j ^ needs more coffee
On Friday, February 21, 2003, at 11:04 AM, Jeffrey Fisher wrote:
> starship troopers, anyone? and i mean the fascist book, not the
> anti-fascist "90120 in space" . . .
>
> combine this with improvements in battlefield armor, etc. etc. and it
> looks more and more like heinlein was a genuine visionary, in this
> regard . . .
>
> j
>
> On Friday, February 21, 2003, at 10:26 AM, RE wrote:
>
>> I saw an article recently -- it might have been one of Susan Begley's
>> columns in the WSJrnl, but I can't find the reference -- regarding
>> the use
>> of antidepressants and other neurochemicals to treat guilt induced by
>> combat-related action. The basic idea was to administer the drugs
>> soon
>> after the 'trauma' in order to break up the formation of a guilty
>> response
>> neurochemically. Neuropeptide Y sounds like it works at a more
>> generic
>> level (psychologically speaking "stress" is a stupefying concept,
>> since it
>> lumps together anxiety, depression, and joy, but it may be
>> symptomatic of a
>> broad cultural tendency to regard numbness as the preferred
>> condition, to be
>> offset by occasional bursts of Ecstasy). The article was laced with
>> references to ethical concerns, on the order of "Shouldn't a soldier
>> guilty
>> of war crimes feel guilty?" Sorta interesting, but more so is the
>> question
>> as to whether Rumsfeld or Bin Laden have any need for a psychiatric
>> consult.
>> Randy
>> ----- Original Message -----
>> From: "Michael Pollak" <mpollak at panix.com>
>> To: <lbo-talk at lists.panix.com>
>> Sent: Thursday, February 20, 2003 12:45 PM
>> Subject: FT: Better killers through chemistry
>>
>>
>>>
>>> Financial Times; Feb 19, 2003
>>>
>>> INTERNATIONAL ECONOMY & ASIA-PACIFIC: Brain chemical that aids elite
>>> troops
>>>
>>> By Clive Cookson in Denver
>>>
>>> Scientists have identified a natural brain chemical that gives elite
>>> soldiers the "right stuff" to withstand the stress of battle without
>>> suffering serious psychological trauma.
>>>
>>> Experiments at the US Special Warfare Center, Fort Bragg, have shown
>>> that
>>> members of the special forces produce much more of the chemical,
>>> Neuropeptide Y, than regular soldiers when they are under duress.
>>>
>>> Matthew Friedman, director of the US government's National Center
>>> for Post
>>> Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), described the research to the
>>> American
>>> Association for the Advancement of Science.
>>>
>>> Blood tests were carried out on military personnel as they underwent
>>> a
>>> rigorous survival course that involved intensive interrogation and
>>> incarceration in a mock prisoner-of-war camp.
>>>
>>> All participants produced high levels of stress hormones but the most
>>> striking finding was that special forces - Green Berets - maintained
>>> higher levels of Neuropeptide Y than others undergoing the same
>>> training.
>>>
>>> Neuropeptide Y performs several roles in the brain, one of which is
>>> to
>>> help keep focused on a task under stress. "It is part of a
>>> counter-regulatory system that the brain uses to calm itself down,"
>>> said
>>> Dr Friedman.
>>>
>>> During the experiments at Fort Bragg, the Green Berets not only made
>>> more
>>> Neuropeptide Y but also showed fewer psychological signs of stress.
>>> "Others, who produced less Neuropeptide Y, performed very poorly in
>>> the
>>> training and looked a lot more anxious and frazzled at the end,"
>>> said Andy
>>> Morgan, who was in charge of the project for the National Center for
>>> PTSD.
>>>
>>> The Fort Bragg results had been replicated at two naval training
>>> sites,
>>> said Dr Morgan. "We can now argue convincingly that Neuropeptide Y,
>>> or
>>> drugs that work like it, act as anti-anxiety or anti-stress agents,"
>>> he
>>> said.
>>>
>>> "At this point, we need to figure out how to develop these agents so
>>> we
>>> can use them with people who suffer from PTSD. There may come a time
>>> when
>>> replenishing Neuropeptide Y is a normal procedure when a person
>>> comes back
>>> from a stressful situation, in the same way that you would feed him
>>> if he
>>> had been malnourished."
>>>
>>> Alternatively, said Dr Friedman, "we might be able to train people to
>>> produce more of their own Neuropeptide Y in stressful situations."
>>>
>>> A blood test for Neuropeptide Y production could also be
>>> incorporated into
>>> the selection procedure for extremely stressful jobs.
>>>
>>>
>>
>