User:Baileywheeler/practice

Overview

"Pibloktoq" is a mental disorder characterized by an abrupt dissociative episode accompanied by extreme excitement of up to 30 minutes' duration and frequently followed by convulsive seizures and coma lasting up to 12 hours, as defined by the DSM-IV. [1]

Origins

Abraham Brill was the first person to actually identify Pibloktoq in 1913. Pibloktoq has been categorized as strictly affecting the artic peoples, considering it was first observed in the Inuit people of Greenland, and made its way into other artic and subartic communities. [2]

Symptoms

Symptoms of Pibloktoq include, but are not limited to [3] :

• Abrupt dissociative episode of intense hysteria
• Convulsive seizures
• Coma-like state, which could last up to 12 hours, following an extreme period of behavior.
• Intense screaming
• Uncontrolled wild behavior
• Depression/ Withdrawn
• Coprophagia (eating feces)
• Insensitivity to extreme cold
• Echolalia (senseless repetition of overheard words)

Documented Accounts

This article reported a study in which 39 Pibloktoq cases were classified by month, and according to the study, there was actual significance in what months held the ratings for the highest levels of "outbreaks". The months July-October account for 2/3 of the total Pibloktoq reports documneted for the year. July reported 6 episodes, August with 5, September with 5, and October with the highest number of outbreaks recorded for a month by a staggering 11 episodes. Thats over 1/4th of the total amount of episodes recorded happening in 1 month. According to Lyle Dick in Muskox Land: Ellesmere Island in the Age of Contact, these reports support the notion that Pibloktoq is linked with darkness, as the months July through October mark the disappearance of the sun. [4]

Treatment

"Seizure disorders should be ruled out in individuals who present symptoms of Pibloktoq as should excessive levels of vitamin A which can be found in high amounts of artic marine life and mammals and which comprises a large part of many Eskimos' diet and can cause similar symptoms."--Lyle Dick [5]

Where Pibloktoq is common, there is often a member of a family designated to care for the other members afflicted. Also, in order to care for the person experiencing a Pibloktoq attack, they just keep the person safe, but allow the symptoms of Pibloktoq to run its course. To a lot of people where this is common, its viewed as a "physical maladay, much like that of a flu in the continental United States". It is not as harshly viewed as it would be in the U.S. It is more of a thing where it could happen to anyone so you don't try to shame those people or make it into a big deal. [6]

Media

Pete Brown & Piblokto! This British Progressive Rock band that got their name from the mental health disease, Pibloktoq.

References

Artic/Subartic Enclyclopedia of Immigrant Health. Springer Science+Business Media. Accessed March 15, 2012 from Google Books: [7].

Abraham Brill was the first person to actually identify Pibloktoq in 1913. Pibloktoq has been categorized as inflicting the artic peoples considering it was first observed in the Inuit people of Greenland, and made its way into other artic and subartic communities. If you are wondering what these people were witnessing to classify Pibloktoq, it was extreme periods of excitement (often aggression and maladaptive behavior, such as eating feces and screaming) and could even be followed by a coma-like state, which could last up to 12 hours.

Dick, Lyle. Muskox Land: Ellesmere Island in the age of contact. University of Calgary Press. Accessed March 15, 2012 from Google Books: [8].

This article reported a study in which 39 Pibloktoq cases were classified by month, and according to the study, there was actual significance in what months held the ratings for the highest levels of "outbreaks". July began with 6 episodes, August with 5, Septemeber with 5, and October with the highest number of outbreaks recorded for a month by a staggering 11 episodes. Thats over 1/4th of the total amount of episodes recorded happening in 1 month.

Dick, Lyle. "Pibloktoq" (Arctic Hysteria): A Construction of European-Inuit Relations? Accessed March 5, 2012 from JSTOR:[9].

Pibloktoq was originally seen as a woman's disease in which the woman was just being desperate for attention, ripping her clothes off, and acting out for attention- the same as a child would. Pibloktoq is actually found more often in women than in men.

Higgs, Rachel. Pibloktoq - A study of a culture-bound syndrome in the circumpolar region (June 2011). Accessed March 5, 2012 from: [10].

Where Pibloktoq is common, there is often a member of a family designated to care for the other members afflicted. Also, in order to care for the person experiencing a Pibloktoq attack, they just keep the person safe, but allo the Pibloktoq to run its course. To a lot of people where this is common, its viewed as a "physical maladay, much like that of a flu in the continental United States". It is not as harshly viewed as it would be in the U.S. It is more of a thing where it could happen to anyone so you don't try to shame those people or make it into a big deal.

Koerth-Baker, Maggie. Pibloktoq: Psychology in the Arctic (May 17,2011). Accessed March 5, 2012 from BoingBoing:[11].

Although in some regions Pibloktoq is seen as a possession of the living by evil spirits, it has also been hypothesized by modern researchers that an overly high amount of vitamin A could be the cause for this disease. It is uncertain what actually causes Pibloktoq, as unsufficent research has been done. Hopefully, this will be studied more in depth and more vitamin A studies will be done to see if there is an actual linkage between Pibloktoq and increased vitamin A levels.

Landy, D. Pibloktoq (hysteria) and Inuit nutrition: possible implication of hypervitaminosis A. Accessed March 5, 2012 from Social Science and Medicine (1982): [12].

This article gives the defense that Pibloktoq is a biological disease that has root in the diets of Inuit peoples. Landy also fights that an overdose of vitamin A could be the key player in Pibloktoq episodes and relates the animals levels of vitamin A production to that of what the people would eat. Could be a great research project to implement low vitamin A diets into Inuit communities and observe results from there.

Lister, Janet. TWO PERSPECTIVES ON THE ETIOLOGY OF PIBLOKTOQ Accessed March 5, 2012 from Wichita State University: [13].

Pibloktoq (hysteria) and input nutrition: Possible implication of hypervitaminosis A. Landy, David; Social Science & Medicine, Vol 21(2), 1985. pp. 173-185. [Journal Article] [14]

Folk Illness http://medanth.wikispaces.com/Folk+Illness#Folk Illness-Case Studies-Pibloktoq http://digitalcommons.macalester.edu/macreview/vol1/iss1/3/

Cultural anthropology. Wikibooks, http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Cultural_Anthropology/Health_and_Healing