____________________________________________________________________________
Webb finds the time to write me a post!
>Just to let you know, I've never been suicidal, in fact
>
> I stopped a suicide just in time (my friend was sitting
>
> on the railing of the twelve-story University Hotel
>
> in Seattle in the University District, hanging her legs
>
> over the side, I've never gone up so fast in an elevator
>
> screaming Calll the police, I guess I've never emptied
>
> an elevator faster, the door open and everybody ran out.
>
> and there she was looking down over the edge, I say to her
>
> Hi, Barbara, what you looking at, long story short,
>
> I grabbed her and threw her down on the gravel roof.
>
> There was no struggle, she was a skinny little thing
>
> while I'm five foot six.
>
> The cops arrived, took her to the hospital.
>
> Happy ending, she married the Estonian chess master
>
> (chess is deadly serious in Estonia) and had two
>
> very cute kids. Happy ending, wot?
>
> So I think that happiness is really beyond Webb's reach.
>
> Exhibit A:
ANIMAL BEHAVIORAL DISORDERS IN H.L.A.S. . . . . DAVID WEBB . . . Inbox
elizabeth . <
neon...@gmail.com> Fri, May 24, 2013 at 10:21 PM
To: neonprose <
neon...@gmail.com>
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author"David L. Webb" <
david....@dartmouth.edu> wrote
>
> Elizabeth . . .
OBSESSIVE-COMPULSIVE DISORDERS
In veterinary medicine, the term STEREOTYPY has been used
traditionally to define behaviours that are REPETITIVE, CONSTANT, AND
APPEAR TO SERVE NO OBVIOUS PURPOSE.
Considerable discussion occurs when the question 'can animals OBSESS?'
is raised. It appears that animals perceive concern and anxiety, thus
it is possible that they can OBSESS.
Separate from the OBSESSION issue is the issue of relative intensity.
Is the behaviour SIMPLY EXCESSIVE or is it a manifestation of an
OBSESSIVE-COMPULSIVE DISORDER? It is also possible that an EXCESSIVE
BEHAVIOUR and an OBSESSIVE-COMPULSIVE behaviour are merely two points
on a blurry continuum.
> . . . has prefaced a good many hilarious assertions with her
> trademark locution "I assume" (indeed, many a salutary belly laugh can
> be had by the simple expedient of a Google Groups search with "Weir" in
> the Author field and "I assume" as the search text). One would think
> that she would actually open a dictionary rather than just assuming that
> she can guess the word's meaning.
OBSESSIVE-COMPULSIVE DISORDER is probably responsible for some unknown
proportion of companion animal behavioural conditions. OBSESSIVE-
COMPULSIVE behaviours iNTERFERE with the ANIMAL'S ABILITY TO FUNCTION
IN ITS SOCIAL ENVIRONMENT.
A competing stimulus may change or abort the behaviour but time spent
in the activity gradually increases. The ABNORMAL BEHAVIOUR GRADUALLY
DISPLACES NORMAL BEHAVIOUR and the actual behaviours change in
qualitative features (intensity profile).
> And her fantasies and imaginings can indeed be amusing. Sometimes
> she even fantasizes quotations and attributes them to people.
Some examples of OBSESSIVE-COMPULSIVE
disorders in cats listed in the literature include over-grooming,
barbering, feline hyperesthesia, self-mutilation, TAIL CHASING, pica,
wool and FABRIC CHEWING, and WOOL SUCKING.
FELINE HYPERESTHESIA, OVER-GROOMING, AND SELF-MUTILATION
Feline hyperesthesia syndrome has been variously called rolling skin
disease, neuritis, TWITCHY CAT DISEASE, and atypical neurodermatitis.
The behaviours demonstrated can include those mimicking estrus or
biting at the tail, flank, anal or lumbar areas (sometimes with
resultant barbering and self-mutilation); or skin rippling and muscle
spasms/twitching (usually dorsally), often accompanied by
VOCALISATION, RUNNING, JUMPING, HALLUCINATIONS AND
AGGRESSION.
> No. But one can always hope that eventually she will put up a web
> page, as Faker has done, or write a decidedly non-peer-reviewed book, as
> Mr. Streitz has done. Her many inventions, confusions, misattributions,
> misreadings, assumptions, etc. are so robustly comic that they deserve
> an archival format less ephemeral than a Usenet newsgroup.
FABRIC EATING, SUCKING, AND CHEWING
OBSESSive-compulsive disorder can manifest itself as an eating
disorder. Fabric eating, chewing, and sucking may not be associated
with any nutritive considerations relevant to eating disorders and may
represent OBSESSive-compulsive disorders associated with stereotypic
chewing or mouth movements.
Wool sucking may be a behaviour that is left overfrom the prolonged
6-month suckling period common in feral cats. Cats that are weaned
particularly early seem to be over-represented in that population.
Again, different authors do not agree on whether wool sucking and wool
chewing are distinct or related problems. Data compilation is lacking.
TREATMENT OF OBSESSIVE-COMPULSIVE DISORDERS
Treatment protocol for OBSESSIVE-COMPULSIVE DISORDERS should include
an increase in activities that compete with the repetitive behaviours.
Occasionally, some animals perform behaviours that attract attention.
> I'm betting that the answer is no again. Most serious scholarly
> publications insist that their submissions be written in one of several
> widely understood modern languages, not the "British language" favored
> by Mr. Innes. (The latter contains perplexing words like "campel" and
> "secuter," not to mention unconventional uses of conventional phrases --
> for instance, any language whose lexicon contains a few words of Saxon
> derivation counts as "Old English.") Mr. Innes's idiosyncratic "British
> language" is not apt to pass muster in any respectable peer-reviewed
> scholarly publication with which I am familiar.
UNWANTED BEHAVIOURS SHOULD NOT BE REWARDED WITH ATTENTION.
Medication to decrease anxiety is usually prescribed for at least 12
weeks before deciding whether full effects are beneficial. Some
patients require a higher dose. Others require more frequent
administration. In people treated for OBSESSIVE-compulsive disorders,
a given drug will be tried for at least six months before changing the
medication or adding another drug. CLOMIPRAMINE (ANAFRANIL®,
CLOMICALM®), A TRICYCLIC ANTIDEPRESSANT (TCA) HAS BEEN TRADITIONALLY
USED FOR TREATMENT OF OBSESSIVE DISORDERS IN HUMANS.
> I trust that the question is purely rhetorical.
> One is particularly tempted to needle someone who asserts or implies
> that his interlocutor is dishonest without grounds.
In the United
States, clomipramine (Clomicalm®) is labeled for use in dogs to treat
separation anxiety, whereas in Canada and Australia, it is also
labelled to treat OBSESSIVE-compulsive disorders of dogs. In the past
15 + years, selective serotonin re-uptake inhibitors (SSRIs) such as
paroxetine (PAXIL®), sertraline (ZOLOFT®), fluoxetine (PROZAC®),
citalopram (CELEXA®), fluvoxamine (LUVOX®) have been introduced and
evaluated for the treatment of OBSESSIVE-compulsive disorders in
people. Fluoxetine, sertraline, fluvoxamine and paroxetine have
demonstrated efficacy in the treatment of OBSESSIVE-compulsive
disorders. In contrast, clomipramine, though efficacious, is often
associated in people with substantial adverse events, particularly
anticholinergic effects. Clomipramine was effective in controlling the
signs of anxiety-related and OBSESSIVE-compulsive disorders in 10 of
11 cats and was well tolerated. The average maintenance dosage was 0.3
mg/kg once daily. Four cats became lethargic at higher doses.
> It is kind of Peter to reassure Mr. Innes on that score -- one can
> never tell what the phrase might mean in Mr. Innes's British language.
> [...]
Other drugs have been used to treat OBSESSIVE-compulsive disorders in
cats and some examples include amitriptyline (ELAVIL®), diazepam
(VALIUM®), clorazepate (TRANXENE®), and alprazolam (XANAX®). In
summary, each patient presented with a tentative OBSESSIVE-compulsive
disorder needs to be fully worked-up medically and behaviourally in
order to determine the best drug option for that given case as well as
address all other contributing factors.