I just read an article on the FOX News website entitled, “Judge Rules Prison Doctors Can Forcibly Medicate Loughner.” The article says that the key question is whether prison officials or a judge should decide whether Loughner should be forcibly medicated.

Loughner’s attorneys also are fighting the forced medication at the 9th Circuit. The key question is whether prison officials or a judge should decide whether a mentally ill person who poses a danger in prison should be forcibly medicated. Prosecutors say the decision is for prison officials to make, while Loughner’s lawyers say it’s up to a judge.

My immediate thought was “Shouldn’t the doctors be deciding that?” and “Why would Loughner’s attorneys be fighting against the forced medication?”

We often discuss the stressors that play a role in triggering bipolar disorder in adults who have a genetic susceptibility to it, but what about stressors in childhood?

Results of a study published in the January 2011 edition of the American Journal of Psychiatry entitled “Childhood trauma and children’s emerging psychotic symptoms: A genetically sensitive longitudinal cohort study,” claim to show that childhood trauma from maltreatment and bullying is associated with children’s reports of psychotic symptoms.

While the report serves an important role in calling attention to the serious psychological and psychiatric damage that intentional abuse and bullying can cause, it also raises the question of what is and is not psychosis, especially in children.