17,111
edits
Changes
Jump to navigation
Jump to search
→Increasing awareness: Wikify.
==Increasing awareness==
David Levy (1945) reported on abnormal behavior in children who had undergone surgical operations, including [[circumcision]], among other operations. Levy reported such emotional sequelae as:
* Conditioned fear
* Hysteria.
Levy saw a relationships to what was then called combat neurosis and now known as postraumatic stress disorder ([[PTSD]]).<ref name="levy1945">{{REFjournal
|last=Levy
|first=David
}}</ref></blockquote>
Emde et al. (1971) being curious about changes in infant behavior after painful heel sticking, decided to test baby boys before and after routine (non-therapeutic) [[circumcision ]] performed without anesthesia. Not surprisingly, they found that circumcision changed behavior. They concluded:
<blockquote>
Routine hospital circumcision, done without anesthesia, was chosen as a potential stressor which might be expected to produce prolonged bombardment of pain pathways. Two studies, one without polygraphic manipulation and one with EEG and polygraphic manipulation and one with EEG and polygraphic recording, resulted in similar findings. Circumcision was usually followed by prolonged, non-REM sleep. Effects of circumcision were demonstrable in terms of an increase in the amount of non-REM sleep (p<0.01) and a decrease in latency to the onset of non-REM sleep (P<0.05). Infants were used as their own controls and were compared with non-circumcised males for statistical analysis. Postcircumcision increase in non-REM sleep was also reflected in an increased total number of non-REM sleep periods and an increased number of extremely long non-REM sleep periods.<ref name=emde1971">{{REFjournal
</blockquote>
Researchers in [[United Kingdom| Britain]] and [[United States of America| America]] noticed that male infants in America, where most males were [[circumcised ]] in the 1970s behave differently from female infants, while [[intact]] male infants in Britain do not behave differently from female infants. Richards, Bernal, & Brackbill (1976) said:
<blockquote>
The extent to which circumcision does contribute to gender differences in behavior during the neonatal period, or subsequently, obviously demands detailed and focused study. Most certainly, the published description of any sample using male neonates should indicate circumcision status. At present, with rare exception, this information does not appear in any account of subject characteristics.<ref>{{REFjournal