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Post by B.A (MS3) on Jul 1, 2016 7:03:13 GMT -4
This is an interesting article and highly educative. The writer revealing how autoimmune antibodies can affect brain function leading to inflammation of the brain and subsequently psychiatric symptoms in the affected individual. The article presented the case of a 13 year old who was admitted for various signs and symptoms relating to a psychiatric disorder and treated but defied treatment and got worse by day. It points out that physicians should be open-minded and consider many differentials in the course of treatment and be willing to explore other treatment techniques as in the case of the kid when electroencephalogram was used to discover the abnormal brain activity. It is also important that physicians and physicians in-training take note of possible courses of some psychotic disorders which could be triggered by an autoimmune attack on the brain and make all efforts to identify the part of the body which triggers such reaction in order to get the best possible line of treatment. The various scientific research and discoveries which has revealed the link between the body's immune system attack on the brain to some psychotic disorders is a great one for medicine and will go a long way to help in better and quick diagnoses of psychiatric conditions to make affected patients get better. It is also encouraged that further research be done to establish the higher percentage chance that the autoimmune attack on brain will cause certain psychotic conditions in order to help the millions of individuals with mental illness cases (about 1 in 5 adults) (1) in the U.S and help save billions of dollars which goes to the treatment of these cases. Reference: 1. Any Mental Illness (AMI) Among Adults. (n.d.). Retrieved October 23, 2015, from www.nimh.nih.gov/health/statistics/prevalence/any-mental-illness-ami-among-adults.shtml - See more at: www.nami.org/Learn-More/Mental-Health-By-the-Numbers#sthash.ibUFDPKk.dpuf
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Post by naqitaalexander on Jul 3, 2016 13:19:07 GMT -4
Sasha’s story highlights and becomes the voice of so many individuals that go misdiagnosed. With the resources and cutting edge testing methodology available today, this shouldn’t be the case. But often due to poor recording and experience of previous cases, many individuals with psychiatric diagnoses are seldom associated with a further underlying cause. From a neuropsychiatric standpoint, the knowledge that autoimmune diseases may result in an array of psychiatric manifestations is poorly investigated when dealing with the presentation of new psychiatric patients. Having worked in a developing nation almost my entire life, the mere time, cost and resources to present further extensive investigation for patients in an already strained health care system catering for large patient volumes, is close to impossible in most instances.
Furthermore, I believe that greater effort and resources need to be poured into investigating the association and prevalences of neuropsychiatric manifestations with autoimmune diseases. Health care professionals should be encouraged to publish their findings in cases such as Sasha's. Not only will this create a chronic awareness of the association, but will also ensure that doctors diagnose patients more accurately.
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Post by Jshammaa on Jul 3, 2016 15:19:41 GMT -4
This article is very interesting. The notion that our immune system controls almost every aspect of our being is not a new concept, although for it to start being recognized at this level is reassuring. The unknown behind triggers causing schizophrenia or manic episodes, will be soon outdated if the research goes in this heading. I believe the idea behind psychiatric issues never have been thought of as an immunological problem is because, we as a species, like to examine and process things very linearly. We always think in terms of "action - reaction" or "trigger - ailment". The fact that an immune disorder is capable of potentiating a psychiatric disorder is mind blowing. To think that the administration of antibiotics or immune modulators are capable of eradicating a psychiatric illness should start inducing collaborations between psychiatrists and infection disease specialists or even hematologists.
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Joseph Moussa (MS3)
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Post by Joseph Moussa (MS3) on Jul 5, 2016 0:44:38 GMT -4
Ideas and thoughts are all generated by the neuronal tissue of our brain. Like any other tissue in the body, the brain is susceptible to injury. Injury can be caused by a variety of different things including infectious, chemical, or even auto-immune mediated. When a person's ability to generate normal ideas and thoughts becomes compromised, one has to suspect some level of dysfunction of the neuronal tissue of the brain. The human body is fighting a constant battle against pathogens which enter our bodies in the form of virus, bacteria and fungus. The body mounts an immune response to the invasion. One way the body reacts is by forming anti-bodies against these pathogens. No one can say when the body may accidentally produce an anti-body targeted against a specific part of a pathogen which so happens to look like a piece of our own tissues. This is the phenomenon called molecular mimicry. The body destroys the pathogen, however it has now also created an anti-body against its own self. This sort of process may be responsible for more psychiatric illness than we are currently aware of. Physicians must keep the idea of a possibly auto-immune mediated attack of one's own tissue in their differential when no other obvious cause of disease is present.
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Post by Amal Ali (MS3) on Jul 15, 2016 12:52:29 GMT -4
Topic Name: When the Body Attacks the Mind
Physiological theory of mental illness is still a mystery despite the diagnosis of all different kinds of psychiatric problems and despite all the drugs and medications that been prescribed for those kinds of mental diseases. Although, so many mental illnesses were diagnosed and treated with certain medications but the specific underlying physiological cause behind it is still unknown. Some risk factors for mental illness could be related to genetic inheritance. In some cases such as in schizophrenia and psychosis, risk factors could be related to drugs abuse, separation in family, childhood trauma, or migration and discrimination. In case of anxiety, risk factors could be related to parental rejection and family history, child abuse, drugs abuse, or attitudes and temperament. In other cases, social influences might contribute to development of some psychiatric problems. Those social influences might include traumatic events, bullying, neglect, abuse, or social stress. In addition, physical illnesses, such as autoimmune disease, viral infection, or some other neurological dysfunctions might increase the risk of developing specific mental diseases. So, in case of some autoimmune disease, such as SLE [System Lupus Erythematosus], neuropsychiatric symptoms might occur when SLE reaches the nervous system and affects both the central and peripheral nervous system. Patients with SLE might experience some neuropsychiatric episodes, such as depression and mood disorders, anxiety disorders, seizures, cognitive dysfunction, or psychosis.
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Post by Erica B. Bortmas on Jul 21, 2016 16:38:56 GMT -4
Psychiatric symptoms do not only present in psychiatric illnesses. Just because physicians go into a certain specialty of practice, they shouldn't forget everything else they learned in medical school. The cardiologist needs to remember that just because someone has heart palpitations and passes out doesn't automatically mean that the patient has a heart arrhythmia. The patient may simply be suffering from panic attacks. We can not have such terrible tunnel vision as doctors. A persons health is not defined by one particular organ system, but instead by the entire person including the person's mind, every organ system, and even environmental factors. As someone who is aspiring to become an Emergency Medicine physician, I always try to keep an open mind when hearing a patient's chief complaint and history. When we begin to limit our ability to think outside the box, our patients begin to suffer, just as this patient in this article.
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Loretta Akpala (MS3)
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Post by Loretta Akpala (MS3) on Jul 22, 2016 12:40:25 GMT -4
One-third of schizophrenics show signs of immune activation (though he adds that this could be related to other factors, such as smoking and obesity). And autoimmune diseases are more common among schizophrenics and their immediate families than among the general population, which could hint at a shared genetic vulnerability. Immunological abnormalities have been observed in patients with bipolar disorder and depression as well. A recent retrospective study by scientists at the Mayo Clinic, a center of research on autoimmune neurological conditions, found that, compared with a control group of healthy people, psychiatric patients were more likely to harbor antibodies directed at brain tissue. One implication is that some of these patients’ psychiatric symptoms might have stemmed from autoimmune problems, and that they might have benefited from immunotherapy. Scientists are also increasingly interested in the link between depression and systemic inflammation, an immune-system response to infection or other potential triggers such as a lousy diet, obesity, chronic stress, or trauma. Studies suggest that about one-third of people diagnosed with depression have high levels of inflammation markers in their blood. Scientists have posited that the malaise and lethargy of depression may really be a kind of sickness behavior, an instinct to lie low and recover that, in its proper context—infection or illness—aids survival. Problems arise when the immune system stays activated for a long time, possibly leading to clinical depression. Scientists saw improvement in depressed patients who had markers showing high levels of systemic inflammation, and who’d failed to respond to standard treatment, when they were administered an immunosuppressant called infliximab. Other researchers have found that aspirin, perhaps the oldest anti-inflammatory drug around, may be helpful as an add-on therapy for schizophrenia.
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Post by Ali Reza Ahmed on Aug 1, 2016 13:55:09 GMT -4
This is an absolutely fascinating article. Can a an infection, an autoimmune response, or inflammation of the brain lead to psychiatric symptoms? Absolutely! It very much does make sense that it might be an immune reaction, and that there may be anti-bodies directed towards centers of the brain like the limbic system, the pre-frontal cortex, or even neurotransmitter receptors that could be affected or damaged. It is conciebale and very likely that such pathologies can lead to psychiatric illness or mimic them to an extent.
Movie recommendations for movies dealing with neuro-psychiatric illnesses: - Awakenings (viral encephalitis and catatonia, based on Dr. Oliver Sacks memoir/book) - The Cell (the serial killer in the movie suffered from viral encephalitis-like illness during his childhood which eventually causes him to go insane when he's an adult).
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