neurology/psychiatry

[smartyjones]

forgive if a stupid thought - but i was thinking about it after reading exorcist article on dr. t's site.

 

btw - loved that dr t. fascinating concept that that kid had pandas! also loved it b/c i am from the dc area - as kids, we loved pointing out in georgetown the steps that something happened in the movie - priest jumped off or something. i knew it was in dc area but loved the details - esp that the real kid went to my husband's high school alma mater! loved the local folk lore!

 

anyway, at the end of the article, the author suggests the kid had psychological trouble - distant father, old world grandmother, loner, etc.

 

it made me think about the medical disciplines - psychology is the thoughts, stories and behaviors we tell ourselves about events that have occured, yes? neurology is the nervous system - nerves and brain cells, often resulting in behavioral issues, yes? psychiatry is brain disorders, yes? why aren't neurology and psychiatry inextricably related?

 

why are people put on psychiatric meds without an evaluation of their neurology?

 

at age 4.5, my son's ped wanted to clear him for psychiatric meds because he was having cognitive inflexibility. luckily, i knew this was no first step for a 4 and a half year old. still, only due to one on-the- ball behavioral therapist, did we discover pandas.

 

shouldn't neurology and psychiatry be interrelated?

[Dr_Rosario_Trifiletti]

Dear Smartyjones,

 

Of course neurology and psychiatry are interrelated. Our certification board is the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology.

 

Sigmund Freud was a well-respected neurologist for many years before founding psychoanalysis.

 

And Hans Berger, a psychiatrist, did most of the important early work on EEG tests.

 

I think most psychiatrists today will admit that major psychiatric illness are medically-based. For example, there are 150+ genes associated with autism.

 

Pure psychiatric illnesses are by-and-large, neurological illnesses in which all neurological testing (MRI, EEG, spinal taps) are normal. Of course, many medical diseases have prominent psychiatric manifestations, for example neurosyphilis and Wilson's disease.

 

As time goes on, and the true mechanisms of psychiatric illnesses are discovered it would appear that they will be subsumed into medical science.

 

And yet the great psychiatrists I have met have skills which no neurologists have - ability to see a holistic cause of problems. Therefore, psychiatry will still be a major area in the year 3000. God knows, it may be the biggest area of medicine if present trends of increases in mental illnesses continue.

 

I just wish that psychiatrists and neurologists talked to each other more. PANDAS is one of the areas where this actually occurs to some extent.

 

Dr. T

[MichaelTampa]

shouldn't neurology and psychiatry be interrelated?

 

 

Yes, they are very interrelated, and it is a shame that so many doctors ignore that. It is a real shame, and part of the general larger shame of what has happened with all the specialization, doctors become experts in one field, and then see all problems through those glasses.

 

- I have been to a regular psychiatrist, and she feels all my problems are chemical/emotional and I need psychiatric drugs.

- I have been to a psychiatrist who specializes in TS, and he feels all my problems are from Tourette's, and I need TS drugs.

- I have been to a psychologist, and she feels my problems are emotional and I need counseling/therapy.

- I have been to a chiropractor who believed he could fix my problems by pulling and cracking my bones and so on.

- I have consulted with a PANDAS expert who believes my problems can be fixed with antibiotics for mycoplasma/strep.

- If you read/listen to Doug Kaufmann, he would suggest the first step to addressing my problems would be antifungals and antifungal diet.

- I have been to a naturopath who sees a lot of people for leaky gut syndrome and believes my problems are caused by that (food allergies/candida).

- I have been to two dentists who believe my symptoms are from improper jaw location and other TMJ related issues.

- I have been to an acupuncturist who believed she could fix my problems with acupuncture, diet changes, and supplements.

- I have been to an NAET acupuncturist who believed he could fix my problems with NAET acupuncture.

 

Unfortunately I could go on and on, seriously, and the one thing most notable is that most of these health care providers took only a cursory look at the other possibilities. Some of it is that literally they lack the knowledge and resources to do much more than that. But some of it really is just closed-mindedness, and I guess those reasons somewhat go hand in hand, chicken-and-egg if you will. And of course, to be fair, it's got to be hard to be a specialist and know enough about all the other possibilities to really consider them well.

 

So, I think it is really our job as patients (or parents of patients as the case may be) to learn what options are out there, and make sure the other options are explored at the appropriate time (before letting the problem persists too long, before trying a really dangerous treatment based on one theory, ...).

 

Michael

[thereishope]

One of the best things my aunt told me is that psychiatric disorders are getting recognized more and referred to more as neurobiological disorders. I like that term much better. There are too many stereotypes that come into play when one refers to issues as mental disorders and psychological disorders.