provides doctors with a tool that can be used to detect domestic abuse early.  It gives the doctor the option to choose whether to mention it and recommend treatment or to keep quiet.  In a world where domestic violence is prevalent in every society, the computer program may give some hope to the efforts of preventing domestic abuse.

Internet

There is no other place in the world as convenient and informative as the Internet.  Whether you are yearning for a sports fix of your favorite team, keeping in touch with your friends, or playing an Internet game, the Internet has an infinite amount of things to do.  Shoppers have the option of picking out their favorite dress from the comfort of their own home.  Law students have the ability to research cases from online databases, avoiding a trip to the library.

It then comes at no surprise that many children around the world, especially in Asian countries such as China, Taiwan, and South Korea have developed an addiction for the Internet.  It has gotten to the point where parents are itching for some sort of evasive action plan, in order to avoid their children becoming victim to Internet addiction.

Internet addiction disorder is defined as the excessive use of a computer that eventually interferes with daily life.  The Internet can act as a deterrent to society for an individual, providing the individual with avenues out of normal social expectations.  Phone or in-person conversations are replaced by instant messengers and social networking sites.  Physical activity such as sports are replaced by Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games (or MMORPGs).  Internet addiction disorder has become the topic of discussion recently, with pundits claiming its legitimacy as a psychological disorder and critics claiming that the Internet may in fact only amplify the existence of other disorders.

The problem with the idea of Internet addiction is that studies attempting to measure the amount of addiction around the world have ended up with significantly different results.  For example, a very recent study from Taiwan’s Kaohsiung Medical University Hospital found that, out of 2300 11-year olds, 11 per cent ended up with an Internet obsession.  The problem, then, is that other studies have found the number to be under 2 per cent, and each study likely uses a different set of parameters to label Internet addiction.

So how can parents around the world know who is more susceptible to Internet addiction?  The study from Taiwan found a few predictors among the children they studied, listed below:

- They found that boys and girls had different results and predictors to Internet addiction.

- Depression was found to be a strong predictor of Internet addiction.  Children experiencing depression may turn to the anonymity of the Internet for comfort.  For example, a child scorned in his or her school may come home and play an Internet game with a group of anonymous friends to feel welcomed.

- Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (or ADHD) is a disorder common among young children that affects their attention span.  It is a highly over-diagnosed disorder, however.  The safe assumption is that a lack of patience or attention span can cause a child to turn to the Internet for satisfaction, as there is an infinite amount of things to do.

- Social phobia was a strong predictor, especially to girls.  The avoidance of socially normal activities can often be attributed to time spend on the Internet.

Computer

Imagine yourself sitting at your computer, reading the news as you normally would on a Monday night.  As you pass the sports section, your eyes graze across a headline that states that your idol has committed suicide.  How would you react?  You would undoubtedly feel sadness and possibly, anger.  Despite the negative feelings, however, you would not likely in turn experience suicidal feelings of your own.

The social phenomenon of suicide is hard to explain.  Throughout history, sociologists such as Émile Durkheim have attempted to decipher the mystery of suicide.  Countless social factors have been noted to cause one to commit suicide, including depression, guilt, anxiety, drug dependency, and financial difficulties.  Suicide controversy continues to plague the nation, with the recent controversy of euthanasia, or medically assisted suicide, causing proponents of both sides to argue about one’s right to decide the outcome of their own life.

Copycat suicide, then, is the duplication of another suicide that the person attempting suicide knows of.  For example, a teen may commit copycat suicide in response to his or her favorite celebrity’s own suicide.  Copycat suicide has two forms, “point clusters” and “mass clusters.”  Point cluster copycat suicide occurs when individuals imitate the suicide of those in their local community or social grouping.  Mass clusters, then, are suicides that occur around the same time in response to reports of celebrity suicides.

Alex Mesoudi of Queen Mary University in London has created a computer model simulation that attempts to study how these copycat suicides occur.  In this computer generated model, Mesoudi created a model community of 1000 people who were divided into 100 groups of 10.  Each of these groups represented one type of social group.  The simulation was balanced using suicide statistics, social networking norms, and other factors.  The study found that people were more likely to commit suicide in groups, or clusters, attributed to the grouping of like people and the learning of suicidal aspects, matching the phenomenon of copycat suicide.  It also found that the media played a significant part in copycat suicide, whether as a preventive or causal factor.

Copycat suicides continue to be a mysterious topic among sociologists, who continue to search for its determining factors.  One thing that we now know for sure is that dramatic and extensive coverage of celebrity suicides contributes to the number of copycat suicide cases.  Numerous celebrity suicides have been noted as the cause of higher suicide rates, no doubt a representation of copycat suicides.  Here are a few cases of celebrity suicides that may have caused an increase in copycat suicides:

1. Marilyn Monroe

Marilyn Monroe was one of the most famous female celebrities of all time.  Her sleeping pill overdose in 1962 caused a 12% increase in copycat suicides within the next month.

2. Kurt Cobain

Kurt Cobain was the lead singer and principle songwriter of the band Nirvana.  There is considerable controversy surrounding the cause of his death in 1994, but the reported cases of copycat suicides caused the media to pull back from coverage.

3. Hideto Matsumoto

Better known as “hide”, Matsumoto was found hanging by a towel in his apartment in 1998.  There were 3 reported cases of copycat suicide, in addition to 250+ injuries occuring at his funeral.