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Rapid Responses: Rapid Responses published:
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It always pays to look at the date!
- Gerry Waldron (31 March 2006)
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April fool?
- Paddy ONeill (31 March 2006)
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Epidemic in Gateshead
- Peter W Ward (31 March 2006)
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April fool?
- Tim Marshall (31 March 2006)
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The chronically unsuccessful
- Margaret Allen (31 March 2006)
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Too much effort
- John L Cliff (31 March 2006)
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Scientists must wait for authentication
- Rajan TD (31 March 2006)
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Ignores economic benefits
- David Atkins (31 March 2006)
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It's true
- Graham Luxton (31 March 2006)
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MoDeD - not new but rediscovered.
- Stephen Head (1 April 2006)
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Gender and Cross cultural analysis needed
- Mary E Black (1 April 2006)
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April 1st.
- Vincent P Edwards (1 April 2006)
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April Fool- Can I be bovvered?
- Elizabeth Sleight (3 April 2006)
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Apathy rules OK
- Alan J O'Rourke (4 April 2006)
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Gerry Waldron, Consultant in Public Health Medicine NHSSB, Ballymena, Northern Ireland BT42 1QB
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The learned Professor Leth Argos, according to the conference programme (http://www.diseasemongering.org/downloads/program.pdf), works at the Hypnos Topor School of Medicine. I assume that this centre of excellence is located in Sleepy Hollow, Bedfordshire. The same programme lists the author -Ray Moynihan - as delivering a paper on the experiences of a sufferer. if that sufferer is himself, I would submit, on the basis of the article, that this is a clear misdiagnosis. Competing interests: None declared |
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Paddy ONeill, GP Ts17 0AL
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I am right in assuming that there is a significance to the date of publication that appears beneath this article? Leth Argos. Brilliant Competing interests: None declared |
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Peter W Ward, GP Principal Gateshead NE8 1NR
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I think this has reached epidemic levels in Gateshead and must be the reason why loads of people up here are fat. Thank goodness someone is coming up with a drug to treat it. Where do I volunteer my partners and staff for the drug trial as they spend way too much time drinking coffee and lazing about in the staff room? I bet a bit of cannabis receptor anatagonism would do them good. Competing interests: A GP with several partners and staff suffering from MoDeD |
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Tim Marshall, Associate professor Department of Public Health and Epidemiology, Universiity of Birmingham B125 2TT
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The publication date was of course April 1st. It sounds as though the authors have re-discovered Oblomov. Competing interests: None declared |
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Margaret Allen, Physician Assistant East Palo Alto, California
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Readers and the authors of this article might enjoy visiting the website of Despair.Inc (www.despair.com). They offer motivational products and posters for pessimists, underachievers, and the chronically unsuccessful. A slow, lazy browse through their online catalogue is well worth the extra effort. Competing interests: None declared |
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John L Cliff, Behavioural Engineer Behavioural Engineering Ltd, TW9 2LL
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We actually identified this disease several years ago, but couldn't be bothered following it up. Competing interests: None declared |
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Rajan TD, Consultant Skin & Sex Transm Diseases, Andheri 0091-22-56982747 CMPH Medical College, Mumbai, India
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The spirit of scientific enquiry makes us pick up early signs of newer diseases. As more data is pooled in by different researchers the hypothesis gets either proven or dismissed. The human mind as well as the human body has wide variation in its capabilities. While a range of activities which are common to most people is accepted as normal, those which are at the extreme ends of the Gaussian curve is taken as abnormal and given names of disorders. In this context one hopes that the new entity described by teh authors will get further approval by other researchers. It would be proper not to let such information leak to the lay press before the scientific data is put to adequate cross-examination. Competing interests: None declared |
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David Atkins, Health services researcher Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, Rockville, Maryland, 20850 USA
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As a sufferer of MoDeD, I felt compelled to write about your article. Then I decided, why bother? But I finally roused myself to take issue with the estimates of the economic costs of the disorder. This ignores the fact that MoDeD sufferers are responsible for an estimated 35% of consumption of snack foods, 40% of viewing of all reality TV shows, and 45% of all purchases of popular music. In addition, MoDeD sufferers produce 35% fewer green-house gasses due to their tendencies to stay at home. A more comprehensive analysis of the full economic impact of MoDeD should be done, preferrably by someone other than me. Competing interests: None declared |
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Graham Luxton, Executive Director Castle Personnel
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A lot of the 'tards I deal with have this obvious deficiency. As do my staff. In fact, I fully believe I am the only person in my company who does any work at all. Competing interests: None declared |
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Stephen Head, General Practice Performer Middleton Lodge, New Ollerton, Newark, Nottinghamshire, NG22 9SZ.
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Moynihan's article is the apothiosis of arrogance in purporting to have discovered a new disease - Motivational deficiency disorder. Not only the syndrome but treatment strategies for its management are far from new. The earliest "modern" intervention I can trace (within the standard diurnal envelope - and apologies for the German) is of the use of Sanatogen by the Imperial Kreigsmarine during the First World War. For much of the war the capital ships of the German Navy were confined to bases on the North Sea coast, only going to sea twice - once at the Battle of Jutland (1916) and finally to surrender to the British Fleet. Enforced confinement in limited space with long periods of inactivity coupled with the need to move to a battle footing at short notice created major physio-psychological problems which were said to exercise the minds of senior naval personnel including Tirpitz, Scheer and Von Hipper. In consultation with the extensive German chemical industry the idea of amino acid supplementation to improve energy levels among the sailors was tried - not dissimilar to the use of L tryptophan in depressive disorder, promoted in the 1980's in the U.K. Sanatogen, a white powder largely consiting of casein but with other protein products to be mixed with milk was widely promoted. A proprietory medicine - it was widely advertised for the use of German sailors as a "nerve tonic" - SANTAOGEN FUR ALLES KRAFTSGUNSMITTEL! Perhaps Leth Argos and colleagues should have done a somewhat more historically based literature search. I suspect they just couldn't be bothered. Competing interests: My grandma got me to try Sanatogen as a lazy teenager - it didn't work. |
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Mary E Black, Sitting down Belgrade
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Are women too busy to respond to such an important article ( I am the second to post so far?) or are they simply unmotivated? Is our lack of motivation really a deep seated conviction that rising up and heading for investment jobs in Sydney may be a waste of time and rather pointless. I ask, what is the point of motivation? Does it exist in itself or should it serve a higher goal?. Or is motivation a western disease in itself? Perhaps this entire story is the modern day equivalent of Martha and Mary, and we know that Martha was deemed wiser than her hyperactive overachieving sister. I am happy to accept a large research grant to meditate on this theme. Competing interests: My brother is a buddhist. |
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Vincent P Edwards, Teacher Coventry UK CV3 6HJ
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This is an excellent April Fool's Day article. However, as a constant sufferer from MoDeD it took me a full 24 hours to type these few words. Competing interests: None declared |
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Elizabeth Sleight, Consultant Neonatologist University Hospital Lewisham, London SE 13 6LH
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Dear BMJ – On my day off (in order to reduce my PAs), I nearly couldn’t motivate myself to reply to Ray Moynihan’s report from Sydney “Scientists find new disease: motivational deficiency disorder”. In the words of my other favourite journal; “Shurely some mistake Ed, I think we should be told”. Yours Liz Sleight Competing interests: None declared |
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Alan J O'Rourke, Lecturer Sheffield
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This is an excellent joke! I have a friend who describes his religion as "apathist" (creed: "We can't be bothered to work out if we are atheists or agnostics.") But, I do just worry that someone might take this seriously, after all many human traits have become medicalised as "illnesses" in the past twenty years, and in some cases the drugs to treat these conditions got invented before the illnessses were patented: we are now in the land of Victor Borges's old joke: "My father invented a drug for which there was no illness, but unfortunatley, my mother died of the side effects." And wouldn't it suit the managers if staff could be jolted out of
genteel inactivity and into a frenzy of project planning, applications,
deadlines and report writing by a dose of indolebant, from that great
bastion of selfless, public-spirited altruism, the pharmaceutical
industry.
Competing interests: None declared |
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