What you can learn from drunken monkeys (serious science)

Discover Magazine ^ | July, 2002 | Meredith F. Small

[FairWitness]

Thanks for the 5-HTP link.

Melatonin just gave me nightmares - - -

I'm a light sleeper, and have tried melatonin in the past, but as far as I could tell it didn't do a thing for me. The best thing I can do is just relax and tell myself that it doesn't matter if I sleep or not, that just lying there comfortably is good enou zzzzzzzzzz.

[lsee]

:) zzzzzz...

[Maelstrom]

First Criticism: Why Alcoholism and not *any* addictive behavior (bulemia, anorexia, other drugs, and including homosexuality)

[FairWitness]

Why Alcoholism and not *any* addictive behavior (bulemia, anorexia, other drugs, and including homosexuality)

I wondered the same thing (see my reply in #4: "The article is about alcoholism, but could as well be about other addictions, including 'addiction to lying and living dangerously'".) See also the first two links I pasted into #2 above, about monkey social standing/cocaine addiction correlations.

[antidisestablishment]

The key seems to be an early attachment to mom. “From attentive mothers, little monkeys get ‘wait’ signals, and they get discipline,” says Higley. “Peer-reared monkeys don’t get those stop signals; when peer groups have conflict, it’s resolved by brute force. There are no mothers to regulate negotiation, so these monkeys don’t know how to resolve social problems.” Many of the peer-raised monkeys grow up to be drinkers.

Seems like more bad news for day care kids. Of course, it is better for the government to raise kids than to expect parents to be parents...