Derangements: Pica
Jan. 2nd, 2005 02:55 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dunmurderinOriginally posted at the Idealistic Gamers Unite website back in Damn If I Know.
Derangements: Pica
I found this mental disorder over at Mentalhelp.net
The Real Deal:
According to Metal Help Network (http://www.mentalhelp.net), pica is a mental disorder characterized by the “persistent eating of nonnutritive substances for a period of at least 1 month.”
The DSM-IV diagnostic criteria for pica are as follows:
* there must be persistent eating of non-nutritional material for at least 1 month;
* the behavior must be inappropriate given the developmental level of the patient;
* the behavior must not be part of a culturally acceptable practice;
* if the behavior occurs exclusively in the course of another mental disorder, it must be sufficiently severe to warrant separate clinical attention.
(Source: Pica entry at http://www.psychiatrymatters.md Note: You will have to register to use this site but registration is free)
It’s worth noting that people with pica will eat regular food and have no aversion to it.
In children younger than two years, ingesting non-food items isn’t considered pathological. In some ways, it’s how very small children explore their world.
Young children (those older than two) with pica generally eat paint, string, paste, etc. Older kids will sometimes eat sand, animal feces, stones or leaves.
Teenagers and adults generally eat sand or clay. Pica is rare in adults who are not mentally disabled
In the Southern US and parts of Africa, a practice similar to pica, called geophagia (earth eating) is common and considered culturally acceptable. Many pregnant women in Africa indulge in the practice to help supplement their diets.
Some African marketplaces sell dirt for eating and certain types of soil are considered to be particularly tasty. During the 1950s and 60s, clay could be purchased at some Southern bus stations and some Southerners who moved North asked for certain local clays to be shipped up to them for snacking purposes.
Some things folks with pica have eaten: clay, dirt, sand, stones, pebbles, hair, feces, lead, laundry starch, vinyl gloves, plastic, pencil erasers, ice, fingernails, paper, paint chips, coal, chalk, wood, plaster, light bulbs, needles, string, and burnt matches. (source: eMedicine, see below)
System Mechanics:
Changelings: Redcaps cannot suffer from pica since eating non-food items is a way of life for them. Just because other changelings don’t think steel-belted radials make good eatin’ doesn’t mean they don’t. Other Changelings can take pica.
Note: Since I didn't know as much about Redcaps at the time I wrote this, I want to update this part -- Redcaps could very well suffer from pica, particularly before they went through Chyrsailis. In a post-Chrys Redcap, pica might be a tendency to munch on non-food items even when food is available.
Vampires: A vampire who persists in eating human food could be said to be suffering from pica, since the food would be non-nutritional, inappropriate to their developmental level (they’re vampires now, not humans, get that cheeseburger out of your face!), and culturally unacceptable. Or the vamp in question could be stuffing down dirt, paint chips and cigarette butts. Pica would *not* make it so that a vampire could eat food (or non-food) without the usual side effects of vomiting. If the vamp in question took the Eat Food merit, they’d be able to hold down their food/non-food items but would still vomit them up later.
Garou: Because of its prevalence among the poor, pica seems perfectly suited for Bone Gnawers. Pica has an added benefit for Werewolf players in that it also appears in the animal kingdom, specifically dogs and cats.
Mages, ghouls, kinfolk, etc. can all suffer from pica. I’d guess that for some mage paradigms geophagy might be considered an essential part of connecting with Mother Earth. There is evidence that geophagy has been used ritually in humanity’s past.
Ghouls, particularly but not necessarily only Malkavian ghouls, might pick up pica as a result of their new blood habit.
Kithain, Hunters, Kinfolk, etc. are just as likely to pick up pica as any normal human.
Links:
eMedicine: Eating Disorders: Pica http://www.emedicine.com/ped/topic1798.htm
Pica, Geophagy and Rock Art: http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Acropolis/5579/pica.html
Pica: Common but Commonly Missed
http://www.familypractice.com/journal/abfpjournal_frame.htm?main=/journal/2000/v13.n05/1305.05/art-1305.05.htm
A series of responses on dirt eating/pica: http://agcwww.bio.ns.ca/schools/EarthNet/english/geology/qa/rocks/q13.html
Derangements: Pica
I found this mental disorder over at Mentalhelp.net
The Real Deal:
According to Metal Help Network (http://www.mentalhelp.net), pica is a mental disorder characterized by the “persistent eating of nonnutritive substances for a period of at least 1 month.”
The DSM-IV diagnostic criteria for pica are as follows:
* there must be persistent eating of non-nutritional material for at least 1 month;
* the behavior must be inappropriate given the developmental level of the patient;
* the behavior must not be part of a culturally acceptable practice;
* if the behavior occurs exclusively in the course of another mental disorder, it must be sufficiently severe to warrant separate clinical attention.
(Source: Pica entry at http://www.psychiatrymatters.md Note: You will have to register to use this site but registration is free)
It’s worth noting that people with pica will eat regular food and have no aversion to it.
In children younger than two years, ingesting non-food items isn’t considered pathological. In some ways, it’s how very small children explore their world.
Young children (those older than two) with pica generally eat paint, string, paste, etc. Older kids will sometimes eat sand, animal feces, stones or leaves.
Teenagers and adults generally eat sand or clay. Pica is rare in adults who are not mentally disabled
In the Southern US and parts of Africa, a practice similar to pica, called geophagia (earth eating) is common and considered culturally acceptable. Many pregnant women in Africa indulge in the practice to help supplement their diets.
Some African marketplaces sell dirt for eating and certain types of soil are considered to be particularly tasty. During the 1950s and 60s, clay could be purchased at some Southern bus stations and some Southerners who moved North asked for certain local clays to be shipped up to them for snacking purposes.
Some things folks with pica have eaten: clay, dirt, sand, stones, pebbles, hair, feces, lead, laundry starch, vinyl gloves, plastic, pencil erasers, ice, fingernails, paper, paint chips, coal, chalk, wood, plaster, light bulbs, needles, string, and burnt matches. (source: eMedicine, see below)
System Mechanics:
Changelings: Redcaps cannot suffer from pica since eating non-food items is a way of life for them. Just because other changelings don’t think steel-belted radials make good eatin’ doesn’t mean they don’t. Other Changelings can take pica.
Note: Since I didn't know as much about Redcaps at the time I wrote this, I want to update this part -- Redcaps could very well suffer from pica, particularly before they went through Chyrsailis. In a post-Chrys Redcap, pica might be a tendency to munch on non-food items even when food is available.
Vampires: A vampire who persists in eating human food could be said to be suffering from pica, since the food would be non-nutritional, inappropriate to their developmental level (they’re vampires now, not humans, get that cheeseburger out of your face!), and culturally unacceptable. Or the vamp in question could be stuffing down dirt, paint chips and cigarette butts. Pica would *not* make it so that a vampire could eat food (or non-food) without the usual side effects of vomiting. If the vamp in question took the Eat Food merit, they’d be able to hold down their food/non-food items but would still vomit them up later.
Garou: Because of its prevalence among the poor, pica seems perfectly suited for Bone Gnawers. Pica has an added benefit for Werewolf players in that it also appears in the animal kingdom, specifically dogs and cats.
Mages, ghouls, kinfolk, etc. can all suffer from pica. I’d guess that for some mage paradigms geophagy might be considered an essential part of connecting with Mother Earth. There is evidence that geophagy has been used ritually in humanity’s past.
Ghouls, particularly but not necessarily only Malkavian ghouls, might pick up pica as a result of their new blood habit.
Kithain, Hunters, Kinfolk, etc. are just as likely to pick up pica as any normal human.
Links:
eMedicine: Eating Disorders: Pica http://www.emedicine.com/ped/topic1798.htm
Pica, Geophagy and Rock Art: http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Acropolis/5579/pica.html
Pica: Common but Commonly Missed
http://www.familypractice.com/journal/abfpjournal_frame.htm?main=/journal/2000/v13.n05/1305.05/art-1305.05.htm
A series of responses on dirt eating/pica: http://agcwww.bio.ns.ca/schools/EarthNet/english/geology/qa/rocks/q13.html
