A research of the australian newspaper Sydney Morning Herald showed some of the weirder syndroms that affect human beigns. They may sound weird (and are), but for each one of these diseases there are lots of doctors trying to find the cause. And specially the cure.
10.EMOTIONAL BLINDNESS
The expression "blind by emotion" actually exists, and may happen with anyone. The problem was found out by researchers of the Yale University, in the USA. After looking for a strong picture, specially with pornographic contempt, most people lose vision for some time - tenths of seconds actually. Up to now, no speciallist was able to tell why this happen. The discovery started a movement on the american congress to make all publicity with erotical contemp be banned from the country's roads.
9 GENITAL REDUCTION SYNDROME
Also knowm as koro, this mental disturb make people convinced that their genitals are disappearing. Most cases up to now was related in countries of Africa and Asia, and in many it seems to be contagious! One of the weirder episodes was in Cingapura, in 1967, when the local health service registred hundreds of men that believed their p***s to be disappearing.Only one case happened in Brazil up to now, on USP's Psychiatric Institute. Believing his p***s to be dissapearing, he tried to kill himself with two stabs of knife on his belly!
8 RILEY-DAY SYNDROME
If you ever dreamt about never feeling pain again,
be careful what you wish for... The victims of this disease don't feel pain, but this is a pain. They have more chance of having accidents for not having any allert about tissue damages, like cuts or burnings. This disease is caused by a mutation on the gene IKBKAP of the 9th cromossome and was described by the doctors Milton Riley and Richard Lawrence Day. without the danger warning that pain gives us, most people with this syndrome die young, before 30, due to wounds.
7 COTARD SYNDROME
Extreme depression, where the patient believes he died some years ago. He believes he is a walking corpse and that everyone near him is also dead. In extreme cases, the patient may say he can feel his meat rotting and worms walking through his body... On final levels, the victim may even stop sleeping and his illusion may actually become truth. The disease has the name due to the french doctor Jules Cotard, that described it for the first time in 1880.
Even depressive and believing he is dead, the patient, conflictingly, may also have megalomaniacal ideas, like believing in his own immortality.
6 ONDINA'S CURSE
The bizarre name is a reference to Ondina, water nymph of the european pagan mithology. The disease, even weirder, make the victims lose control of breath.
If doesn't pay attention, the patient just forgets to breath and suffocate! The syndrome was found 30 years ago and there are already about 400 cases in the world. Researchers of the Enfants Malades hospital, of Paris, believe the disease to be related to a gene called THOX2B. The central nervous system doesn't pay attention to the breath while sleeping and the patient must sleep with a ventilator on his face not to die out of breath!
No, you don't need to be stupid or forgetful to have this disease...
5 PICA
This also weird name is not pornographic at all: pica is a latin word derived from pêga, a kind of pidgey that eats anything. And the Pica Syndrome, of course... does the same thing: the person feel a hunger for uneatable things, like mud, rocks, cigar points, paint, hair... The problem acts more on pregnants and childs. After eating too much trash involutaringly, these people have calcified stones in their stomachs. In 2004, french doctors tried to save a 62 years old man that used to eat coins. Even with their effort, he died. With around 600 dollars on his stomach...
4. ALICE IN WONDERLAND SYNDROME
Disease that affects the visual perception of the victim, making some of the near things seem too small. This was described for the first time on 1955, by the english psychiatrist John Todd, who na,med it as a tribute to Lewis Carroll's book. In it the protagonist Alice see things disproportionally as if she was on a LSD-induced "trip". Victims also see distortions on their own body, believing it to be changing shape or size.
3. ALIEN HAND SYNDROME
"My hand acted by itself..." This excuse used by some scoundrels may the true. In the alien hand syndrome, one of the hands of the victim seems to develop a life of it's own. This problem affects mostly people with brain damage or that suffered surgeries on the region. The hard part is that the patient doesn't pay attention to what the hand is doing until it is too late. The crazy hand may even do complex actions, like open zippers... The effects of the lack of control over the hand may be reduced by giving it a task, like holding something.
2 CAPGAS SYNDROME
After having adisillusion with the consort, parents or anyone else related, the person starts believing they were kidnapped and impostors took their place. This sometimes affects the victim itself: when looking at the mirror, the patient believes to be seeing a fake. Over crazy! This usually affects people above 40 years old and causes are still unknown. It was discovered by the french psychiatrist Jean Marie Joseph Capgras, who described it for the first time in 1923. In worse cases, the victim believes even innanimate objects, like chairs, tables and books, were traded for exact replics.
1 FOREIGNER ACCENT SYNDROME
After beign hit or suffer any other kind of damage to the brain, the victim start speaking with french accent... or italian... or spanish. The language varies, but in most cases the victim don't know the it. According to scientists, the accent isn't actually foreigner, just sounds like it. Researchers of the Oxford University, on England, believe the symptom to be caused by a trauma in the area of the brain responsible for language, bringing changes in tone, pronounce and other characteristics of spoken language. A recent case had as victim the british Lynda Walker. After a heart attack, Lynda woke up speaking with jamaican accent.
I know I'm late, but this is still fun. Sorry for any mistranslations.
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