Psychiatric problems

EarthWolf · 2004-07-25 17:01:49

Hello,

I have read before that both the U.S. and Russian space programs had devoted research towards the physiological effect of microgravity on humans. But, have there been any research on the effect psychologically that spaceflight has on humans? Have there been any identified psychiatric problems in manned spaceflight?

Cordially,

EarthWolf

Grypd · 2004-07-25 17:17:03

What happens in microgravity has been intensly researched by the Russians in particular. What seems to be one problem is lack of real sleep. People seem to find it really difficult to sleep in a micro gravity situation and this leads to a whole host of problems starting with tiredness up to hallucinogenic behaviour.

It was lack of sleep that may well have resulted in the progress cargo vessel having collided with the russian Mir.

Some problems with the body chemistry of the humans aboard these stations has also been reported this includes seratonin reduction which is often seen in depressive cases.

Maybe its the result of all these possible ways to make a person flip that the russians insisted on having a gun on the ISS. Methinks they are just being cautious.

Shaun Barrett · 2004-07-25 17:46:19

The sleep problem is just one more good reason to tether crewed Mars ships to spent upper rocket stages and spin the whole thing.
Any developmental costs in providing artificial gravity must surely be outweighed by the elimination of so many physiological and psychological problems(?).

Aside from these points, Dr. Zubrin has stated his opinion that humans are likely to be the strongest links in the chain. He is far more concerned with making the hardware reliable and building in safety factors than with worrying about humans flipping out because of mental abberations.

So spin the Hab and, if you can't find any psychologically stable astronauts, just send me! You can lock me into a tuna can for 6 months and I guarantee you I won't lose the plot ... honest!!

Commodore · 2004-07-25 19:10:41

Maybe its the result of all these possible ways to make a person flip that the russians insisted on having a gun on the ISS. Methinks they are just being cautious.

What is it with people wanting objects that fire supersonic projectiles in pressurized places.

Theres plently of ways to subdue someone without putting the station at risk and causing a medical emergency.

C M Edwards · 2004-07-25 19:25:30

I don't know about you guys, but the whole "alternative to guns on the space station" question suggests some very interesting party games the crew could play on the way to Mars... (Yeah, maybe you'd better not send me along. :;): )

As I understand it, the most prominent mental health "risk" isn't nervous breakdowns and psychotic episodes. It's simple, creeping loss of efficiency due to boredom, lack of stress relief, etc. The crew can be expected to lose their edge, not their minds.

Sorry to disappoint the morbidly curious, but these kind of gradual losses of efficiency can be anticipated and accounted for with "vacations", adjustable man-hour estimates, and other tolerances built into the mission plan.

And, maybe from time to time, they could break out the straightjackets just for the folks back on Earth. After all, they'll have to keep those ratings up!

EarthWolf · 2004-07-25 19:35:43

Hello,

Wow, didn't know that the Russians insisted on keeping a gun aboard the ISS. Does anyone know if there were any similar sleeping problems for the Apollo crews on the Moon? Why does microgravity affect sleeping so much? Does microgravity alter the neurochemicals that regulate sleep in the brain?

Cordially,

EarthWolf

Mad Grad Student · 2004-07-25 21:31:17

Aside from these points, Dr. Zubrin has stated his opinion that humans are likely to be the strongest links in the chain. He is far more concerned with making the hardware reliable and building in safety factors than with worrying about humans flipping out because of mental abberations.
So spin the Hab and, if you can't find any psychologically stable astronauts, just send me! You can lock me into a tuna can for 6 months and I guarantee you I won't lose the plot ... honest!!

Well, that's just because Zubrin is an engineer. Ask a psychologist and they'd tell you that the human factor would be by far the weakest link in a Mars mission. The disparity is just because the two parties know all the intricacies and all the things that could go wrong in their one particular field.

Me too! I already spend almost all of my time either indoors (sleeping mostly) or in my windowless, cramped classroom school where you can't go to the bathroom without five people looking at you advising in the proper way to zip a fly (Apparently it's quite tricky for some). In the summer you can remove the school time, but I've been up in a glider for 2+ hours where my seat belt was so tight I couldn't lean a foot forward (It's kinda like being in a straightjacket circling a thermal at 10,000 feet). The point is, I can take excess indoorism.

I don't think that zero-gravity creates very many psychological problems, it's the cramped confines that reduce your availible world to a few hundred cubic feet. I highly doubt that human factors will be a big problem, in part because I'm an engineer (Or engineer wannabe) like Dr. Z, but mostly because of submarines. In your average Ohio class sub you cram over a hundred people (Nearly all men) into a cylinder 18 feet in diameter by 300 long, cut them off from all contact with the outside world for six months except for tiny coded messages that take hours to transmit, and give them 18 hour day work schedules while expecting htem to fight a war. As far as I know, there has never been a mutiny at least post-war on any American subs, people can handle the isolation and the lack of privacy. Besides, astronauts have a much better view than sub sailors.

Rxke · 2004-07-26 00:30:43

Huh? AFAIK, the gun is for emergency landings, part of the survival-package. They've had guns for years, waaay before ISS.
Russian Soyuzes land in remote places, and sometimes it takes a while before the crews are found, so if you consider the Russian wildlife has its share of wild bears, wolves, and peasants on weird mushrooms...etc. it makes sense...

bolbuyk · 2004-07-26 14:53:53

For me as psychologist, I think the most important factor is the crew in the cramped space. People have to live together without any possibility for distance. Also the small variety of sensory stimuli. I don't know exactly what are the bio-psychological effects of microgravity, but I don't have the impression they are severe. I think lack of sleep, which was also reported on Apollo, is more due to the lack of a day-rythm, that is not maintained by the natural way of sunrise-sunset. This is the same reason that depressions occur in northern scandinavia. Melatonine is in some sense responsible, but it's not sure that's the whole story. I think a day-rithm with regulation by light is very important, more than artificial gravity in this case.
Beside that, I think the stress could be severe, when there are problems in deep space. I'm afraid this factor is underestimated.

C M Edwards · 2004-07-26 15:19:51

How do you say, "Roll over and go to sleep or I'll shoot!" in Russian?

C M Edwards · 2004-07-26 15:44:42

On a more serious note, lack of mutinies on nuclear submarines are _not_ a good indicator of the existence of serious psychological problems in the crews. Military discipline and cooperation tend to prevent such episodes.

Fortunately, better examples exist in polar expeditions and other groups. And, while mission-threatening psychological disfunctions are not something that can be ignored, they're not likely, either.

Mars_B4_Moon · 2022-08-25 07:38:43

What Ketamine and Psilocybin Can and Cannot Do in Depression
https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/979294

Stressed out, busy moms say microdosing mushrooms makes life easier and brighter. Researchers caution that they are ‘experimenting on themselves’
https://www.cpr.org/2022/08/16/moms-mic … mushrooms/

Psychedelic frees up depressed brain, study shows
https://www.bbc.com/news/health-61070591

Study explores effects of extended spaceflight on brain
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2 … 141100.htm

Mars_B4_Moon · 2022-09-22 14:26:56

As experts fear that post-pandemic grief could metastasize into a public health crisis, workplaces lack policies and safe spaces to support workers.

https://www.welcometothejungle.com/en/a … ss-at-work

Mars_B4_Moon · 2022-10-19 13:10:43

On the subject of C M Edwards discussing lack of mutinies

We had an interesting discussion of problem people and sabotage, arson and fires, referring to an older case

'A shipyard worker who set fire to rags aboard a nuclear submarine because he wanted to go home was sentenced to 17 years in jail'
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/ … e-sentence

a story from 2013

There are now sanctions on Russia due to the invasion of Ukraine, new players arrive ike South Korea and India that one day might make their own contribution to space flight, MARS-500 mission was a psychological social isolation experiment conducted by Russia, the European Space Agency, and China, in preparation for an unspecified spaceflight.

https://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/31/scie … wanted=all
,
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/8711216.stm

the South Pole research stations, Devon Island, Svalbard Islands also currently give interesting results

'Antarctica as a Mars Analogue'
https://newmars.com/forums/viewtopic.php?id=9798

Last edited by Mars_B4_Moon (2022-10-19 13:16:48)

kbd512 · 2022-10-19 15:15:22

Mars_B4_Moon,

We had lots of people who fancied the idea of being a sailor, until the time came to do "sailor stuff", like sailing aboard big grey ships for long periods of time. I can recall entire months where I never saw sunlight. Sometimes that's the nature of the beast. You conduct night flight ops, you sleep during the day, wake up at night, and don't see much sunlight as a result.

What I saw while I was in the Navy dissuaded me from the idea that I could have my own family while serving in the Navy, which was one of several reasons I left, but not amongst the Top 3 reasons. Towards the end of my enlistment, I made a mental list of reasons to stay or leave. Almost everyone I knew who was married was also divorced at least once, their relationships with their children were strained even for the kids who wanted their mother or father around, and the probability of the woman I was with deciding she wanted to be with someone else while I was gone was better than 75%, if what I saw was "typical". Some people made it work through sheer force of will, but they were rarities. Being separated from your spouse for so long, repeatedly, at such a young age is hard, and I don't imagine it gets any easier with children.

Will colonizing Mars be exceptionally difficult, maybe more challenging than serving in the military?

That's pretty much guaranteed, but as always, life is what you make of it. The people who go need to be mature adults with "Type A" personalities, or they won't make it.

Mars_B4_Moon · 2023-05-14 05:15:27

This news item could be put in any number of topics, Dangerous Personality for Mars? Law and Order, Clash of Culture and Crimes, Militarization of Space, the Political Religious Moral discussions, Hacker sabotage, Crime & civic responsibility

I will post it here for now

'Sabotage probe after cables cut on Royal Navy warship HMS Glasgow'
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland- … t-65582895

kbd512 · 2023-05-14 13:04:07

Mars_B4_Moon,

Disgruntled ship yard workers attempting to sabotage the ships they're building or working on is nothing new. Cutting power and data cables is an overtly obvious act of sabotage. It's not as if nobody would notice that it was done before the ship was accepted into service. It's annoying and garners a lot of attention, stokes fears of internal enemies, etc, but ultimately it's an attention-seeking act.

Mars_B4_Moon · 2023-06-14 12:52:11

Psychological adaptation in Antarctica amidst the COVID-19 pandemic
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10 … 23.2205241

Two soldiers killed, one injured in shooting at Japanese army firing range
https://www.upi.com/Top_News/World-News … 686725869/

Mood and Sleep Status and Mental Disorders During Prolonged Winter-Over Residence in Two Korean Antarctic Stations
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9379312/

Abstract
Purpose
Antarctica is a region with extreme climate, characterized by extreme cold and photoperiod. No research has been conducted on the mental health of Korean Antarctic dispatchers. The aim of this study was to investigate the status of mental illness and changes in mood and sleep among Korean crew members staying for a long-term period in the Antarctic station.
Methods
From 2017 to 2020, crew members who were dispatched from South Korea to two Antarctic stations for a one-year period participated in this study. The crew were evaluated for mood and sleep status and mental illness through psychological tests and interviews by board-certified psychiatrists once before departure and twice during their stay in Antarctica. The incidence of mental illness was confirmed and changes in sleep and depression were analyzed.
Results
A total of 88 participants were included in the final analysis, and 7 of them (8.0%) were diagnosed with mental disorders such as insomnia in early winter. The total Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) score increased significantly in the early winter period, and the total Insomnia Severity Index (ISI) and Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Inventory (PSQI) scores increased in both early and late winter. The difference in changes in mood and sleep symptoms before, during, and after dispatch between the two stations was not significant.
Conclusion
This is the first study to investigate the mental illness and mood and sleep status of Korean crews dispatched to Antarctica. In early winter, there were significant increases in mental illness and depressive symptoms, and a worsening of sleep status.

Mars_B4_Moon · 2023-06-22 04:51:09

Gen Z homicides hit 25-year high during COVID—and the suicide rate was the worst in over 50 years, CDC study says

https://fortune.com/well/2023/06/15/gen … cdc-study/

The homicide rate for older U.S. teenagers rose to its highest point in nearly 25 years during the COVID-19 pandemic, and the suicide rate for adults in their early 20s was the worst in more than 50 years, government researchers said Thursday.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report examined the homicide and suicide rates among 10- to 24-year-olds from 2001 to 2021.

The increase is alarming and “reflects a mental health crisis among young people and a need for a number of policy changes,” said Dr. Steven Woolf, a Virginia Commonwealth University researcher who studies U.S. death trends and wasn’t involved in the CDC report.

Experts cited several possible reasons for the increases, including higher rates of depression, limited availability of mental health services and the number of guns in U.S. homes.

Guns were used in 54% of suicides and 93% of homicides among the age group in 2021, the most recent year for which statistics were available.

“Picture a teenager sitting in their bedroom feeling desperate and making a decision, impulsively, to take their own life,” Woolf said. If they have access to a gun, “it’s game over.”

Suicide and homicide were the second and third leading causes of death for 10- to 24-year-olds, after a category of accidental deaths that includes motor vehicle crashes, falls, drownings and overdoses. Other researchers have grouped the data by the method of death, and concluded that guns are now the biggest killer of U.S. children.

Earlier this year, Woolf and other researchers looking at CDC data noted dramatic increases in child and adolescent death rates overall at the beginning of the pandemic, and found suicide and homicide were important factors.

The report also found:

—Suicide and homicide death rates remained far higher for older teenagers and young adults than they were for 10- to 14-year-olds.

—In 2021, there were about 2,900 suicides in youths ages 10 to 19, and 4,200 in 20- to 24-year-olds. About 3,000 homicide deaths were reported in the younger group, and nearly 3,900 in the adults in their early 20s.

—The homicide death rate jumped from 8.9 deaths per 100,000 teens aged 15 to 19 in 2019 to 12.3 in 2020. It rose to 12.8 deaths per 100,000 in 2021, the highest since 1997, according to CDC data.

—Homicide deaths became more common than suicide deaths among 15- to 19-year-olds, while suicide was more common in the younger and older age groups.

—While large increases were seen in homicide rates for young Black and Hispanic people in the U.S., there were not significant increases for their white counterparts, other CDC data shows.

—Among 20- to 24-year-olds, the homicide death rate jumped 34% from 2019 to 2020 — from 13.4 per 100,000 population to 18 per 100,000. It held stable in 2021, but the suicide rate rose enough in 2021 — to 19.4 per 100,000 — to surpass the homicide rate.

Mars_B4_Moon · 2024-03-04 05:55:05

Mental health leave offered to Taiwanese students as youth suicides double
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/ … des-double

Application of virtual reality for crew mental health in extended-duration space missions
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/a … 6517316855

The Burden of Space Exploration on the Mental Health of Astronauts: A Narrative Review
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8696290/

Mars_B4_Moon · 2024-04-12 11:18:07

Mental health, physical symptoms and biomarkers of stress during prolonged exposure to Antarctica's extreme environment
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/a … 652100062X

a normal location on Earth and almost murder?

Geyser and Anissa Weier convicted in the stabbing attack on a friend in 2014, when all three were 12 years old. Weier and Geyser said they tried to kill the girl to curry favor with a fictional horror character called Slender Man. The victim barely survived, the character of the Slender Man is a fictional entity created on Something Awful, an online forum, for a 2009 paranormal image Photoshop contest. The Slender Man urban myth was subsequently expanded online. Weier and Geyser were both found not guilty by mental disease or defect and committed to mental health institutions. Weier received a sentence of 25 years to life and Geyser was sentenced to 40 years to life. After seven years in custody, Weier was granted early release and will be under supervision until age 37.

Slender Man stabber who almost killed classmate when she was 12 is too dangerous to free
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/articl … lease.html

'Judge denies early release for infamous Slender Man stabber'
https://www.websleuths.com/forums/threa … 150/page-3

'The psychological challenges of a long voyage to Mars'

https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4755/1

I’ve been studying astronaut psychology since Apollo − a long voyage to Mars in a confined space could raise stress levels and make the journey more challenging
https://theconversation.com/ive-been-st … ing-221960

Last edited by Mars_B4_Moon (2024-04-12 11:21:26)

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#1 2004-07-25 17:01:49

Re: Psychiatric problems

#2 2004-07-25 17:17:03

Re: Psychiatric problems

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Re: Psychiatric problems

#4 2004-07-25 19:10:41

Re: Psychiatric problems

#5 2004-07-25 19:25:30

Re: Psychiatric problems

#6 2004-07-25 19:35:43

Re: Psychiatric problems

#7 2004-07-25 21:31:17

Re: Psychiatric problems

#8 2004-07-26 00:30:43

Re: Psychiatric problems

#9 2004-07-26 14:53:53

Re: Psychiatric problems

#10 2004-07-26 15:19:51

Re: Psychiatric problems

#11 2004-07-26 15:44:42

Re: Psychiatric problems

#12 2022-08-25 07:38:43

Re: Psychiatric problems

#13 2022-09-22 14:26:56

Re: Psychiatric problems

#14 2022-10-19 13:10:43

Re: Psychiatric problems

#15 2022-10-19 15:15:22

Re: Psychiatric problems

#16 2023-05-14 05:15:27

Re: Psychiatric problems

#17 2023-05-14 13:04:07

Re: Psychiatric problems

#18 2023-06-14 12:52:11

Re: Psychiatric problems

#19 2023-06-22 04:51:09

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