Fascinating. This is about people who have a strong desire to have a their own (perfecly functioning) limb amputated.
It concludes: “None of the patients regretted the surgery and a change for the better was seen in almost all areas of life”.
It concludes: “None of the patients regretted the surgery and a change for the better was seen in almost all areas of life”.
Maybe many more then you would think. First of all of there are others with regrets they are most likely also found there. Second to warn others. Thirdly to vent.
I agree that the evidence is not the highest quality but i have a hard time imagining a more involved study design that would pass by any ethic board.
Would we expect the same in something as intimate as amputating pieces of your own body? Hmmm.
[1] https://dl.acm.org/doi/abs/10.1145/1562764.1562800
[2] https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/002224372094183...
And how would you find those posts after they were banned and deleted?
I wouldn't say that failing to at least try to look for the less-than-enthusiastic people makes this paper criminally dangerous pseudoscience, but it certainly gives me pause.
I don't find that the least bit credible. The proposition forum administrators would tolerate someone "warning others" against the core uniting aspect of their community is not realistic. Generally anyone who questions orthodoxy in such niche communities face vitriol and get banned quickly. Apostates do not hang around religious conversion forums talking about deconversion, gender transition desisters are not welcome on transgender support forums etc.
Preventing motivated people from harassing others on a forum is impossible if anyone can join the forum.
I personally know two, one who used the dry ice method to destroy their legs, and another who achieved paralysis. both are quite happy now, except for the pain and suffering they went through (particularly the person who paralyzed herself, since she caused meningitis which led to horrid nerve pain - but even then, months later, she's happier now that it's done.)