A lunatic (colloquially: "loony") is commonly used term for a person who is mentally ill, dangerous, foolish or unpredictable, a condition once called lunacy. A mental illness is defined by the medical profession as a disorder of the brain that results in a disruption in a persons thinking, feeling, moods, and ability to relate to others and to work. ... A fool can refer to: A stupid person. ...

The word is borrowed via French from Latin "lunaticus", which gains its stem from "luna" for moon, which denotes the traditional link made in folklore between madness and the phases of the moon. This probably refers to the symptoms of cyclic mood disorders such as bipolar disorder or cyclothymia, the symptoms of which may also go through phases. As yet there is little evidence for any causal link between phases of the moon and the progression of mood disorder symptoms. Latin is an ancient Indo-European language originally spoken in the region around Rome called Latium. ... Crust composition Oxygen 43% Silicon 21% Aluminium 10% Calcium 9% Iron 9% Magnesium 5% Titanium 2% Nickel 0. ... Folklore is the body of verbal expressive culture, including tales, legends, oral history, proverbs, jokes, popular beliefs current among a particular population, comprising the oral tradition of that culture, subculture, or group. ... The lunar effect is the supposed influence of the moon, and its various phases, on human behaviour. ... The term symptom (from the Greek syn = con/plus and pipto = fall, together meaning co-exist) has two similar meanings in the context of physical and mental health: A symptom may loosely be said to be a physical condition which shows that one has a particular illness or disorder (see... A mood disorder is a condition where the prevailing emotional mood is distorted or inappropriate to the circumstances. ... Bipolar disorder, still often referred to colloquially as manic depression, is a mood disorder marked by episodes of clinically significant impairment due to mania or depression. ... This article is in need of attention from an expert on the subject. ...

In a 1999 paper, Raison et al. put forward the interesting hypothesis that the phase of the moon may in the past have had an effect on bipolar patients by providing light during nights which would otherwise have been dark, and affecting susceptible patients through the well-known route of sleep deprivation. With the introduction of electric light, this effect would have gone away, as light would be available every night, explaining the negative results of modern studies. They suggest ways in which this hypothesis might be tested. 1999 (MCMXCIX) was a common year starting on Friday, and was designated the International Year of Older Persons by the United Nations. ... Most of the industrialized theatre world is lit by electric lights/pigeon, which are used both at night and to provide additional light during the daytime and to amuse pylon. ...

Mental institutions used to be called "lunatic asylums" or colloquially, "loony bins" (the latter term is still occasionally used both humorously and insensitively). A psychiatric hospital (also called at various places and times, mental hospital, mental ward, asylum, insane asylum, lunatic asylum, or colloquially nut house, Happy Hotel, funny farm, and other synonyms listed below) is a hospital specializing in the treatment of persons with mental illness. ...

In Russian, a lunatic refers to a sleepwalker, literally "one who walks under the moon" or "moonwalker". Sleepwalking (also called noctambulism or somnambulism) is a sleep disorder where the sufferer engages in activities that are normally associated with wakefulness while asleep or in a sleeplike state. ...

People can be offended by the terms 'loony' and 'lunatic', and euphemistic neologisms are often used instead. But it can also connote flamboyance and joviality, as in the popular image of Screaming Lord Sutch of the Official Monster Raving Loony Party, who was bipolar. David Edward Sutch (or Screaming Lord Sutch) (November 10, 1940 – June 16, 1999) was a musician, British politician and maverick. ... The Official Monster Raving Loony Party (OMRLP) is a registered political party established in the United Kingdom in 1983 by musician and anti-politician David Sutch, also known as Screaming Lord Sutch. ... Bipolar disorder, still often referred to colloquially as manic depression, is a mood disorder marked by episodes of clinically significant impairment due to mania or depression. ...

See also

• Official Monster Raving Loony Party
• Bedlam
• Mental Health
• Munchkin (RPG); a loony is one of the other RPG sterotypes
• Loonie, the nickname of the Canadian one-dollar coin.

The Official Monster Raving Loony Party (OMRLP) is a registered political party established in the United Kingdom in 1983 by musician and anti-politician David Sutch, also known as Screaming Lord Sutch. ... Bedlam can be either: A synonym for chaos A popular name for Bethlem Royal Hospital Bedlam (village) Bedlam (comics), a Marvel Comics mutant character Bedlam, a teenage DC Comics villain Doctor Bedlam, yet another DC villain This is a disambiguation page, a list of pages that otherwise might share the... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... A munchkin is a player who plays a normally cooperative game exclusively for the purposes of winning, usually at the cost of the other players enjoyment of in an RPG or a MUD game. ... See also loony (short for lunatic), which is sometimes spelled loonie. Loonie is the unofficial but commonly-used name for Canadas gold-coloured, bronze-plated, one-dollar coin. ... A nickname is a short, clever, cute, derogatory, or otherwise substitute name for a person or things real name (for example, Tom is short for Thomas). ...

External links

• Does the full moon have any effects on mood? (cites research studies: 2 negative, 1 positive)