Onward from Onset!
Filed under: DUSSP, Mood Disorders, Orthomolecular Diagnosis, Schizophrenia, Self-Esteem, Stigma, Thyroid
It’s onward from onset when it comes to orthomolecular treatment for mental health …
How we help
We are currently conducting a first-episode schizophrenia case study series and encourage all interested to call our clinic.
Clients with mental illness call our clinic to get direction on how to proceed from symptom onset onward. We help patients, families and significant others first by educating them on the benefits of the orthomolecular nutrient approach to mental health. This method of treatment is refreshing to most people. About a third of our clients implement orthomolecular nutrient treatment as a first-line intervention of choice. Other clients start orthomolecular treatment after getting little or no benefit from conventional drug treatment at the expense of short and long-term sometimes debilitating side effects.
The orthomolecular approach to mental health is by contrast refreshing because it allows clients to focus on their biochemical individuality versus their clinical DSM diagnosis … for example, you have copper toxicity depression, or low thyroid anxiety and insomnia, or niacin dependant psychosis, or protein catabolic ADD, or a syndrome complex such as mercury toxic, low thyroid, protein catabolic, undermethylated bipolar disorder etc. The biochemical syndromes that need correcting to achieve mental health are described in the top nutrient imbalances article. I encourage people to read our clinic case study series that shows a representative group of cases proceeding from the outset onward.
There is considerable stigma associated with mental illness diagnosis and conventional drug treatment side effects. Sometimes clients have a solid diagnosis however more often both the family and the patient are confused about what they are dealing with. In all cases we implement DUSSP to steer away from stigma. Our staff is proficient at providing the ideal support network that includes decency, understanding, support, safety, and privacy. DUSSP is the humane thing to do as a foundation of treatment derived from a support network including family, friends and professionals. DUSSP helps patients maintain self respect and morale.
In the first visit there is much that I learn from a symptom perspective that dictates the direction of the client’s orthomolecular nutrient regimen. For example, good niacin responders are those in their first-episode of psychosis or their first episode of schizophrenia (first episodes lasting longer than 6 months) and, determining this early stage condition is important at the outset; in such cases, full lab assessment is implemented to determine viability for one of several niacin dosing protocols.
I ask pointed questions on what is going on to get a clear picture of the case. I group symptoms into mood, thinking and perception and, together these groupings define behaviour. [Perception in this context refers to aspects of the receipt of information from the five senses and deal mainly with hallucinations.] I then develop a clearer view of what all these symptoms are a part of: a mood disorder, cyclic or fixed, anxiety dominant or depression dominant; a psychotic disorder, lasting less or more than 6 months, etc.
I also assess symptoms in my clinic is by doing a simple test that takes often no more than 15 minutes, though there is no time limit. The test we use is the Hoffer-Osmond Diagnostic assessment, the HOD Test. Some questions may seem bizarre or philosophical in nature but important symptoms are those that you acknowledge literally versus philosophically. Other questions deal with mood or paranoia (a thinking component) or hallucinations. I have grouped a sample of questions from this test for you to see.
If you want to find out if you have symptoms that fall into a diagnostic category, scan the following list of symptoms:
[These symptoms cover a broad range of possibilities and may alert you to a serious problem for which you may require the help of a qualified health professional. We encourage all people to consult with a qualified health professional if they have diagnostic concerns. The following list is derived from a subset of Hoffer-Osmond Diagnostic (HOD) questions that have been grouped into clusters by factor analysis. This subset of questions is not diagnostic on its own and does not replace diagnosis by a qualified health professional.]
“Depressive Symptoms”
Depressive symptoms include changes in mood that we see in cases of depression and sometimes in anxiety and bipolar disorder:
Sometime I feel very unreal. Sometimes the world becomes very dim as I look at it. The days seem to go by very slowly. I have much more trouble keeping appointments. I have much more trouble getting my work done on time. I sweat much more now than when I used to. At times my mind goes blank. I am bothered by very disturbing ideas. My mind is racing away from me. I now become easily confused. I am now much more forgetful. I now am sick. I cannot make up my mind about things that before did not trouble me. My thinking gets all mixed up when I have to act quickly. I very often am very tired. I very often suffer from severe nervous exhaustion. I very often have great difficulty falling asleep at night. I usually feel alone and sad at a party. I usually feel miserable and blue. Life seems entirely hopeless. I am often very shaky. I am constantly keyed up and jittery. Sudden noises make me jump or shake badly. I often become scared of sudden movements or noises at night. The world has become timeless for me. I find that past, present and future seem all muddled up.
“Paranoid Ideation”
Paranoid ideation includes suspicious thoughts and fears that we see in psychotic and sometimes mood disorders:
People watch me a lot more than they used to. People watch me all the time. At times I am aware of people talking about me. There are some people trying to do me harm. There is some plot against me. People are watching me. I usually feel alone and sad at a party. I am often misunderstood by people. I have to be on my guard with friends. Very often friends irritate me. People interfere with my mind to harm me. I don’t like meeting people – you can’t trust anyone now. Most people hate me.
“Hallucinations”
Hallucinations are seen in psychotic disorders and sometimes in mood disorders:
Sometimes I have visions of people when I close my eyes. Sometimes I have visions of people during the day when my eyes are open. Sometimes I have visions of animals or scenes. Sometimes I have visions of God or of Christ. Often when I look at people they seem to be like someone else. Sometimes the world becomes very bright as I look at it. I often hear or have heard voices. I have often felt that there was another voice in my head. I sometimes feel rays of electricity shooting through me. I often hear my thoughts inside my head. I often hear my own thoughts outside my head. I hear my own thoughts as clearly as if they were a voice.
“Perceptual Distortion”
Perceptual distortion involves distortions in the receipt of sensory information (what you see, hear, touch, taste, or smell) and in the ‘sense’ of time. This is seen in psychotic and sometimes mood disorders:
People’s faces sometimes pulsate as I watch them. When I look at things like tables and chairs they seem strange. Sometimes when I watch TV the picture looks very strange. I often feel I have left my body. I have often heard strange sounds, e.g. laughing, which frighten me. I sometimes feel my stomach is dead. I sometimes feel I am being pinched by unseen things. I now have trouble feeling hot or cold things. Some foods which never tasted funny before do so now. I can taste bitter things in some foods like poison. I have more difficulty tasting foods now. Water now has funny taste. Things smell very funny now. I can no longer smell perfumes as well as I used to. Foods smell funny now. My hands or feet sometimes feel far away. My hands or feet often look very small now. When I am driving in a car objects and people change shape very quickly. They didn’t used to. My bones often feel soft. Other people smell strange.
Low Thyroid Symptoms
Common orthomolecular syndromes
Here we are discussing the primary syndrome aspect of low thyroid metabolism.
Orthomolecular syndromes are key to assess to determine those factors that could be imbalanced and influence mental health. Among the top four primary orthomolecular syndromes we see hypothyroidism, undermethylation, heavy metal toxicity, and protein deficiency.
Low thyroid symptoms associated with psychiatric conditions are described in full in the following references: Orthomolecular Thyroid Syndrome , Mood Disorders, and Schizophrenia.
A 2003 thyroid article by Heinrich (abstract below) shows a conventional medical perspective that identifys commonly seen low thyroid symptoms that present in mood disorders and psychosis.
Heinrich TW. Hypothyroidism Presenting as Psychosis: Myxedema Madness Revisited. Primary Care Companion J Clin Psychiatry 2003;5:260-266). [Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Medicine, Medical College of Wisconsin, Milwaukee; and the Department of Internal Medicine, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston.]
Abstract: Hypothyroidism is a medical condition commonly encountered in a variety of clinical settings. The clinical presentations of thyroid hormone deficiency are diverse, complicated, and often overlooked. Hypothyroidism is a potential etiology for multiple somatic complaints and a variety of psychological disturbances. The physical complaints are primarily related to metabolic slowing secondary to lack of thyroid hormone. Psychiatric presentations include cognitive dysfunction, affective disorders, and psychosis. The realization that hypothyroidism might be the potential etiology of an assortment of symptoms is critical in the identification and treatment of the hypothyroid patient. Once hypothyroidism is identified, symptoms usually respond to appropriate thyroid hormone supplementation. This article presents a case of clinical hypothyroidism that came to clinical attention due to psychotic symptoms consisting of auditory and visual hallucinations. The case is followed by a brief discussion of the literature describing the relationship of hypothyroidism and psychiatric symptomatology. References were identified with an English language-based MEDLINE search (1966-2003) using the terms thyroid, hypothyroid, depression, dementia, delirium, mania, bipolar disorder, psychosis, and myxedema and utilization of referenced articles.
Food for thought from Dr. Ray Pataracchia.
Top Orthomolecular Syndromes
Filed under: Orthomolecular Diagnosis, Schizophrenia and B12/Folic Acid, Thyroid
