Violent TV Movie Syndrome: Public Health Crisis in Vivo

Did you know that Violent TV Movie Syndrome (VTMS) is a major cause of many health and social problems? Single and repeated images of young children (or anyone) shot laying dead in pools of blood is horrific and unhealthy.  As a medical professional familiar with death first hand as part of my job, I can only hope and pray someone will be responsible and speak up.  This is child abuse. This is mental abuse. This is public health abuse.  Hollywood makes movies with less violence and bloodshed. Any educated person knows that repeated violence harms people in so many ways. It is so unnecessary to show these images to tell a news story or any other type of story. Images such as these depict what is seen in the coroner's office., and should be kept there.

Suicide, homicide, and post traumatic disorder are just a few medical maladies that occur from watching violence.  Surely you can choose to watch something else; however, the curious child with a TV remote may choose otherwise.  Protect yourself and your children.  This type of programming is hard to grasp and confuse with something else - real life! They become real life.  Doctors and health care providers have much more serious conditions to care for instead of illness and death induced by "Violent TV/Movie Syndrome" which can be prevented. For the doctors who take an oath to "do no harm", let us hope our media will do likewise.  Until then we can only counsel our patients to turn it off.

See this reference for more details http://www.parent.net/article/tv-kids-violence.shtml