"It is nothing short of an 'epidemic', say the authors of a major study that has found that members of the African Caribbean community are nine times more likely to suffer from schizophrenia than people in the white community. The study has had a major influence on the thinking behind the Department of Health's (DH) New Horizons in Mental Health strategy document, unveiled on Monday, which has moved away from the aim of having specialist services for ethnic minorities, and towards dealing with controversial social issues that lie behind the very high rates of psychosis. ... The researchers ruled out genetic issues as the cause, and the previously held suspicions that psychiatrists were more inclined to diagnose schizophrenia when dealing with black males in particular. They concluded instead that the root causes lay in a whole range of social factors that lead to severe social isolation", my emphasis, Matthew Lewin at the Guardian (UK), 9 December 2009, link:
The "researchers" ruled out genetic factors. How? Did you know US black males are 8-10 times as likely as whites to commit violent crimes? Coincidence, we don't think so. "Root causes", means "we want to push a 45-year anti-poverty program like in the US". I wish the UK's DH good luck.
2 comments:
Modern day exorcisms...
Old problem... new approaches...
I haven't read up on the genetics of schizophrenia in a number of years so I wont comment other than to add I would be careful of accepting too many of Steve Sailor's views when you get into such non-linear systems as mental illness and genetics.
The genetic associations he and many others in the human biodiversity blogosphere are often seriously flawed imo from an epistemological standpoint.
There are areas in the US 25%+ of the citizens have HIV and almost all of them are African American, but to see either genetics or race as the primary explanations for this observation is a gross over simplification to say the least.
Correlation, even where the correlation is very strong correlation, is not causation.
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