ABOUT SAFE HARBOR
Safe Harbor was founded in 1998 in the wake of growing public dissatisfaction with the unwanted effects of orthodox psychiatric treatments such as medication and shock therapy. Seeking to satisfy the desire for safer, more effective treatments, the Project is dedicated to educating the public, the medical profession, and government officials on research and treatments that, minimally, do no harm and, optimally, cure the causes of severe mental symptoms. Our primary thrust is education on the medical causes of severe mental symptoms and the use of nutritional and other natural treatments.
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LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Last month’s article on research, funded by the makers of Tums antacids, showing that PMS symptoms are reduced by calcium carbonate supplements sparked some informative reader commentary:
“The use of calcium carbonate in this study is very disturbing. It is very unfortunate that a drug / OTC manufacturer supports its own claims, but more unfortunate that it promotes a very inexpensive substance, the same as is the basis of Bon Ami Cleanser, that promotes serious digestive disorders, poor protein absorption, impairment of the bicarbonate buffer system of the blood, and is, in and of itself, poorly absorbed, leading to bones spurs and kidney stones. Yes calcium has been known for more than 50 years to help cyclic imbalances, but not in the form of calcium carbonate, please.”
Gayle Eversole CRNP PhD AHG
www.leaflady.org
“I appreciate your newsletter, but I would like to see you take a more critical look at research funded by companies that manufacture products that their sponsored research results endorse. In the article regarding calcium, at least you mention that SmithKline Beecham funded the study and is the maker of Tums. However, you neglect to mention the most important fact, which is that Tums contains calcium and has been recommended to people as a calcium supplement. You neglect to mention if the researchers actually used Tums as the source of their calcium supplementation in the study as well. Surely you are aware that corporate sponsorship of research undoubtedly influences both the researchers and the findings that are eventually cleared for publication. If not, I recommend you look at the article “Silence in Class” March 21, 2001 issue of the San Francisco Bay Guardian, which is online at http://www.sfbg.com/.”
Sarah Edmonds, Ph.D.
EARLY RESULTS: EXERCISE WORKS FASTER THAN ANTIDEPRESSANTS
Research reported by Dr. F Dimeo, et al, from the Depts. of Sports Medicine and Psychiatry at Freie Universitaet, Berlin, Germany, has shown that a daily 30-minute walking regimen can produce a significant drop in depression within 10 days – faster than antidepressants.
The study examined 12 men and women experiencing a major depressive episode. Exercise consisted of walking on a treadmill following an interval training pattern and was carried out for 30 minutes a day for 10 days. Participants were scored for depression symptoms before and after.
At the end of the 10-day period, a clinically relevant and statistically significant reduction in depression scores was observed. Subjective and objective changes in depression scores correlated strongly.
The study was reported in the April 1, 2001, issue of the British Journal of Sports Medicine.
The results support the conclusions of Duke University researchers last year who found that a brisk 30-minute walk or jog three times a week was as effective as antidepressants and was more effective against relapse than the drugs. However, in the Duke study, the recovery from depression appears to have been less rapid than in the Berlin study. It would appear that the key difference between the two is the use of DAILY exercise in the Berlin study. Daily 30-minute walks appear to work faster than antidepressant medication and be less prone to depression relapse.
MERCURY CAUSES ALZHEIMER’S-LIKE NERVE DAMAGE
No single cause has been isolated for Alzheimer’s disease, a neurodegenerative disorder that leads to dementia and death, but trace amounts of mercury can cause the type of damage to nerves that is characteristic of Alzheimer’s, according to recent research at the University of Calgary Faculty of Medicine.
The scientists found “neurofibrillar tangles,” one of the two main diagnostic markers for Alzheimer’s disease, in nerve cell cultures exposed to mercury. Aluminum and other elements did not produce the same results.
The research, published in a peer-reviewed medical journal, is accompanied by a video presentation of the effect, which can be viewed at http://commons.ucalgary.ca/mercury. Utilizing digital time-lapse photography, this video shows rapid damage to the nerve cells after introduction of minute amounts of mercury. Funding for this video was provided by the International Academy of Oral Medicine and Toxicology.
Collaborative research between the authors of the Calgary study and Dr. Boyd Haley at the University of Kentucky demonstrated Alzheimer’s disease-like brain damage to rats from inhaled mercury vapor. Dr. Haley said, “Seven of the characteristic markers that we look for to distinguish Alzheimer’s disease can be produced in normal brain tissues, or cultures of neurons, by the addition of extremely low levels of mercury.”
Previous research had shown that mercury can cause the formation of the other Alzheimer’s disease marker, “amyloid plaques.”
In another study, published in 1998 in the Journal of Neural Transmission, researchers at the University of Basel, Switzerland compared blood mercury concentrations in 33 Alzheimer’s patients with those of two age-matched control groups. Blood mercury levels in the Alzheimer’s patients were more than double those of the control groups, with early-onset Alzheimer’s patients having the highest mercury levels of all. The authors found no correlation between the patients’ blood mercury levels and their dental status.
DSM-IV LISTED ON PSYCHIATRISTS’ “TEN WORST” PUBLICATIONS
Simon Wessely, professor of psychiatry at King’s College, south London, polled 150 psychiatrists gathered at the Maudsley Hospital to select the ten worst publications of the last millennium. Their “top ten” list was published last month in The Independent (London) with comments by Professor Wessely.
The inclusion of Freud in the final list, at number six, was “slightly tongue in cheek” but also reflected the widespread view that despite having a major literary and cultural impact he had done nothing for patients, Professor Wessely said.
Some of the “winners” rival the work of Nazi psychiatrists (excluded “because they would have swept the board” — not because they were less scientific!)
The list includes the “Bible” of psychiatry, the DSM-IV, which has raised controversy by greatly expanding the number of official mental disorders recognized by organized psychiatry.
Here they are, then — the “ten worst publications in the history of psychiatry”:
1. Ralph Rossen: Acute arrest of cerebral circulation in man, 1943. Here, “scientists” stopped the blood flow to the brain in 100 prisoners and 11 chronic schizophrenics by pressing the carotid artery in their necks, reporting the not surprising discovery that “no significant improvement in the psychiatric status of the schizophrenia patients was noted after repeated and relatively prolonged periods of arrest of cerebral circulation.”
2. Valerie Sinason: Treating the Survivors of Satanic Abuse, 1994. Reopened controversy about ritual abuse of children. “Credulous, superstitious, iatrogenic [physician-caused] illness-inducing, self-righteous, incendiary garbage,” a nomination read.
3. Luke Warm Luke homicide inquiry, 1998: Inquiry into the killing of Susan Crawford, a mother of four and girlfriend of a schizophrenic patient, Michael Folkes, who stabbed her 70 times (he had changed his name to Luke Warm Luke).
4. Rosenwald, G.C. et al: “An action test of hypotheses concerning anal personality”, Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 1966. Subjects put hands in tubs of soil and slime; speed of action equated to personality. A psychiatrist said: “Shows how silly highly educated people can be.”
5. Henry Miller: “Accident compensation neurosis”, BMJ, 1961. Argued that people seeking compensation got better as soon as it was paid — widely debunked but still cited by neurologists in court cases.
6. The complete works of Sigmund Freud: 1880-1930. Nomination said: “His teaching led to the great psychodynamic movement with its tribalism and hostility to other models of mental illness and treatments. From this root we could select the mish-mash of persons excited about multiple personality disorders, sexual trauma in infancy and other nonsense.”
7. Egaz Moniz: Invention of psychosurgery. Portuguese diplomat, present at the First World War armistice, introduced the idea of brain surgery (the lobotomy) to cure mental disorder. A nomination read: “His efforts were useless; his work should have died an aborted death.”
8. William Sargeant and Elliott Slater: An Introduction to Physical Treatments in Psychiatry, 1946. Advocated shock treatment, psychosurgery, and more. “Epitome of the mindless period of psychiatry during and after the war.”
9. R.D. Laing: The Divided Self, 1960. Argued that it was not schizophrenics who were mad but society.
10. DSM-IV – Diagnostic and Statistical Manual: (4th ed). Containing every psychiatric diagnosis, it is criticized for reducing psychiatry to a checklist. “It has become a monster, out of control.”
HEARING DISORDERS PRODUCE ADHD-LIKE SYMPTOMS
It is not unusual for a person labeled as “learning-disabled” to actually have subtle hearing problems. Childhood ear infections, though a contributing factor, usually do not cause permanent hearing loss. Much more destructive and long-lasting, according to Judith W. Paton, M.A., Audiologist, are central auditory processing disorders (CAPD’s), which affect hearing-related nerve pathways in the brain.
The American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA) Task Force on Central Auditory Processing Consensus Development (1996) has defined auditory processing disorder as “a deficiency in one or more of the following phenomena: sound localization and lateralization [preferring to use one side of the body], auditory discrimination, auditory pattern recognition, recognition of temporal aspects of audition, auditory performance decrease with competing acoustic signals, and auditory performance decrease with degraded signals.”
Mild hearing loss sometimes escapes detection by school hearing tests and can produce “attention deficit” symptoms such as inappropriate responses, not completing assignments, attention wandering during oral presentations, impulsiveness, frequently asking for repetition, and poor self concept. Children with these problems appear to be underachievers, and academic failures reinforce their sense of isolation.
Not all the hearing is done in the ear. The ear brings in all the environmental sounds human beings can hear and delivers them unseparated to the bottom of the brain in the brain stem (just above the spinal cord). As the hearing nerves crisscross up these several inches the “sorting out” or processing begins. This processing includes such operations as suppressing background noise, dividing attention between tasks, and focusing on the person in front of you (such as a teacher) while ignoring a conversation between two people next to you.
“The auditory system must convey the speech sounds, not yet identified as words, without distortion up to the cortex of the brain,” Paton explains in an article reprinted by LDonline.org. “Here the temporal lobe organizes them into words and the information is routed to other centers of thought, action, sight, and so on.
“For all these jobs to be done we need several conditions. There must be enough nerve fibers to share the work and no cell loss from such conditions as lack of oxygen at birth or failure of development embryologically. Also, the nerves must all transmit at normal speed, not slower in spots as when the brain is swollen (this can happen with head injuries or strokes and, some people believe, with certain allergies). The brain must be able to produce proper amounts of chemical neurotransmitters for the nerves to carry their messages (we see such failures in Parkinson’s disease, and they are suspected in Tourette syndrome and some forms of autism).”
One can get an idea of an auditory problem even in a preschool child simply by watching for certain types of behavior:
1. greater tendency to ignore a speaker when engrossed in something;
2. unusual sensitivity to or complaints about noise;
3. difficulty telling the direction from which the parent is calling;
4. tendency to confuse similar-sounding words;
5. confuses or forgets directions if several given in one sentence.
Some of these items also appear with ordinary peripheral (in the ear) hearing losses, so the child’s doctor or school should do a regular hearing test first. A pediatric audiologist can test infants and preschoolers.
If the behavior you notice cannot be explained by a hearing loss, then there is reason to suspect a central auditory processing disorder. This testing is done by an audiologist.
The purpose of a central auditory processing evaluation is to isolate specific auditory processing difficulties in order to recommend remedies. Performance on auditory processing tests is compared to norms for the age group. It is generally believed that development of the auditory processing pathways continues up to age 12 or 13. The premise of testing is that degraded speech, or speech in noise, will challenge the auditory pathways of the central nervous system more than recognition of unaltered speech or speech in quiet (Willeford, 1977). An individual with normal central auditory processing abilities can, to some extent, compensate for these degraded signals, whereas an individual with a central auditory processing deficit cannot.
STUDY FINDS HIGH RELAPSE RATE FOR ELECTROSHOCK
In their report on a randomized controlled trial of depressed patients treated with Electroconvulsive Therapy (ECT), published last month, Sackeim et al concluded:
“Our study indicates that without active treatment, virtually all remitted patients relapse within 6 months of stopping ECT. Monotherapy with nortriptyline has limited efficacy. The combination of nortriptyline and lithium is more effective, but the relapse rate is still high, particularly during the first month of continuation therapy.”
Of 290 patients with “unipolar major depression” recruited through clinical referral who completed an open ECT treatment phase, 159 patients met remitter criteria (those who had experienced no apparent benefit from the ECT were excluded). Eighty-four of the 159 submitted to further treatment with nortriptyline alone (27 patients), nortriptyline and lithium (28 patients), or placebo (29 patients) on a randomized basis.
Over the 24-week trial, the relapse rate for placebo was 84% (24 patients); for nortriptyline, 60% (11 patients); and for nortriptyline-lithium, 39% (16 patients). In other words, ECT by itself was a complete failure at least 84% of the time.
The study was published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), March 14, 2001. An editorial by Richard M. Glass, JAMA’s Deputy Editor, accompanied the article.
While the authors were encouraged by the nortriptyline-lithium results, they allow that a 39% best-case relapse rate is still not very good. And with just 33 of the original 290 depressed patients demonstrated to have benefited from ECT without relapse after 24 weeks, the need for less drastic alternatives is underscored.
COENZYME NADH BOOSTS ENERGY, IMPROVES MENTAL STATE
A coenzyme is an organic nonprotein molecule that binds with a protein molecule to form an active enzyme. NADH, or nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide, is a coenzyme present in all living cells, from the simplest plants and animals to man. In humans, the highest NADH concentrations are found in cells that use the most energy, such as brain and heart cells. The most plentiful dietary sources of this coenzyme are red meat, poultry and yeast.
Like Coenzyme-Q10, NADH is involved in the synthesis of adenosine triphosphate (ATP), the body’s primary source of intracellular energy. When NADH is oxidized in cellular energy-producing structures called mitochondria, it forms water and energy. This energy is preserved as ATP. To keep up with the cellular demand for energy, the body continuously synthesizes NADH (a process that involves niacin, a B-complex vitamin).
Studies show that NADH dramatically boosts production of the neurotransmitter dopamine, a chemical messenger vital for short-term memory, involuntary movements, muscle tone and spontaneous physical reactions.
NADH enhances the synthesis of another neurotransmitter, norepinephrine, a factor in alertness, concentration and mental activity. Dopamine and norepinephrine are “feel-good” brain chemicals. Decreased brain levels of either can lead to depressed mood; thus, artificially blocking their breakdown (as in cocaine use) brings on a temporary state of euphoria.
By boosting the synthesis of both dopamine and norepinephrine, NADH appears to ease depression. A 1992 open trial by Birkmayer looked at the effect of NADH on 205 patients suffering from depression. NADH was given orally (5 mg), intramuscularly (12.5 mg) or intravenously (12.5 mg) for five to 310 days. Ninety-three percent of the patients exhibited a beneficial clinical effect. The overall improvement was 11.5 points on a test that measured depression severity, yet the improvement was not statistically significant. (Birkmayer, New Trends in Clinical Neuropharmacology.)
Several preliminary studies show NADH may help treat Alzheimer’s disease. In yet another study by Birkmayer and colleagues, 17 patients suffering from dementia of the Alzheimer type received NADH for eight to 12 weeks. As measured by the Mini-Mental State Examination and the global deterioration scale, the patients’ cognitive dysfunction improved. No side effects or adverse effects were reported. This pilot study was an “open-label trial,” meaning subjects and researchers knew they were using NADH, so no definitive conclusions can be drawn from it. Demonstrating the clinical efficacy of NADH for Alzheimer’s disease will require a double-blind, placebo-controlled study.
Georg D. Birkmayer, M.D., Ph.D., is Medical Director of the Birkmayer Institute for Parkinson’s Therapy — which has treated thousands of patients suffering from Parkinson’s disease, Alzheimer’s disease and depression — and a professor at the University of Graz in Austria, heading its Division of Neurochemistry at the Department of Medicinal Chemistry.
BRITISH MENTAL PATIENTS GIVEN CHANCE TO REPORT SIDE EFFECTS
Medicines used to treat the mentally ill can have devastating side effects, but many may go unreported. British Mental health charity MIND is calling for psychiatric patients to report data straight to them so they can feed more accurate information back to doctors and other experts.
The charity has re-launched its Yellow Card reporting system to give patients a chance to air their concerns. The Yellow Card is a leaflet asking people about their experiences of side effects from psychiatric drugs, what information they received and whether they were given a choice of drugs.
For the first time, these patients will have their first-hand experience systematically recorded in a database.
Alison Cobb, of MIND, said, ” Taking part in this survey will help make sure that key decision makers get to hear what it is really like, particularly for people from ethnic communities whose experiences are currently under-reported.”
MIND said the last Yellow Card scheme, launched in 1998, has so far revealed that 80% of psychiatric patients said they were not given enough information when their drugs were prescribed; 75% said they had not been warned about possible side effects and 44% said they were taking a combination of psychiatric drugs.
Currently, patients are not permitted to report adverse effects directly to the Center for Statistics in Medicine, but may do so through their doctor or pharmacist.
A similar situation prevails in the U.S., where the reporting of adverse drug reactions by physicians is voluntary, and subjective reports by patients are typically discounted.
ABOUT AlternativeMentalHealth.com
AlternativeMentalHealth.com is the world’s largest web site devoted exclusively to alternative mental health treatments. It includes a directory of over 160 physicians, nutritionists, experts, organizations, and facilities around the U.S. that offer or promote safe, alternative treatments for severe mental symptoms. Many of the physicians listed do in-depth examinations to find the physical causes behind mental problems.
Also included on the site are an array of articles on topics ranging from the medical causes of schizophrenia to the effects of toxic metals on mental health.
A bookstore page lists top books that cover many areas of alternative treatments with titles like Natural Healing for Schizophrenia and Other Common Mental Disorders and No More Ritalin.
AlternativeMentalHealth.com has been created to educate the public, practitioners, and government officials on the medical conditions that create “mental illness” and the many safe resources available for addressing and often curing severe mental symptoms.