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.
posted
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.
Posts: 2064 | Registered: Dec 2003
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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 . . . Posts: 32919 | Registered: Mar 2003
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So gross...
