It's Not Mental: Some Known Medical Causes of “Mental” Symptoms

Saturday, December 8, 2007

Some Known Medical Causes of “Mental” Symptoms

There are many known medical causes of anxiety, mood swings, depression, attentional difficulties with or without hyperactivity ("ADHD"), psychosis, and/or other psychiatric symptoms.

However, to complicate matters, the illnesses of the endocrine system, sleep disorder, autoimmune disorders, etc. are frequently found to be “co-morbid” with the illness that gets diagnosed as “mental,” rather than contributing causative factors. The danger in this way of thinking is that these "co-morbid" conditions may not be treated as effectively as they might be if the set of symptoms as a whole had been adressed, rather than in pieces.

Here is a PARTIAL list of known medical causes.

Hyperthyroidism,
Hypothyroidism,
Hypopituitarism (leading to a host of low hormone levels)
Neurosarcoidosis,
Brain tumor,
Pituitary tumor,
Adrenal Tumor,
Nutritional deficiencies,
Autoimmune Disorders
Gluten sensitivity,
Dairy protein (cow casein) sensitivity,
Intestinal malabsorption (including Celiac, Crohns, and others)
Some Sexually Transmitted Diseases (STDs)
Reactions to food additives (such as aspartame, MSG, some food colorings)
Reactions to medications (such as asthma medications, decongestants, antihistamines, antidepressants, cough medicines, etc.)
Some parasitic infections
Acquired immune deficiency (AIDs)
Anemia
Brain Injury (can be from many different causes)
Some cancers (neoplasms) such as “malignant lung neoplasm”
Diabetes / Hypoglycemia
Embolism
Epilepsy
Encephalitis
Heart problems/defects
Hypoparathyroidism & Hyperparathyroidism
Hypoadrenalism / Addison's Disease
Hypothalamic Dysfunction
Kleine-Levin syndrome (KLS) (severe episodes of hypersomnia [sleep] lasting days, weeks, or months)
Lead poisoning
Lesch-Nyhan disease (genetic neurodegenerative - compulsive and self-injurious behavior in children)
Lupus erythematosus
Lyme disease
Meningitis
Mitochondrial Dysfunction
Multiple sclerosis
Mercury poisoning
Narcolepsy
Insomnia or Sleep Deprivation (including from brain injury, sleep apnea, bad habits, and more)
Sjögren's Syndrome
Superior canal dehiscence syndrome (SCDS)
Uremia
Vitamin and nutritive deficiencies and insufficiencies, or functional deficiencies (such as due to genetic, mitochondrial, and metabolic problems) - D, B12, B9, EFAs, etc.
Cushing's disease (hypercortisolism or hyperadrenocorticism)

What is quite bizarre is that as researchers study schizophrenia, bipolar, and depression and find strong causes for some cases, they often say they have found causes for the schizophrenia, bipolar, or depression rather than emphasizing that the psychiatric symptoms diagnosed as those mental illnesses were caused by those medical issues.

Here is an interesting website for anyone looking into this huge issue of medical, biological, environmental, and toxic reasons people get symptoms affecting brain function which subsequently get diagnosed and misdiagnosed as a "mental" disorder:
Investigating Underlying Medical Causes of Mental Symptoms

So here is some food for thought. As medical causes of these "mental" illnesses are found, should they not be reclassified? Should we still call a person's illness "bipolar" -- a diagnosis we consider "mental" -- when the case is adequately treated with higher hormone levels (such as raised thyroid level) and a change in diet (such as free of dairy and gluten), and/or the use of vitamins (such as TrueHope's EMPowerPlus)?

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