orthomolecular medicine

Sun Sep 9 22:28:19 CDT 2007

Bud--I have had an uphill battle with primary care doctors and with psychiatrists at the community center where I work when asking for blood work to test for levels of, to name just a few, DHEA, cortisol, Vitamin/mineral levels, etc.  99% of the clients at the community center are black-American men and women who grew up in poverty within broken family systems where violence, depression and severe emotional states of dis-ease ran rampant,  99% are diagnosed with some form of schizophrenia.  They also suffer mood swings, depression, anxiety, panic, etc.  They are also poor, all are on medicaid or medicare, and have no healthcare for things like dental caries, gum disease, etc.  All live in some kind of assisted living facility.  All are on multiple medications to treat symptoms of schizophrenia, depression, anxiety, "bi-polar."      

Given all of this you can image the biopsychosocial stressors they live with every day.  I am convinced that these stressors impact molecular levels of a whole host of needed substances in the body.  I routinely ask for blood work and routinely rarely see it get done.  Primary care doctors don't even response to my written requests.  And one psychiatrist at the center asked me to get him clinical evidence that insomnia, experienced by many of the clients at the center, reflects a depressed state when no other markers are visible.  He argued lots of people who suffer insomnia do not evidence any symptoms of clinical depression.  Of course his key word was "clinical."  My thinking is not getting the right kind of sleep for long enough periods can damn well depress the system.  It doesn't have to be "major depression" to be alive and well in the body and effecting quality of life. 

Another problem I see in our healthcare system is that even when blood levels are taken they are taken at one particular period of time.  Our healthcare has no process built into it to take samples over time to see how the body is acting upon awaking, in the afternoon, in evenings, etc.  The body is gearing up and slowing down throughout the day.  It needs to have certain levels of a variety of nutrients/hormones, etc. to function effectively.  The "spit test" is a wonderful example of how hormonal levels can be assessed throughout a 24 hour period and can identify if a person is deficient in say cortisol levels upon awaking in the morning, the time when we need to gear up for the day and so need increased levels of this important hormone.  Insurances do not pay for the "spit test" and those who want it have to find a lab that does it and then pay the $100 for it.  And when levels are out of whack then the question is finding affordable and effective supplements to support the body rebalancing, and then retesting after a few months.  It is expensive and insurances do not pay for any of it.  But those same insurances talk, tongue in cheek, about preventive medicine.   

So that is my two sense on the state of orthomolecular medicine in one psychosocial community center here in Baltimore.  I dearly wish it was an acceptable treatment of choice but unfortunately that day has not yet come. {sigh}  I did not mean to go on so but obviously this is an upsetting issue to me.    Patti in Baltimore 

P.S.  And just think, I have never in the four years I have been at the center, heard one client complain about their poverty, their tattered clothing, their rooms devoid of furniture, their illnesses.  Rather they routinely light up smiling with genuine appreciation at every piece of used furniture, weathered household item, or thinning second hand piece of clothing they receive.  I am humbled by their magnificent spirits and in awe of it.    

From: BARNETT WEISS<mailto:budweiss at verizon.net> 
  To: ASGPP grouptalknew<mailto:list at grouptalkweb.org> 
  Sent: Sunday, September 09, 2007 8:20 PM
  Subject: Re: sociatry91007

  Hundreds of thousands of school age children are being inappropriately treated and poisoned by various Ritalin type drugs every day. One psychiatrist, Dr. Peter Breggin, all by himself defeated the whole array of companies that tried to foist falsities on the NIMH panel about the efficacy of Ritalin several years ago and no one has confronted it again other than those I mention below going after Novartis.  Please get to know Howard Glasser's work if you don't already in regard to ADHD and The work of Mel Levine neither of whom totally excludes the use of Ritalin which may be politically correct on their part as the struggle they are in is difficult enough without excluding some use of drugs. 
  The group who won the suit against the tobacco companies has taken on Novartis for the long run to do the same regarding the debacle of Ritalin's inappropriate hype by them and subsequent overusage. 

  Patients are experimented on always in psych hospitals because they simply don't know what really works so they just cook up the best stew with which they are familiar and throw it into the patients and hope it works. Too bad if it causes dyskinesia ( which is remediable through orthomolecular psychiatry) THAT IS THE REALITY DAMN IT AND NO PROFESSIONAL I HAVE INTERVIEWED OR NAMI says anything substantially different. The pharmaceuticals continue to propagate lies in research they pay for which most psychiatrists haven't the time or training to properly evaluate and are subject to the detail people who come to tell them how great this or that medication is. 
  Orthomolecular psychiatry has a glorius past and even a sustainable present and future if people learn about it enough. And there are many psychotherapeutic interventions that can facilitate recovery with or without diet changes and detoxification,  AUTISM ALONG WITH All ITS SPECTRUM INCLUDING ASPERGERS IS TREATABLE DAMN IT AND RECOVERY IS HIGHLY PROBABLE>  See www.autism.com<http://www.autism.com/>
  What in the world do you think Moreno was doing at Beacon before it became a training center?  He was working with patients who were not on medication at least when he began and some of them actually recovered as did those who many others worked with including Whittaker, Palazolli, and Milton H. Erickson along with the hundreds who spun off methods from his mentorship and far too many others to list here. Palazolli even developed an incredible low session treatment involving throwing a real kink into the system that worked in some instances having nothing to do with medication.  Murry Bowen hospitalized whole families and worked with them in family groups and got some wonderful results, Rosen with his Direct Analysis and reparenting teams some of which were made up of recovered schizophrenics who had gone through the process, the community building work of M. Scott Peck saved many from hospitalization as well as building entire resource treasures in the group of 40 persons gathered together to deal with the IP's issues. 
  Check out the Power tactics of Jesus Christ by Jay Haley and his writings about Milton H. Erickson. Why I am referring to that now will become evident if you read it. 
  We have been taken over by the somatizers. I think they have landed. Is anyone else out there other than the few who have identified themselves in these exchanges? Are some afraid to speak up for fear of being identified as radicals, or is this just boring everyone to tears? 

  Actually, there are more and more of us who have resisted the invasion of the soul snatchers and have found an antidote to being taken over when we sleep. 3rd version of the invasion of the body snatchers is presently circulating under a different name just The Invasion.  
  Blessings, all. Bud

  Adam Blatner <adam at blatner.com> wrote: 
    Dear Rebecca and all, reviewing your response, feeling much in resonance!
    1. "The Politics of Therapy" and "Radical Therapy" -- Much of this was before the many 
    writings on oppression were publicized.
    However, I find very few examples of people subjected to involuntary treatment 
    today--- especially inappropriately. Yet there are occasional cases and it makes one 
    think. I'm interested especially in what you all observe---specific issues in our 
    practices. There was also a romanticization of schizophrenia as not being abnormal, out of 
    control, but more a response to crazy family and society. I think this has been largely 
    deconstructed. Admittedly, communications mixed messages (e.g., the classical "double 
    bind") and other family stress can make any mental illness worse, but that's far from 
    being a cause.

    2. Just read in the New Yorker a story of a bright music critic who was relieved to 
    recognize that the diagnosis of Asperger's Syndrome made sense of much that was 
    bewildering in his life, and it also helped his caring family. Yet he also notes that such 
    folks have a website for being considered just different, and many would not give up their 
    condition even if it could be "cured"---and there is (by the way) not the slightest hint 
    of a cure known or offered.

    3. "Revolution not Adjustment." On the dramatherapy listserve a re-discussion of the 
    shifts in Gay, Lesbian, now linked to Trans-gendered, bisexual, and questioning in their 
    advocacy identity... and a case of the proper way to address a 5 year old child who is 
    very possibly a little boy fascinated with and half into being a little girl... I noted 
    we have not only the social definition problems, but also the question of the "rights of 
    parents"-- and how far those should be recognized.

    4. Rebecca says, "we are still labeling and treating people for disorders that arise 
    from asking them to adapt and adjust to unfair situations that need to be changed.
    AB: I am becoming concerned for personal responsibility being an issue here. Most 
    people don't get mentally ill or become criminal from hard situations. I'm all for social 
    action, and all for trying to remedy such situations, but there are also some folks who 
    would excuse maladaptive behavior, or try to treat it by offering excuses to the addicted, 
    the antisocial... what about that?

    5. It would be helpful to offer three or four examples of people who are being 
    medicated inappropriately. Also, there's a related problem of psychological "fascism." 
    ... It is still much easier to give a person a pill then to help them look at how to make 
    social changes.
    ab Help them look at... is the key phrase. I've found that a great many people, 
    perhaps the majority, passionately resist consciousness, reflectiveness, thinking about 
    thinking. This is so guilt-producing, and for many, so demanding, that it would be like 
    strapping them down and pouring acid down their throats. No way do they want to look at 
    anything about the situation, much less the seemingly overwhelming "how to make social 
    changes." Hey, I find it hard to get healthy, thoughtful people to think such thoughts! 
    Especially the how, the specifics.

    6. RW It is much easier to look at an individual's emotional/psychiatric problem as 
    being rooted in biology or poor upbringing then it is to look at it being rooted in 
    societal ills.
    AB what if it's 50-50? What if the causation is mixed, rather than either-or. And 
    rooted in .. okay, then what. How to effectively diagnose a societal ill that can and 
    should be addressed? What can we say that hasn't already been said many times?
    (Are our readers aware of the movement to promote social and emotional learning in 
    the classroom? How many are active in becoming informed about their own local school 
    curriculum, the various school board advocates for each position, the politics in 
    promoting people whose position fits our own, the activity of supplying these politicians 
    with professional information that would support their position, and a score of other 
    political adjunctive tasks. A major problem with politics is that it requires a major 
    investment in time and energy.)

    7. RW It asks less of us middle class practitioners, makes us less uncomfortable...it 
    demands nothing other than we give some one an hour of paid time and/or a prescription.
    AB Also, that's all many patients want, all they can afford to pay for under the 
    present health care system. Otherwise, we'd have to spend a great deal of free time doing 
    social work unpaid ...
    And even if they can pay, they don't want more, so there's the mixed challenge of 
    "educating" them and "overcoming their resistances" and wondering if that's ethical... 
    etc.
    Sure, there are a few patients who appreciate a more holistic approach... but 
    let's all remember the others, too..

    8. RW It is also much easier to think of a person's problems as theirs, rather than the 
    communities' ...that is one of the wonderful things about psychodrama in that it looks 
    outside the individual. But interest in group therapy and family therapy is on the wane 
    and individual therapy is now mostly solution focused short term work geared to helping 
    the individual solve the personal problem du jour.
    ab: good point about fashions in therapy also adapt to socio-economic stresses. 
    With the squeeze of the middle class and a major 4-fold escalation of fees charged by most 
    professionals in last 30 years, "therapy" no longer is a benign procedure. Legal fines for 
    misdemeanors are less than the cost of brief therapy!

    9. Although I do think the discovery of the SRI medications has been a real and true 
    godsend for many, many people, I can attest (through my work in the hospital) how they are 
    being used/misused to treat depressions caused by situations that you or I or most adults 
    would not put up with, in fact we would run from as fast as we could  So we use meds to 
    help young people tolerate living in such situations.
    AB: The question is whether such situations are even being clearly and correctly 
    diagnosed: Are the families informed, and are social services optimal? Even then, there 
    are interesting social policy questions, collective ethical questions, as to how much can 
    we force people to do this or that. Is it better to do what 35 years ago was called a 
    "parent-ectomy," removing kids from their nuclear (and pathogenic) families? Where are the 
    funds, who has the willingness even to offer really therapeutic milieux for foster kids? 
    And so forth.
    (Also, what about when the diagnosis of family causation of mental illness was 
    itself untrue?---see good book titled "Madness on the Couch" about the heyday of 
    psychoanalysis and the pressures put on parents of autistic kids, for example. The 
    presumption that therapists know best may itself be very mistaken!!)

    9. RW Why are not we, as therapists, educators, community people agitating for the 
    political and social change that would improve our clients/students/friends lives WITHOUT 
    medicine.
    AB: For starters, we need to pick a single, specific issue; identify what exactly 
    needs to be done; identify then how to proceed to follow this goal; and prioritize. 
    There's also the "squeeze" of the middle class financially that leaves little surplus 
    energy for participating even in ASGPP, much less community politics. (This squeeze has to 
    do with the rich growing richer, the growth of China and the cost of oil, Thomas 
    Friedman's book, "The Earth is Flat," and thousands of other factors.)

    10. RW I get tired of going into work and being asked to use psychodrama to help 
    children with their anger...which means teaching them not to explode but to ask/talk 
    nicely....when talking nicely has not worked for them; when they are asking "nicely" of 
    addicted parents or parents who have to work two jobs to pay the rent or parents who are 
    keeping them inside the apartment all the time because there is too much danger on the 
    streets...etc, etc... And we give the children medicine to 'calm them down." Isn't this 
    what the Russians were accused of doing to dissenters? I am ranting. Obviously I do know 
    that for some of the kids with whom I work medicine is making the difference between 
    allowing them normal lives and living in a residence among other disturbed kids.
    AB: Yeah, and who can afford to maintain such residences? Often these "therapeutic" 
    environments are staffed by young and not-so-young, not-so-educated people who can't get 
    better jobs, and who are themselves inclined to engage in petty and authoritarian power 
    struggles with the kids! Yikes!

    11. RW But you get the point...I think Anath is correct about helping people learn to 
    tolerate some level of despair/depression/anger as long as it doesn't cause the level of 
    inaction that won't lead to change.
    AB: I agree that we need a level of what I call "creative discontent" that 
    includes political and economic awareness, in contrast to complacency. We need to ask 
    awkward questions. Forgive me for pushing for specifics, but that's the way I think more 
    effectively. Too many generalizations gets me feeling, well, despair.
    Warmly, Adam 

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