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SUMMARY:Are Normal People Sane? - Sir Robin Murray\, King's College London
DTSTART:20131029T200000Z
DTEND:20131029T211500Z
UID:TALK47835@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Adam
DESCRIPTION:In “Are Normal People Sane?”\, Sir Robin will discuss how 
 the seemingly sharp line between the mad and the sane has blurred over tim
 e\, as evidenced by recent surveys suggesting ~10% of the general populati
 on experience hallucinations\, focusing particularly on schizophrenia and 
 factors affecting the risk of its development.\n\nIn the past it was belie
 ved that there was a sharp dividing line between the mad and the sane. Abo
 ut 1% of the population were considered to be incapacitated by a specific 
 mental disease termed schizophrenia which manifested itself as hallucinati
 ons (hearing voices) or delusions (fixed false ideas not shared by people 
 from the same culture\, and bizarre behaviour)\, while the remaining 99% w
 ere regarded as psychosis-free. However\, recent research has shown that i
 solated or minor psychotic symptoms are much more common in the population
  than expected\, with surveys suggesting that about 10% of the population 
 experience hallucinations or have delusions. Furthermore\, the factors whi
 ch increase the risk of schizophrenia (family history\, being born prematu
 rely or with difficult labour\, being raised in an urban environment\, bei
 ng a migrant\, childhood adversity\, heavy use of cannabis\, and life even
 ts of an intrusive type (e.g. being beaten up) are all also associated wit
 h the occurrence of minor psychotic symptoms in the population. Thus liabi
 lity to schizophrenia-like psychosis is on a continuum which stretches int
 o the general population\, and the place of an individual on this continuu
 m is determined by their exposure to the various risk factors. In short\, 
 psychosis behaves like many other illness such as hypertension\; i.e. bloo
 d pressure is normally distributed through the population but doctors impo
 se an arbitrary cut-off at a point where it is raised to a point where it 
 thought beneficial to treat the individual and define people with a blood 
 pressure above this cut-off as suffering from illness. Similarly\, there i
 s no sharp dividing line between the insane and the sane with many of the 
 former more rational and many of the latter more irrational than was previ
 ously believed.\n\nEveryone is welcome. Free for members\, £2 for non-mem
 bers. Followed by refreshments (That means smoothies\, cheese and grapes!)
 .
LOCATION:Department of Pharmacology Lecture Theatre\, Tennis Court Road
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