Article: Yes, You Can Catch Insanity: . . . The Immune System And Mental Illness

Yes, You Can Catch Insanity
A controversial disease revives the debate about the immune system and mental illness.

Nautilus, 4/16/15
http://nautil.us/iss...-catch-insanity

 

I find this fascinating .... had never heard of this possibility ... are any of you guys familiar with it?

FN

 

Absolutely fascinating! I never know about this. Thank you.

FN,

Yes, very interesting. On an elementary level, I am discovering a link between the immune system and the decrease in AD. I sneeze, cough more and have increased my antihistamines accordingly.

Perhaps immunopsychiatry will be the wave of the future.

Mental disorders are also gleefully created for profit.

 

The DSM-1 (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders) was published in 1952. It consisted of 130 pages listing some 106 mental disorders, and believe it or don't-- it included homosexuality!

 

The pharmaceutical companies embraced the DSM and viewed it as a potential catalog of sorts-- all they would have to do is "identify" certain behaviours-- many of which that had been formerly been considered 'normal'-- make a drug that would affect that trait and BINGO, the profits would roll in. But that would mean they would have to find a way to influence the list of mental disorders and BINGO, they found that if they simply funded researchers and psychiatrists that contributed to the DSM, they could influence the list of disorders and offer up their 'medications' to suit!

 

Once the pharmaceutical companies began to write the DSM (by proxy), the list of mental disorders went through the roof!

 

The DSM-4 published in 1994 was comprised of 886 pages and listed 297 mental disorders!

 

The DSM-5 published in 2013 lists well over 300 mental disorders, and there's a pill you can buy for each and every one.

UGH!!!

A very interesting read indeed.

I am very interested in the brain gut relationship that is showing some promise for treating  bipolar depression with those who have IBS and other GI issues.

If a simple thing like balancing the chemistry in the gut would alleviate the depression I am constantly dealing with I would be one happy camper.

I did not have depression like I have now before I took Cymbalta but then it caused my IBS to flare up so badly I couldn't go anywhere without knowing where all bathrooms were.

I have noticed that since I have been able to eat small amounts of yogurt again on a daily basis that my depression seems to be easing somewhat although I'm not sure if it is the yogurt or the long days of spring with more daylight (I live far enough north that our winter daylight hours are extremely short). Maybe it is a combination of the two.

I'll see if I can find any other articles / research about this ... it makes sense to me ... much more so than the "DSM" and drugs for everything approach .... I can easily believe that I've got "brain cooties" ...

(Hi TFL! I see that you're here also!)

 

I'm having a heck of a time finding more information on this topic / theory ... FH, can you help? You've got access to the whole PubMed database, maybe there's something in there?

You know FN, I once started a search for conditions, diseases, vitamin deficiencies, etc that can cause clinical depression and/or anxiety. I stopped when my list got to 60. This includes low testosterone, several Vit B def., medicines, several infections and many many more.

I got sidetracked from this research by needing to work ... but I'll add to FH's comment ... I have a high school friend who has Lyme's Disease, as does his wife. It hit her in the kidneys/bladder function, so now she's incontinent ... it hit him in the brain ... he called me 2 years ago in a panic, because 2 docs (the first opinion, and the "consult") had told him he had early onset altzheimer's (sp?) ... I told him that was BS, and to keep looking for the right doc ...

 

He and his wife finally found a wonderful guy (their 18th doc) .. this doc told him that the Lyme's had gotten into his brain, that his BBB wasn't "impermeable" ... and that this was what was causing his pseudo-Altzheimer's and depression... he also told him that the drugs that would treat the Lyme's aren't supposed to cross the BBB, but that doesn't hold true for everyone ...

 

started treatment, and started to improve ... unfortunately, the Lyme's had gone on so long without treatment that there's some permanent damage ...

 

our "highly advanced" Western medicine ain't so advanced at all ... it's just glorified guess-work dressed up with fancy degrees ... and we're the guinea pigs ...