Given a paragraph, generate a claim that is supported by the given paragraph. 1) The claim must contain information from within the paragraph. 2) A sentence within the paragraph can be used as a claim. 3) The claim should not have contradictions within the paragraph. 4) The claim should be at most one sentence long.

In a study in the British Journal of Psychiatry, researchers analyzed comedians from Australia, Britain and the United States and found they scored significantly higher on four types of psychotic characteristics compared to a control group of people who had non-creative jobs. The traits included a tendency towards impulsive or anti-social behavior, and a tendency to avoid intimacy. “The creative elements needed to produce humor are strikingly similar to those characterizing the cognitive style of people with psychosis - both schizophrenia and bipolar disorder,” said Gordon Claridge of the University of Oxford’s department of experimental psychology, who led the study. Although the traits in question are known as “psychotic”, Claridge said, they can also represent healthy equivalents of features such as moodiness, social introversion and the tendency to lateral thinking. “Although schizophrenic psychosis itself can be detrimental to humor, in its lesser form it can increase people’s ability to associate odd or unusual things or to think ‘outside the box’,” he said. “Equally, manic thinking - which is common in people with bipolar disorder - may help people combine ideas to form new, original and humorous connections.”  The researchers recruited 523 comedians - 404 men and 119 women - and asked them to complete an online questionnaire designed to measure psychotic traits in healthy people. The traits scored were “unusual experiences”, such as belief in telepathy and paranormal events, “cognitive disorganization” such as difficulty in focusing thoughts, “introvertive anhedonia” - reduced ability to feel social and physical pleasure, and “impulsive non-conformity”, or tendency towards impulsive, antisocial behavior. The same questionnaire was also completed by 364 actors - who are also used to performing in front of an audience - as a control group, and the comedians’ and actors’ results were compared to each other as well as a general group of 831 people who had non-creative jobs. The researchers found that comedians scored significantly higher on all four types of psychotic personality traits compared to the general group. Most striking were their high scores for impulsive non-conformity and introverted personality traits, the researchers said. The actors scored higher than the general group on three types - but did not display high levels of introverted personality traits.
Comedians have psychotic personality traits, study finds.

Biotechnology company Alkermes said earlier in the day that  it expected Lilly to drop out of their program to develop an  inhaled insulin treatment for diabetes, sending Alkermes shares  down more than 9 percent. Lilly’s decision marks the third setback in recent months  for inhaled insulin formulations, once deemed potential  blockbuster products because of their greater convenience than  standard injectable insulin. Cambridge, Massachusetts-based Alkermes, which makes the  alcohol addiction drug Vivitrol, said Lilly has the right to  terminate its license to the inhaled treatment, Air Insulin, at  its discretion. “While Lilly may elect not to commercialize Air Insulin,  Alkermes believes that the phase 3 safety and efficacy trials  should be completed,” Alkermes said in a statement. After Lilly’s announcement, the company said it was  evaluating the impact of the termination, which will become  effective in 90 days. Indianapolis-based Lilly said its decision was not due to  safety concerns, “but rather was a result of increasing  uncertainties in the regulatory environment, and a thorough  evaluation of the evolving commercial and clinical potential of  the product compared to existing medical therapies.”    Lilly Chief Operating Officer John Lechleiter said in a  statement that the company is beginning the process of halting  ongoing clinical studies. Lilly said it will record a first-quarter 2008 charge of  around $90 million to $120 million, or 5 cents to 7 cents per  share. The company said its adjusted earnings per share outlook  remains unchanged at $3.85 to $4.00, while net earnings will  range from $3.73 to $3.90. Lilly’s action comes just five months after Pfizer Inc  abandoned Exubera, the first approved inhaled form of insulin,  and returned rights to the product to longtime partner Nektar  Therapeutics. Exubera had dismal sales because patients were turned off  by the clumsy device used to administer the powdered insulin  and because doctors were concerned by the drug’s tendency to  slightly impair lung function. Alkermes Chairman Richard Pops, in an interview with  Reuters in October, said Air Insulin may have similar effects  on lung function. “We’re assuming that pulmonary insulins in that regard are  all pretty much the same,” he said, although a conclusive  picture of Air Insulin’s safety will not emerge until two-year  safety trials of the product end later this year. A second setback for inhaled insulin came in January, when  Novo Nordisk said it was halting development of its AERx  product, meant to deliver inhaled droplets. The Danish  drugmaker said AERx did not have adequate sales potential,  given the limited commercial success seen with Exubera. Morgan Stanley analyst Jami Rubin said on Friday Lilly’s  abandonment of AIR Insulin made good business sense. “We are not (at) all surprised, and have never been strong  advocates of the pulmonary insulin agents, following the poor  launch and ultimate demise of Pfizer and Nektar’s Exubera and  Novo Nordisk’s termination of its AERx program,” Rubin said in  a research note. Rubin said Alkermes, known for its drug-delivery  technology, is unlikely to continue development of Air Insulin  without Lilly, “given that this represents the third  termination of a pulmonary insulin drug.”    But she said the sharp drop in Alkermes shares represented  a buying opportunity for investors because Air Insulin had only  paltry sales potential. She said investors should be focused instead on another  product Alkermes is developing with Lilly: a long-acting  formulation of Lilly’s Byetta diabetes treatment called Byetta    “We estimate that Byetta LAR could be worth $11 to $12 for  the (Alkermes) stock,” Ryan said. Alkermes shares fell $1.14 to close at $11.26 on Nasdaq. Lilly, a far larger company with an array of big-selling  products, rose 2 cents to end at $49.70 on the New York Stock  Exchange, and was slightly lower at $49.67 in after-hours  trading.
Eli Lilly drops inhaled insulin program.

While there was no mention of coffee cost, this element is not particulary germane to this story. The article reported that drinking four eight-ounce cups of coffee was linked to a 30% reduction in the risk of developing diabetes. Rather than relative reduction, the article should have included the absolute reduction. The rate at which women who drank coffee developed type II diabetes was 6.05% while the rate in women who drank 4-5 cups of coffee per day was 4.30%. The relative difference always sounds more convincing; the absolute difference is what is probably most meaningful to viewers. So, in this case, a 30% relative difference equated to an absolute difference of less than 2%. There was no mention of potential harms that might be derived from increased coffee consumption. The article could have included concern about disrupted sleep, heart palpitations, increased urinary frequency, and jitteriness. Because of the design of the study covered in this story (a prospective epidemiologic study), it is not possible to conclude that increasing decaffeinated coffee consumption will decrease the risk of type II diabetes. This important point was covered by one of the physician quotes in the story. The speculation about what was in decaf coffee that resulted in the decreased risk of type II diabetes was not well grounded. Other than painting perhaps a little too rosy picture of all the potential benefits that might be gained from coffee consumption, this article did not practice disease mongering. It did not present any data on the prevalence of type II diabetes. The story could have mentioned that the Type II diabetes has become rather common place and is a public health issue. It appears that this story is based on a research study in the Archives of Internal Medicine and from comments by one physician and one researcher. It certainly would have been better to actually mention where the study was published rather than referring to it as “the study out today”. It would also have been better to give us some perspective about the value of the quotes provided by giving some background on the two people interviewed. Nonethless, we credit the story for having different perspectives. There was no mention of other lifestyle strategies that an individual might pursue in order to lower the risk of type II diabetes. This is a particularly important public health message. Moderate daily physical activity, such as walking, has also been shown to lower the risk of type II diabetes. The story isn’t about a treatment per se, but about the effects of drinking coffee, which is readily available to all. The story is quite clear about the widespread availability and use of coffee. There is a growing body of literature suggesting that coffee drinking can lower one’s risk of type II diabetes. This story covered the latest such evidence, and made it clear that this is part of a growing body of “more intriguing evidence.” There is no evidence that this story relied solely or largely on a news release.

Coffee found to reduce risk of diabetes