Results 1 to 5 of 5

Thread: Caffeine linked to mental disorders....

  1. #1
    HEXUS.Metal Knoxville's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jul 2003
    Location
    Down In A Hole
    Posts
    9,388
    Thanks
    484
    Thanked
    442 times in 255 posts
    • Knoxville's system
      • Motherboard:
      • Intel X58
      • CPU:
      • Intel i7 920
      • Memory:
      • 2GB DDR3
      • Storage:
      • 1TB
      • Graphics card(s):
      • ATi HD3450
      • PSU:
      • Generic
      • Case:
      • Cheap and nasty
      • Operating System:
      • Vista 64
      • Monitor(s):
      • 24" LG LCD
      • Internet:
      • Virgin Media 20mb

    Caffeine linked to mental disorders....

    http://www.canada.com/nationalpost/n...23627f&k=45911

    Joseph Brean, National Post
    Published: Saturday, December 02, 2006 Everybody knows that a few strong cups of coffee can turn some otherwise pleasant people into crabby bundles of anxiety, whose jitters give way to lethargy in the span of a few hours.

    In others, the opposite is true -- a coffee seems to chase away the grumpiness of the morning.

    Less well known, even by scientists, are caffeine's mental effects in the longer term, as a possible cause of psychological disorders.

    Today, as Starbucks expands into its 38th country (Brazil), new research from a Virginia scientist shows that prolonged use of caffeine -- the world's most popular drug, used daily by four out of five people globally -- might literally drive you insane.

    Five cups of brewed coffee per day, or the equivalent caffeine intake in tea or cola, made people more than twice as likely to exhibit adult antisocial personality disorder, and abuse of alcohol, cannabis or cocaine, according to Kenneth Kendler, director of the Virginia Institute for Psychiatric and Behavioural Genetics.

    These heavy caffeine users were also almost twice as likely to exhibit panic disorder, generalized anxiety disorder and major depression.

    Even among moderate users, the odds of exhibiting one of these illnesses were increased across the board, according to Dr. Kendler's survey of more than 3,600 adult twins, which appears in the December issue of Psychological Medicine.

    These twins, who share all their genes as well as family history but often differed in caffeine use, allowed his team to tease out the specific effects of the drug from the effects of the environment.

    He was not surprised by what he found, which he described as significant, but not profound.

    "Any form of drug use is broadly related to aspects of psychopathology," he said in an interview. "You're consuming a substance that influences the way you think."

    What does surprise him is that he was the first to find this link, however weak.

    "It's very hard to get funding, because no agency is interested and Starbucks won't fund you, so we don't know a lot in terms of even straight epidemiology," he said. "They [research funding agencies] just shake their heads, saying 'It's not harmful. We're not interested.'"

    Dr. Kendler thinks what he has found is more of a correlation between one's propensity to use caffeine and one's genetic risk of psychiatric illness, but the consistency of the results suggests to him that there is some minor causal relationship at play. Either way, he says this is not reason to give up one's morning hit or mid-afternoon pick-me-up.

    "Caffeine has a pretty interesting history," he said. "In the 18th century there were coffee houses in London that were like crack houses now. They were places you would not want your child to go. But coffee now is on a peak of popularity. Everybody's having their double latte this and that. So how we socially label what psychoactive substances are OK and which are not is an interesting economic, politically driven process. And right now caffeine seems to be at a high, where it's not even negative, it's a sign of one's sophistication."

  2. #2
    IBM
    IBM is offline
    there but for the grace of God, go I IBM's Avatar
    Join Date
    Dec 2003
    Location
    West London
    Posts
    4,187
    Thanks
    149
    Thanked
    244 times in 145 posts
    • IBM's system
      • Motherboard:
      • Asus P5K Deluxe
      • CPU:
      • Intel E6600 Core2Duo 2.40GHz
      • Memory:
      • 2x2GB kit (1GBx2), Ballistix 240-pin DIMM, DDR2 PC2-6400
      • Storage:
      • 150G WD SATA 10k RAPTOR, 500GB WD SATA Enterprise
      • Graphics card(s):
      • Leadtek NVIDIA GeForce PX8800GTS 640MB
      • PSU:
      • CORSAIR HX 620W MODULAR PSU
      • Case:
      • Antec P182 Black Case
      • Monitor(s):
      • Dell 2407WPF A04
      • Internet:
      • domestic zoom
    Man, you can't win. On the one hand they say regular intake of caffine can help stave off alzheimers, on the other, it'll drive you nuts. Everything in moderation I guess.
    sig removed by Zak33

  3. #3
    Banned
    Join Date
    Sep 2003
    Location
    Midlands
    Posts
    8,629
    Thanks
    24
    Thanked
    268 times in 188 posts
    Exactly. I just ignore these things now. Every day a study comes out that claims you have a 4.442% increased risk of cancer of the face if you eat the purple fluffy bit from around the outside of a Liquorice Allsort and leave the black bit in the middle, or some other crap.

    Everything in the world is now good and bad for you at the same time, according to every scientist in the world. Nice work boys.

  4. #4
    Loves duck, Peking Duck! bsodmike's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jul 2003
    Location
    Colombo
    Posts
    2,909
    Thanks
    496
    Thanked
    92 times in 80 posts
    • bsodmike's system
      • Motherboard:
      • Misc.
      • CPU:
      • Mac Pro 2.8 GHz (8-cores) / iMac 2.8GHz C2D Extreme Edition / MacBook Pro 15" 2.33 & 13.3" 2.26 GHz
      • Memory:
      • 2GB DDR2 kits on all systems / FB ECC RAM in Mac Pro
      • Storage:
      • 320GB + 3x 1TB, Mac Pro / 500 GB, iMac / 2x 1TB & 2x 2TB WD My Book Studio II, via FW800 to Mac Pro
      • Graphics card(s):
      • ATI Radeon HD 2600 XT 256MB (two dual-link DVI ports / Mac Pro)
      • PSU:
      • Misc.
      • Case:
      • Misc.
      • Operating System:
      • Mac OS X 10.5 (Mac Pro) / Mac OS X 10.4.11 (others)
      • Monitor(s):
      • Apple 23" Cinema HD / Dell FPW2408 / iMac 24" display
      • Internet:
      • 2mbps ADSL (Mac Pro) / 512kbps WiMax (Wifi/MacBook Pro)
    Yea. That said, I did used to abuse caffeine at Uni. With multiple project, dissertation, and other deadlines I found it was the only way to make the days longer but I did mix it with a bottle o' red wine every other evening or so to counter act 'jitters'...

    A couple red bulls I found were ok, but too many...and you really start to feel 'stretched'. Really screws up your bioclock but if I had to do it again, I don't think I won't...but I might try to go as much without too much caffeine.

    One time I had this really really important stuff to finish so I went out to somerfields and found this awesome 'double' rb potent by the coca-cola company, at ~80p iirc. Finished the lot in one night-morning...didn't feel ill or anything tho.

    Last edited by bsodmike; 03-12-2006 at 11:14 AM.

  5. #5
    Senior Member joshwa's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jul 2003
    Location
    Sheffield, UK
    Posts
    4,842
    Thanks
    123
    Thanked
    67 times in 62 posts
    • joshwa's system
      • Motherboard:
      • PC Chips M577 AT/ATX
      • CPU:
      • AMD K6-2 500Mhz
      • Memory:
      • 128mb PC100 SDRAM
      • Storage:
      • 8GB Fujitsu
      • Graphics card(s):
      • 3dfx Voodoo 3 3000 AGP (16mb)
      • PSU:
      • ATX 500watt
      • Case:
      • Midi Tower AT
      • Operating System:
      • Windows 98 SE
      • Monitor(s):
      • 22" TFT Widescreen
    users were also almost twice as likely to exhibit panic disorder, generalized anxiety disorder and major depression.
    If he has based this study on twins then I feel that the study is basically flawed.

    Panic disorders, anxiety, major depression are not caused by caffiene. The origins of depression (and related mental illnesses) are a combination of things, genetic, environmental, or more discrete factors. There are massive books studying the causes of depression, and for him to simply say, yep it's caffiene is just rediculous.

    Just because they are twins doesn't mean they've led an identical life, or been treated exactly the same by parents or family and friends.

    Perhaps those who suffer from those issues are more likely to drink caffiene to "boost" their mood.
    Last edited by joshwa; 03-12-2006 at 01:20 PM.

Thread Information

Users Browsing this Thread

There are currently 1 users browsing this thread. (0 members and 1 guests)

Similar Threads

  1. Multiple problems - help!
    By Ruggerbugger in forum Help! Quick Relief From Tech Headaches
    Replies: 7
    Last Post: 18-08-2006, 11:41 PM

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •