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  • 29
    Jul
    2010
    6:31pm, EDT

    PSA: Meth is bad for pregnant ladies

    Hey! Did you guys know that meth is not good for pregnant women or their babies? We know. We'll give you a minute.

    Reuters Health reported on the study today. After treating three pregnant woman -- all meth users -- for uncontrolled high blood pressure, Dr. Ido Solt of Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles and his colleagues decided to study methamphetamine abuse in pregnancy. They compared 276 meth-using women to 34,055 non-meth-using women, all of whom delivered babies at a Phoenix hospital from 2000 to 2006.

    Solt and his team compared health factors such as preterm delivery and uncontrolled high blood pressure, and for almost every factor the researchers measured, the meth users and their babies fared worse. Shocking.

    To be fair, meth is a serious problem -- for teens, men and women, pregnant or not -- and drug use in pregnancy is nothing to be flip about. But in case you were considering methamphetamine abuse as a new hobby during your pregnancy, maybe don't? It's just science.

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    Explore related topics: meth, pregnancy, featured, drug-abuse, no-duh, obvs, melissa-dahl
  • 4
    Jun
    2010
    6:01pm, EDT

    Darth Vader was mentally ill, in case you're wondering

    Lucasfilm Ltd. via AP

    The support of Obi-Wan Kenobi (Ewan McGregor), left, wasn't enough to keep young Anakin Skywalker (Hayden Christensen), from developing a borderline personality, say researchers.

    Apparently Darth Vader’s real problem was that he lacked a good therapist, say French psychiatrists and psychologists who, instead of working with an actual patient, used their diagnostic super powers to divine that the Dark Lord may have had a borderline personality. If he was real that is.

    What’s more, they think he was on drugs, er, The Force, which they think maybe represents drugs somehow, according to an article in LiveScience. Additionally, they think his mental health issues were exactly why teens were attracted to the "Star Wars" movies -- they could relate because of their own borderline personality traits. Or maybe it was because of the cool special effects.

    But why put the dude formerly known as Anakin Skywalker on the psychiatrist's couch now, more than three decades after he first picked up a light saber?

    "I had watched the two prequel movies ["Attack of the Clones" and "Revenge of the Sith"], and it was during my residency in psychiatry while trying to explain borderline personality disorder to medical students that I thought of Anakin," French psychiatrist Eric Bui told LiveScience.

    Bui, a psychiatrist at Toulouse University Hospital in France, and colleagues describe their theory in a letter to be published in journal Psychiatric Research.

    Bui says Vader’s diagnosis will help spread awareness -- maybe more people will seek help if they see a little Darth Vader in themselves. (No word on what to do if you lean more toward the sinister stylings of Dr. Evil from "Austin Powers.)

    We here at The Body Odd posit that if psychiatrists were going to take a hard look at Mr. Vader, perhaps his real issue was an existential crisis because HE DOESN’T EXIST.

    As for the researchers themselves, they may want to examine each other for delusional disorder, a condition where people confuse fiction with reality.

    Did the Joker have multiple-personality disorder? Did Freddie Kruger have intermittent explosive disorder? Did Nosferatu have narcissistic personality disorder? Share what mental conditions you think afflicted your favorite villains.

    Want more weird health news? Find The Body Odd on Facebook.

    106 comments

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    Explore related topics: health, star-wars, darth-vader, no-duh, linda-dahlstrom

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