Nervousness, excitement, insomnia,
flushed face, psychomotor agitation, rambling flow of thoughts and speech...with
all of these symptoms you would think you were looking at the definition for a disorder
according to the DSM.As a matter of
fact you are...these are symptoms for the psychological disorder of Caffeine
Intoxication. Caffeine intoxication sounds like a made up disorder but it is
very real and does appear in the DSM. Surprisingly enough, Daniel Nobel is
being evaluation to see if that is what caused him to hospitalize two University of Washington students last Monday when he
hit them with his car that morning. Can it really be that something as simple
as caffeine is altering our behavior so much that it is considered a psychiatric
disorder that can alter how we operate a vehicle just as alcohol can? According
to researchers this is exactly what happened to Nobel when he was charged with
vehicular assault and a hit and run on the by the University of Washington's
Police. Blood tests are not back from the lab yet but from my understanding of
the article alcohol consumption was rule out therefore there is some underlying
cause as to why Noble was acting in such disarray that morning. Investigators
and researchers predicted that Noble consumed approximately 2g of caffeine
which is 10 times the amount an average person consumes a day (200mg). Normally
people develop a tolerance to this drug and do not see such drastic results;
however, there are clinics and treatment centers designed to get people "clean"
from the addiction of caffeine.After
reading this article I became very interesting is this concept. Never have I
heard that someone was driving recklessly due to caffeine overdoes. I am
currently in a course at UNI called Drugs and Individual Behavior. In this
class when we talked about stimulants we discussed caffeine and the effects is
has on our body and in turn on our behavior. This article makes me think...if I
was evaluated this case would I deem that Caffeine intoxication was a severe
enough diagnosis that I would accept this for the reason for this ridiculous behavior
that place two people in the hospital? For some reason (even after learning
about how caffeine is a drug and can alter how the brain functions) I can not
seem to link it in the same category as anxiety disorder, schizophrenia, and
diseases such as alcoholism.
I first read this blog yesterday, and I started to research more on Noble's case. However, I failed to find anything that the link you posted hadn't already shared. Yet I couldn't get this caffeine psychosis out of my mind, so well you know how it goes, and I started to research this as well. I agree with you on the fact that I cannot seem to link caffeine psychosis and other mental disorders into the same category. I found this article on PsychCentral which talked about the effects of caffeine and its' links to psychosis experiences such as hallucinations. In this, the relationship was that caffeine increases the release of the hormone cortisol in our body, which in turn higher level of cortisol is linked to the tendency to have hallucinations. Evidently, as described by some scientists, caffeine exacerbates the effects of stress on the body. Despite these findings though, researchers still need to examine this link between stress, caffeine and hallucinations. Even with this, I'm still not convinced.
I agree with the previous comment, I'm not convinced either. Honestly I just thought this article was ridiculous! I drink so much pop and coffee it's terrible but I don't hit people on the road. It sounds like he has a strong addiction problem to something other than caffeine. If he drinks that much coffee daily he wouldn't have had that reaction to it. So until the blood tests come back saying it was just caffeine I'm going to believe it was another substance or a disorder.
First off, I would like to point out that it would take 36.36 mountain dew's to consume 2 grams of caffeine, and that's without your liver filtering out the drug over the course of time. This guy must have been taking caffeine pills or something to attain the leve he was at.
I agree with the fact that caffeine addiction should not be associated with alcoholism, and schizophrenia.
First off, I think it would be exteremly rare for someone to be "addicted" to caffeine. In order for there to be a true addiction one must be genetically predisposed to that stimulus. People may attain bad habits, and a dependency to caffeine, but addiction is a pretty strong label.
Secondly, in order for these intense symptoms of caffiene intoxication to exist, one cannot simply drink a ton of coffee. I don't believe caffiene pills are highly controlled. If events such as caffeine intoxication leading to car accidents continue, something needs to be done to control the substance.
I have to agree with Jennifer's comment that a report on the blood work would be nice to see...and QuinnB's calculation of 36.36 mt dew's sounds like finals week in a nutshell.
When I read this article I found it to be very interesting because I am a regular pop drinker. I usually drink three to four cans of pop a day. In each twelve ounce can of diet mountain dew there are 54 mg of caffeine. In the typical caffeine pills that I have looked at there are 200 mg of caffine in one pill. This means that my four cans of pop i drink a day comes out about equal to one caffeine pill. This guy had 2grams!? There is no way this guy would be able to finish that may pops or that many cups of coffee. He would have to have been taking caffeine pills, which Quinn B also points out above. I know that when I have had only one or two twelve ounce pops I am a lot more alert and awake. It really halps me get through class. I have found that for myself drinking moderate amounts of caffeine helps me focus and study very well. When I took Industrial psychology with Adam Butler we learned in the textbook that they have found there is a correlation between drinking moderate amounts of caffeine and increasing study habits. Caffeine intoxication is not made up. You go home and drink ten mountain dews as fast as you can and see how you feel. Your behavior will change. Yes, I agree. Large amounts of caffeine can cause you to become more aggressive, excited and can even cause rambling thoughts and speech.
This article to me is a very interesting one. It is well written, very clear, and presented beautifully. The person who wrote this article delivered it perfectly. I personally am not big on caffeine. However, I know people who are. I am skeptical about the validity of "caffeine intoxication". I hope there was more research behind this then just one student hitting a couple of students. Of course that student’s behavior was weird that day, mine would have been too if I would have hit to people with a car. But from my knowledge of the DSM, there was probably a lot of research done on this to make it into that book. So who knows, it could be very true. This is something that I will share with my friends who are big on caffeine. I firmly believe that caffeine can alter your behavior; but to the effect of alcohol, that is hard to believe. To conclude, I think the student who wrote this blog did very well. It captured a lot of information in a short blog. Again, I love the clarity.
Please read the following link:http://www.psychologicalscience.com/kim_maclin/2010/01/i-learned-it-at-the-movies.html as well as the 3 resource links at the bottom of that article.This semester's movies:Teen DreamsCast…
I first read this blog yesterday, and I started to research more on Noble's case. However, I failed to find anything that the link you posted hadn't already shared. Yet I couldn't get this caffeine psychosis out of my mind, so well you know how it goes, and I started to research this as well. I agree with you on the fact that I cannot seem to link caffeine psychosis and other mental disorders into the same category. I found this article on PsychCentral which talked about the effects of caffeine and its' links to psychosis experiences such as hallucinations. In this, the relationship was that caffeine increases the release of the hormone cortisol in our body, which in turn higher level of cortisol is linked to the tendency to have hallucinations. Evidently, as described by some scientists, caffeine exacerbates the effects of stress on the body. Despite these findings though, researchers still need to examine this link between stress, caffeine and hallucinations. Even with this, I'm still not convinced.
(http://psychcentral.com/news/2009/01/15/high-caffeine-consumption-linked-to-hallucinations/3643.html)
I agree with the previous comment, I'm not convinced either. Honestly I just thought this article was ridiculous! I drink so much pop and coffee it's terrible but I don't hit people on the road. It sounds like he has a strong addiction problem to something other than caffeine. If he drinks that much coffee daily he wouldn't have had that reaction to it. So until the blood tests come back saying it was just caffeine I'm going to believe it was another substance or a disorder.
First off, I would like to point out that it would take 36.36 mountain dew's to consume 2 grams of caffeine, and that's without your liver filtering out the drug over the course of time. This guy must have been taking caffeine pills or something to attain the leve he was at.
I agree with the fact that caffeine addiction should not be associated with alcoholism, and schizophrenia.
First off, I think it would be exteremly rare for someone to be "addicted" to caffeine. In order for there to be a true addiction one must be genetically predisposed to that stimulus. People may attain bad habits, and a dependency to caffeine, but addiction is a pretty strong label.
Secondly, in order for these intense symptoms of caffiene intoxication to exist, one cannot simply drink a ton of coffee. I don't believe caffiene pills are highly controlled. If events such as caffeine intoxication leading to car accidents continue, something needs to be done to control the substance.
I have to agree with Jennifer's comment that a report on the blood work would be nice to see...and QuinnB's calculation of 36.36 mt dew's sounds like finals week in a nutshell.
I was searching the net for some for some articles related to caffeine addiction/intoxication and I found this link:
http://www.caffeinedependence.org/caffeine_dependence.html
It's an intersting read in itself and I found I can associate with a lot of the caffeine withdrawal symptoms when I don't have my daily fix.
When I read this article I found it to be very interesting because I am a regular pop drinker. I usually drink three to four cans of pop a day. In each twelve ounce can of diet mountain dew there are 54 mg of caffeine. In the typical caffeine pills that I have looked at there are 200 mg of caffine in one pill. This means that my four cans of pop i drink a day comes out about equal to one caffeine pill. This guy had 2grams!? There is no way this guy would be able to finish that may pops or that many cups of coffee. He would have to have been taking caffeine pills, which Quinn B also points out above. I know that when I have had only one or two twelve ounce pops I am a lot more alert and awake. It really halps me get through class. I have found that for myself drinking moderate amounts of caffeine helps me focus and study very well. When I took Industrial psychology with Adam Butler we learned in the textbook that they have found there is a correlation between drinking moderate amounts of caffeine and increasing study habits. Caffeine intoxication is not made up. You go home and drink ten mountain dews as fast as you can and see how you feel. Your behavior will change. Yes, I agree. Large amounts of caffeine can cause you to become more aggressive, excited and can even cause rambling thoughts and speech.
This article to me is a very interesting one. It is well written, very clear, and presented beautifully. The person who wrote this article delivered it perfectly. I personally am not big on caffeine. However, I know people who are. I am skeptical about the validity of "caffeine intoxication". I hope there was more research behind this then just one student hitting a couple of students. Of course that student’s behavior was weird that day, mine would have been too if I would have hit to people with a car. But from my knowledge of the DSM, there was probably a lot of research done on this to make it into that book. So who knows, it could be very true. This is something that I will share with my friends who are big on caffeine. I firmly believe that caffeine can alter your behavior; but to the effect of alcohol, that is hard to believe. To conclude, I think the student who wrote this blog did very well. It captured a lot of information in a short blog. Again, I love the clarity.