quote: Doctors say the 62-year-old was suffering from a rare condition called pica - a compulsion to eat things not normally consumed as food. Its name comes from the Latin word for magpie, a bird thought to eat just about anything.
As soon as you think you've heard of every psychological problem a person can have, there's always one more.
[ February 19, 2004, 07:29 PM: Message edited by: Sugar+Spice ]
Posted by Valentine014 (Member # 5981) on :
Actually, pica, or the urge to consume pica, isn't all that uncommon. Pregnant women have been known to consume things like that. Doctors speculate that it may be caused by the deficency of a specific vitamin.
Posted by rivka (Member # 4859) on :
Actually, it is known that it is often (but not always) a sign of iron deficiency, among other possible causes. Pica is NOT always a psychological issue -- mineral deficiencies often need to be ruled out first.
OTOH, this guy seems more likely to have other issues . . . Posted by CalvinMaker (Member # 2032) on :
![[Angst]](graemlins/angst.gif)
![[Eek!]](eek.gif)
So gross...