The Homeopathic Treatment Of Bipolar Disorder Is Unethical And Dangerous

[HuckleB]

http://www.naturopathicdiaries.com/homeopathic-treatment-of-bipolar-is-unethical-and-dangerous/

"...

I am not arguing that the current evidence-based treatment protocols for managing bipolar disorder are perfect. They are not. This is precisely why there is a market for alternative bipolar therapies. But the shortcomings of pharmacology does not mean we should allow outright unethical practices, like using homeopathy to “cure” bipolar, to persist. Patients’ lives are literally at risk.

...

I am expecting to get slammed for this article. I am going to hear critiques about psychiatry, in general. Many readers have written to me stating they believe that the fields of psychology and psychiatry are quackery, and will I write about these fields, too? (No, I won’t.) I have also heard many arguments that psychiatric intervention involves the swapping of drug side effects for mental illness symptoms. These folks argue that simply “medicating away” mental symptoms is not real treatment.

Fine. But here is the key difference for me, distilled down perfectly by Jane. One group of symptoms, specifically the drug side effects, are annoying and bothersome, but tolerable given the tremendous benefit. The other group of symptoms, which include delusions, dangerous behaviors, suicidal thoughts, and depression, are not. She’d rather risk kidney failure due to lithium, than risk her life due to bipolar disorder.

I’m with Jane. The risks associated with bipolar are too great to not demand anything but the safest, most effective medical care. In the interest of doing no harm above all else, naturopaths should be prohibited from treating bipolar disorder.

..."

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The article begins with an anecdote about a Naturopath who claims to be able to treat bipolar disorder, seizures, rheumatoid arthritis, and other things with homeopathy.

This is just so bloody sad.

[Kalidurga]

1. homeopathic treatments should be outlawed

For any medical condition they are no better and possibly worse than faith healing.

[safeinOhio]

2. Should be able to repeat and

Quantify any treatment that works in a peer review journal. If not, don't buy it.

[HuckleB]

3. Shoot, even single studies are questionable.

But the homeopath here doesn't even care about a single study.

Amazing.

[HassleCat]

4. Homeopaths should be prosecuted and jailed for fraud. (eom)

[H2O Man]

5. Recommended.

"Bi-polar" covers a variety of people with similar symptoms. But there are very real differences. Certainly, serious and persistent symptoms should be treated with the lowest possible level of medication, plus whatever level of therapy warranted. "Milder" cases may not require on-going medications. There is no one "correct" answer.

[jwirr]

16. My brother has bi-polar very bad and he uses the prescribed

drugs. I don't think anything can help him.

But throughout our family we have many others that we have recognized the symptoms. Three that I can think of (one with anxiety problems, one with anger management problems and the other with identity problems) and each are handling it in their own way. Not necessarily the best way but it makes them functional - the girl with anxiety problems uses both personal control and prescribed medications - the man with anger control problems is using MJ to manage it - and the other young man is addicted to opiates and is just barely managing his life at all.

Because of the difference in the types of Bi-Polar I think that it is only natural that there would be different treatments. However anyone who claims that it can cure Bi-Polar is lying through their teeth.

[DeadLetterOffice]

6. Someone suggested homeopathy to treat my genetic disorder

I managed not to go off on a rant about how the hell distilled water was gonna fix my faulty DNA sequencing, but managed to bite my tongue enough to just say "no thank you."

Naturopathy I have some respect for.
Homeopathy is bullshit sold to rich people with no sense.

[onyourleft]

7. Recommended.

It is sad that the public is not better educated.

[HuckleB]

12. Indeed.

[WhaTHellsgoingonhere]

8. Lithium?! Who prescribes lithium today, it's awful on the body and there are better options

[GreenPartyVoter]

14. It's still the gold standard, but I won't take it for fear of toxicity. Have settled for Tegretol,

even though it doesn't fully control my cycling.

[WhaTHellsgoingonhere]

17. Fortunately, meds like Depakote and Lamictal came along by the time

lithium started fucking with my kidney function. I'm bp1 and Depakote whacks my mania. After a couple of years just on Depakote, I still had a low grade melancholy. After a little more than a decade of stability, my life has been a shit show since Day 1 of the of the Great Recession. Despite that, since I've been on Lamictal, I've never gotten depressed.

But Depakote has side effects that many women can't tolerate: weight gain and hair loss. After I ballooned to 230 I was able to get back to get back down to 190, so weight loss is still possible. I don't know a single pdoc who prescribes lithium today, and as a social worker, I worked with many.

[GreenPartyVoter]

18. Glad to hear it's being used less now, at least in your area. I liked Lamictal OK, but it triggered

Hypomania in me. Have avoided the Depakote for weight reasons. Tried other newer meds, but hated the side effects or they just didn't work. Guess I am stuck with my Tegretol, at least for now. :/

[HuckleB]

15. It depends on the individual.

Some people tolerate it well, or better than other medications.

[WhaTHellsgoingonhere]

19. Good point, of course you are absolutely correct.

[WhaTHellsgoingonhere]

9. Thanks for posting this. I'll finish reading it tomorrow. In the Sports Forum, I was using

Johnny Manziel's self-destructive spiral as an opportunity to have a discussion about bipolar disorder. People really know nothing about it.

[qwlauren35]

10. I have bipolar disorder.

One of the drugs I take is lithium. I also take Celexa, Lamictal and Geodon... in generic form.

I ***HATE*** taking these pills. And I miss my manic episodes. But when I read this article, I recognized myself in the description of bipolar mania. Just to describe one of my suicidal episodes, that still happen every few months, is painful. I go fetal. I bawl. I shake. I try to reason through it. I tell myself it's just an episode, and I'll get through it in a few hours. I say this to myself over and over, to stop from imagining ways to kill myself. But the thoughts are there. Pills, natural gas, carbon monoxide. And sometimes jumping off a building.

At any rate, here's the excerpt... what it's like to be bipolar.

There is a particular kind of pain, elation, loneliness, and terror involved in this kind of madness. When you’re high it’s tremendous. The ideas and feelings are fast and frequent like shooting stars, and you follow them until you find better and brighter ones. Shyness goes, the right words and gestures are suddenly there, the power to captivate others a felt certainty. There are interests found in uninteresting people. Sensuality is pervasive and the desire to seduce and be seduced irresistible. Feelings of ease, intensity, power, well-being, financial omnipotence, and euphoria pervade one’s marrow. But, somewhere, this changes. The fast ideas are far too fast, and there are far too many; overwhelming confusion replaces clarity. Memory goes. Humor and absorption on friends’ faces are replaced by fear and concern. Everything previously moving with the grain is now against– you are irritable, angry, frightened, uncontrollable, and enmeshed totally in the blackest caves of the mind. You never knew those caves were there. It will never end, for madness carves its own reality.

[fizzgig]

11. my psych has me on an amino acid to supplement my meds

and it helps, but i would never think of going fully in that direction to manage my disorder.

[HuckleB]

13. Do you know the mechanism that the psych hopes will help?

Just curious.