States that want to Legally Control their MI Olmstead Compliance Costs Should Keep Up With the Science

Groundbreaking Australian study is identifying previously unknown links between the immune system and serious mental illness, and leading to new remedies for conditions formerly thought untreatable.

Val's Take

               Well, it does sound a little silly to tell States like Colorado to "Keep Up With the Science," that is until you realize the mental health profession is still using the SAD OLD, BAD OLD SCIENCE of the DSM 5.
                On top of that, unlike other areas of medicine, it takes approximately 17 years to get mental health evidenced-based practices to the people who need them.
                 That's a partial explanation for why Colorado doesn't make Assertive Community Treatment (ACT) available to all where "reasonably medically necessary" and it is why it is a key demand of our lawsuit.
                  With the current insights from new research running so fast and furious, there are going to be some real opportunities to help people and save States money for those who are paying attention. 

                 

​Dr. Fonagy discusses a program in the UK which seeks to greatly shorten the typical 17-year lag time between establishing an evidence-based practice and getting it to people in the community.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-05-27/mental-health-study-a-boon-to-patients-immune-system/7455310   >>>>>>>

Immune system and serious mental illness- A groundbreaking study is identifying unknown links (2016)

Professor Ian Hickie of the University of Sydney's Brain and Mind Centre presented the research to the M4M forum in Perth.

"The key issue there is what's driving the mental ill health is not so much a change in the brain, but a change in the immune system, an auto-immune disease that's causing the aberrant behaviour," he said.

He said the link between a poor immune system and mental illness had previously been thought to be an unusual one, and only present in certain cases.

Professor Hickie said immune therapies had already worked for a significant number of cases.

"It's not rare, we don't often look hard enough," he said.

"We haven't had in the past the technologies or the laboratory tests to confirm that a number of these disorders, a significant minority of these disorders actually have an immune basis."

He said the challenge now was to find the right combination of therapies for an individual, as some might require a boost to the immune system, while others a suppression.