Blog Archives

IS NEURO-DIVERSITY A "GOOD THING" OR A "BAD THING" ???? THE FIRST STEP IS RECOGNIZING IT'S A "THING"

9/28/2019

So often people in the "neuro-diversity" community will talk about "neuro-typicals." The reality is that what is "neuro-typical" in our society is CHANGING for A LOT OF REASONS, including increased immune dysregulations as our typical human microbiome is A LOT LESS DIVERSE and the population in Western Countries and increasingly Developing Countries is seeing an increase in Auto-Immune Disease and certain types of Mental Illness.

Some of these issues with "Neuro-Diversity" involve increased REACTIVITY or RESPONSIVENESS to the ENVIRONMENT. Is that a good thing or a bad thing?

   If it is trying to jump out of a moving car -- THAT's PROBABLY A BAD THING.

On the other hand, being so "RESPONSIVE" to another's pain and recognizing the widespread issues in order to find a SYSTEMIC SOLUTION -- can be a very good thing.

Unconscious bias, Racism & Discrimination are not going to survive our new HYPER-SENSITIVE NERVOUS SYSTEMS -- we can't afford the Healthcare Costs. So who has UNCONSIOUS BIAS -- pretty much human beings as a race -- that's ALL OF US.

   Who has strengths and weaknesses and needs to make money -- pretty much all adults.

It may very well be some neurally diverse folks who bring the necessary CREATIVITY to address neuro-diversity in Employment & Business Creation.

WittySparks.com -- Neurodiversity: Benefits of Recruiting Employees with Cognitive Disabilities

University of Michigan:
Cells of people with Bipolar Disorder are developmentally different than the cells of people without Bipolar Disorder. Specifically, the cells are more "reactive."

SENG: The Twice Exceptional -- A Population Explosion?

Creativity, Divergent Thinking, Entrepreneurship -- Just Some of the Common "Strengths" of Some "Disorders" -- What if we started treating them as the profound strengths they are and use our "Creativity" to find work-arounds for the rest

Racism & Health

Racism, the Immune System & Mental Health

OUR "ROCKY MOUNTAIN" BREAKDOWN

9/23/2019

We hope everyone is getting an opportunity to enjoy Ken Burns' PBS Series on Country Music.

TURN Up SOME MUSIC while checking out some of our BREAKDOWNS on the Science of The Immune System & Cognitive Disability --

Immunity and Cognitive Disability

Auto-Immune Neuro-Psychiatric Disorders

New Science is Amazing & It Has Huge Moral Implications --Now

Mental Health, Physical Illness, the Immune System & the Endocrine System

MOVING FORWARD: WE DON'T HAVE TIME TO PLAY A LOT OF GAMES

9/23/2019

REFERRING CO STATE GOV'T VIOLATIONS OF FEDERAL LAW FOR INVESTIGATION

WORKING WITH NATIONAL GROUPS TO IMPROVE PSYCHIATRIC DIAGNOSTICS

One of the great challenges is the paucity of resources both in the Disability Legal Community and in the State.

We're going to be seeking to build on alliances that already exist among:

the Colorado Cross Disability Coalition (CCDC)
the Civil Rights Education and Enforcement Center (CREEC)
Disability Law Colorado (DLC)
the Colorado Lawyers Committee
University of Colorado's School of Law Program that Provides Legal Research & Writing Support to Non-Profits
Denver University's School of Law Disability Legal Clinic

Initially, we are considering CCDC Legal Director Kevin Williams Disability Round Table to systematically consider and triage violations of Federal Disability Rights Law, including Olmstead & Fair Housing.

We're also seeking to work with National Organizations such as NAMI for the push for better Psychiatric Diagnostics.

The failure of current Psychiatric Diagnostics is one of the root causes of our current Mental Health Crisis.

CO State Senator Rhonda Fields, Assistant Majority Leader

“It just seems like the task force is somewhat in this paralyzed, stagnated situation,” said state Sen. Rhonda Fields, an Aurora Democrat who serves on the bipartisan oversight group.

“It sounds like the task force is floundering based on political stuff. And we just don’t have time for that.”

The Failure of a 20-Year-Old Legislative Committee on Mental Illness in Criminal Justice is Just One of Many Desperately Inadequate Measures of the State

NAMI Montana: "It's Time To Improve the Mental Illness Diagnostic Process"

ASSERTIVE COMMUNITY TREATMENT VS BETTER DIAGNOSTICS

9/22/2019

We are in the same boat as clinicians and individuals with cognitive disabilities who are homeless or incarcerated. WE DON"T LIVE IN A PERFECT WORLD.
We have focused a lot of our energy on INTENSIVE MENTAL HEALTH TREATMENTS SUCH AS ASSERTIVE COMMUNITY TREATMENT, failing that adequate and humane PLACEMENTS.
We've also focused a lot on the need for RESEARCH.
RIGHT NOW there is RESEARCH that doesn't answer ALL THE QUESTIONS -- but it is starting to answer MORE.
Further, the focus on the need to test for various forms of ENCEPHALITIS needs to become STANDARD PRACTICE.
States are legally obligated under:

Medicaid Network Adequacy
Parity, and
Olmstead and the Americans with Disabilities Act

  to theoretically provide what's needed.

  States historically have wanted to do the right thing, and generally do something -- BUT the political pressures generally have prevented substantial compliance with FEDERAL LAW.
NOW we finally have a lot of FOCUS on BEHAVIORAL HEALTH -- BUT the REAL ACTION is in RESEARCH and it couldn't be more clear that many of our MENTAL HEALTH PARADIGMS just don't pan out.
    Further, there are practical tests with bio-makers and more being found all the time for various forms of encephalitis that can cause cognitive disability.
We need the FEDS & the STATES to COLLABORATE on Efforts to Bring RESEARCH to CLINICIANS who are already STRETCHED. So the FEDS & STATES are left with a VERY DIFFICULT BALANCING ACT.
  We're NOT there yet -- we still need Treatment, Placements, and Housing -- BUT the REAL HOPE is in RESEARCH.

"FACT" Teams Aim To Keep People With Mental Illness Out of Jail

Frontiers Of Psychiatry March 2019 Editorial

"IF MORE PEOPLE ACTUALLY GOT BETTER, THE DEMAND FOR SERVICE WOULD DECREASE"

9/20/2019

Our Mental Health Profession is NOT Competent -- and it's NOT their FAULT.

It is important to understand that the current Mental Health Profession cannot get us out of our current Mental Health Crisis.

This really is NOT about:

Stigma or
Awareness

It is about having a mental health profession that is 50 years behind physical medicine in understanding and innovation according to The Guardian. That is NOT the fault of clinicians.

Clinicians have not been well served by the propriety interests of the American Psychiatric Association in the DSM 5 -- roundly found lacking scientific validity by researchers @ the National Institute of Mental Health and by UK and Canadian researchers.

It is NOT fair to say that all of Mental Health's paradigms are wrong -- but HUGE CHUNKS of those paradigms are WRONG -- so ACCESSIBILITY NEEDS to TREATMENT keep growing because the "Treatment" isn't very good.

Failure to address the need to get Mental Health on a sounder scientific footing is one of the most financially irresponsible failures of federal and state mental health policy.

Matthew Brylo, President & Chair of Institute of Brain Technologies

The problem with mental healthcare isn't accessibility.

If more people actually got better, the demand for the service would decrease.

The idea that we need to raise awareness isn't the problem either!

Millions of people are very aware of the mental health crisis we are currently dealing with.

The problem is that our doctors are purely guessing our diagnosis and treatments.

That includes guessing if patients actually need meds and at which dosage.

The problem is that objective testing is missing from all facets of mental health.

Please check out braintechs.org to see what an organization is trying to do about this.

Autoimmune encephalitis and Distinct Autoimmune Thyroid diseases -- bridgeS between the Immune System & Mental Health

9/18/2019

Thyroid Disease is an Auto-Immune Disease seen frequently with mental illness. Now researchers are recommending that mental health differential diagnosis include looking for various forms of encephalitis often MILD ENCEPHALITIS.
Things are very, very muddy and it is unclear as to whether the encephalitis is a separate and distinct diagnosis from the "mental illness."
    BUT if one has Thyroid Disease & MILD ENCEPHALITIS, we are already into the realm of POLY-AUTO-IMMUNITY and possible general dysregulation of the Immune System.

    When I was @ The Legal Center, now Disability Law Colorado, one of my tasks was to meet with nursing home residents and advocate for Community Placement and Treatment.
One of the things I noticed was how many of these patients had some form of Thyroid Disease.

Hashimoto's Disease is an Auto-Immune Disease often responsible for cases of Hypo-Thyroidism. Further, Hashimoto's also affects the Adrenal Gland -- that could could affect one's affect, see article below.
  THE BOTTOM LINE: What I'm really trying to say is we are MISSING THE BOAT by not understanding the IMMUNE SYSTEM when it comes to "Mental illness."
Specifically we need Clinicians to adopt the recommendations contained in the March 2019 Frontiers In Psychiatry Editorial and really at least consider the possibility that "Mental Illness" is part of a larger dyregulation of the immune system, with mental symptoms appearing more severe than physical symptoms which may be quite mild.

European Journal of Endrincronology (2011)

CLUSTERING OF ADDITIONAL AUTOIMMUNITY BEHAVES DIFFERENTLY IN HASHIMOTO'S PATIENTS COMPARED WITH GRAVES' PATIENTS

Abstract

Objective: It is unclear whether Hashimoto’s thyroiditis and Graves’ disease (often referred to as autoimmune thyroid disease, AITD) cluster to the same extent with other autoimmune disorders.

Methods: We assessed adrenal, b-cell, celiac and gastric antibodies in a cohort of 523 adult patients with Graves’ disease and 359 patients with Hashimoto’s disease and compared their clustering.

Results: Adrenal autoimmunity associated more often with Hashimoto’s disease (9.0%) than with Graves’ disease (3.3%, PZ0.001). b-cell autoimmunity was seen more frequently in Hashimoto’s disease (25.4%) than in Graves’ disease (15.6%, PZ0.001) patients.

We found low prevalences of celiac autoimmunity (1.2% for Graves’ and 1.2% for Hashimoto’s disease). Celiac and gastric autoimmunity were not statistically different in Hashimoto’s and Graves’ disease patients.

Although gastric autoimmunity itself was equally prevalent (around 20%), Hashimoto’s disease often showed significantly more clustering of adrenal autoimmunity with gastric autoimmunity (5.3%) than Graves’ disease (1.2%, PZ0.001).

Similarly, clustering of adrenal autoimmunity was seen with b-cell autoimmunity in Hashimoto’s patients (3.2%), while such clustering was much less encountered in 359 Graves’ patients (0.9%, PZ0.029).

Conclusion: In conclusion, Hashimoto’s disease shows a markedly higher clustering of additional autoimmunity, especially with adrenal and b-cell autoimmunity.

Combined clustering of gastric and adrenal autoimmunity and combined clustering of adrenal and b-cell autoimmunity were both seen more often in Hashimoto’s patients.

Clustering with celiac disease appears to be low.

These findings indicate that Hashimoto’s and Graves’ disease differ in their clinical expression regarding additional autoimmunity, which argues against the indiscriminate use of AITD as an entity.

Dr. Sander Markx of Columbia University on "Autoimmune Encephalitis: The Bridge Between Neurology and Psychiatry"

Frontiers in Psychiatry March 2019 Editorial: Recommending Including Encephalitis in Differential Diagnosis for Mental Health Issues

F1000 Research (2017)

Recent Advances in Understanding Autoimmune Thyroid Disease: The Tallest Tree In the Forest of Polyautoimmunity

Abstract

Autoimmune thyroid disease (AITD) is often observed together with other autoimmune diseases.

The coexistence of two or more autoimmune diseases in the same patient is referred to as polyautoimmunity, and AITD is the autoimmune disease most frequently involved.

The occurrence of polyautoimmunity has led to the hypothesis that the affected patients suffer from a generalized dysregulation of their immune system.

The present review summarizes recent discoveries unraveling the immunological mechanisms involved in autoimmunity, ranging from natural autoimmunity to disease-specific autoimmunity.

Furthermore, the clinical grounds for considering AITD in a setting of polyautoimmunity are explored.

A better understanding of these may pave the way for designing new treatment modalities targeting the underlying immune dysregulation when AITD [Auto Immune Thyroid Disease] appears in the context of polyautoimmunity.

Mental Illness, Physical Illness, the Immune System & the Endocrine System

ACT & Federal court, CO & the Need to Update clinical Practice

9/17/2019

Mississippi -- 9-15-2019

TUPELO • Adrian Hester didn’t need a federal ruling to know the difference that robust community-based services can make to someone struggling with severe mental illness.

After multiple hospitalizations, the Lee County man spent most of the past year working with Lee County PACT program. In addition to therapy and medication management, the program wraps services around the individuals who have been hospitalized multiple times.

PACT – Program of Assertive Community Treatment – is one of the elements cited by U.S. Judge Carlton Reeves in his ruling that Mississippi had failed to deliver adequate mental health care, relying too heavily on state hospitals. The program is only available in 14 of 82 counties; the Lee County program is in Northeast Mississippi.

For Hester, that meant help understanding his condition, building up life skills and help restarting college. He has been able to return to school this fall and is maintaining an A average at Itawamba Community College.

“PACT helped me understand that I’m different, but not in a bad way,” Hester said. “It’s so good to know people understand you, care about you and want to see the best for you.”

In his ruling released in early September, Reeves found the system unlawfully discriminated against people with serious mental illness with the lack of community-based services contributing to a cycle of hospitalization.

Reeves will appoint a special master to oversee changes in the mental health system. Reeves acknowledged states across the country face challenges providing mental health care and that Mississippi faces unique challenges due to its rural nature and limited funding.

Clinical therapist Kim Sistrunk, who serves as supervisor for the Lee County PACT program, said the program fills a critical gap in mental health care between community providers and inpatient mental health care.

Sistrunk and an individual from the Lee County PACT program testified in U.S. District Court earlier this summer as part of the case.

PACT is tailored to individual needs and taps into community resources to connect individuals with housing, transportation, health care and education, Sistrunk said. It addresses job and social skills as well as managing an individual’s mental health needs.

“It’s a full life circle,” Sistrunk said.

Margaret Anne Murphey, who has cared for a family member with significant mental illness for decades, said the ruling is long overdue and sees families struggling to care for those with significant mental illness.

“There is so little help available for people with mental illness,” over the course of a person’s life, said Murphey, who lives in Tupelo.

During the course of her family member’s illness, Murphey has seen hospital stays shrink and health privacy laws hamstring families’ ability to manage the care for their loved ones. Murphey, who will turn 94 soon, is struggling to craft solutions that will help her family member stay independent but protected after she’s gone.

“More needs to be done,” Murphey said.

Prentiss County Sheriff Randy Tolar welcomes more robust community resources to help individuals with mental health issues and their families, but is very concerned that shifting resources could lead to fewer beds in regional state hospitals and crisis centers.

“If there’s no space for people in crisis, they end up in the jail,” Tolar said. “These people should not be put in jail.”

A Big Part of the Job of Colorado's Behavioral Health Task Force should be bringing intensive evidenced-based treatments such as Assertive Community Treatment to SCALE

Assertive Community Treatment & Flexible ACT Index

If we integrate Neurology, Immunology & Research on the Microbiome into our Mental Health Programs-- we could probably bring that SCALE for ACT down along with the SCALE for other high intensity treatments.

Colorado & Other States need clinicians to adopt the recommendations in the March 2019 Editorial in the Frontiers of Psychiatry.

Frontiers in Psychiatry Editorial Re: The Need To Update Clinical Practice In Relation to Autoimmune Encephalitis, Encephalapathy, & Mild Encephalitis as they relate to Mental Illness

VAL'S JOURNEY: INVESTIGATING AUTO-IMMUNE ENCEPHALITIS

9/15/2019

Last week I went to the UC Heath Neurology Department to start the process of investigating whether I have some form of auto-immune encephalitus.
   A NOTE: Most of the research is associating MILD Forms (NOT necessarily Severe Forms)  of auto-immune encephalitus with mental illness even when that may look like schizophrenia.
According to one of the Neurologists @ UC Health, there are now 22 bio-markers for auto-immune encephalitus and they are finding more all the time.
  This has been a HELL OF A JOURNEY --- and basically I'm really trying to figure out how the facts I have can all be true at the same time.
So the initial exam last week found that I did have some "hyper-reflexiveness" and the doctor ordered some labs and I have an MRI Monday night. I don't have another appointment for 2 months.
So I have seen this stuff on auto-immune encephalitis for awhile and thought I needed to check it out.
   THEN I saw: how weird finger movements, looking like playing the piono "weirdly," were associated with auto-immune encephalitus -- I have done that since I was child BUT I have spent over 50 years trying to mask it.
I had previously asked if it was some form of Tourette's but the experts didn't really think so, and it was classified as a Non-Specific Movement Disorder.
Then I saw a paper on the SENG [Supporting the Emotional Needs of the Gifted] website saying that people with psycho-motor over-excitability in their hands were sometimes exceptionally gifted. Well of course, I thought to myself.
    Unfortunately, "giftedness" is NOT what we think it is and some people with High IQ have a lot of physiological and psychiatric problems that seem to be related to the immune system. Further, I don't think these issues are just limited to High IQ -- I think they relate to most forms of "giftedness."
   Further, our overall population "intelligence" is rising just as auto-immune diseases are sky-rocketing and our mental health crisis is raging --and a lot of those people with auto-immune diseases and mental illnesses are often very, very bright.
  "Classic" Intelligence is really about SENSITIVITY to the Environment and that implicates the IMMUNE SYSTEM. Under the Old Friends Hypothesis, because modern people have fewer parasites and have inadvertently destroyed diversity of the human microbiome, that is leading to over-sensitivity of the Immune System and an increase in auto-immune disease and mental illness.
Is that INCREASED SENSITIVITY TO THE ENVIRONMENT also leading to an increase of traditional intelligence and "giftedness."
There are REASONS for the recent celebration of "Social Intelligence" -- but it is a lot more complicated than the Toxic People and the Emotionally Intelligent People.
    Just Sayin' . . .

Lancet Psychiatry (April 2016)

A Clinical Approach to Diagnosis of Autoimmune Encephalitis

Blurred Lines: Developmental Disabilities, Mental Illness & Some Thoughts About Giftedness

Old Friends Hypothesis

Research Timeline: Autoimmune Encephalitis

Frontiers in Psychiatry March 2019 Editorial: Recent Advances in Psychiatry from Psycho-Neuro-Immunology Research: Autoimmune Encephalitis, Encephalopathy, & Mild Encephalitis

Pediatric NMDAR encephalitis: A single center observation study with a closer look at movement disorders (2018)

Click Here

HUMAN PROBLEMS: RATIONALLY ADDRESSING VIOLENCE IN HUMAN SOCIETIES

9/12/2019

  Angèle in her song "La Thune" is really highlighting the absurdity of many of our human problems such as Gun Violence. If the Science is as FUZZY & BLURRY as it is now, we really can't wait to address restricting technological means of MASS MURDER.
Nobody has a right to a Ballistic Missile -- Nobody should have a right to an Assault Rifle.
But many people are NOT wrong to want to get to BIOLOGICAL ISSUES surrounding violence BUT the conversation is both FAR TOO BROAD and FAR TOO NARROW.
First, the NARROWNESS --- we need to recognize reality --- Violence is a HUMAN PROBLEM. We could just Kill Everybody that Kills Somebody Else -- It Will Deter That Person.
That was the argument of sophisticated Death Penalty prosecutors in Oklahoma who were perfectly capable of addressing the argument that the Death Penalty doesn't deter crime.
    Further, if we respond to AGGRESSION with AGGRESSION -- that likely increases the "Aggression Cells" in our own bodies. So do we win the Battle and Lose the War?
Secondly, the BROADNESS -- I've taken mental health advocates and professionals to task as being MENTAL ILLNESS DENIERS IN THE NAME OF STIGMA PREVENTION.
  But the TRUTH is "Mental Illness" is TOO BROAD a category to hone in on the BIOLOGICAL FOUNDATIONS of Violence. Men and especially young men may be more likely to commit violence -- BUT most men and young men are NOT violent -- and some of them are just as upset as some mental health advocates at being roundly portrayed as violent criminals.
It does seem that Cognitive Disabilities affecting Executive Functioning are an important KEY.
Further, most human beings at one time or another have had some impairment to their Executive Functioning. We really have to understand the SEVERITY of the IMPAIRMENT and get to the BIOLOGICAL MARKERS that evidence high risk for violence both to prevent victims and offer treatment and care to the individual.

What Is Empathy?

Aggression: Humanity's Ultimate Double-Edged Sword

REMEMBRANCE OF THE VICTIMS OF 9/11

9/12/2019

We are very reluctant to recognize that people have biological REASONS for their good, middling, bad or horrific behavior.
   If it is good behavior -- "Hey, I'm special, I worked hard for this or I'm just special -- I didn't have to work hard -- I was just born smart, talented, whatever BUT in any case I'm entitled to some REWARD."
  If we're in the Middle -- "Hey, we're holding these outliers together -- if it weren't for us this whole thing we would fly apart -- we're the most valuable piece of this puzzle -- we're entitled to a REWARD."
    If it's BAD Behavior --- we have traditionally looked at trying to avoid Punishment or if one was a Medieval person -- you might flog yourself. The other people are trying to punish you and protect themselves.

   Well, along the way people have developed "religious" and "spiritual" practices that actually could help them change their BIOLOGY and their BEHAVIOR such as prayer, meditation, good works.
It doesn't work for everybody -- but it works for some people.

Further, "ENVIRONMENT" IMPACTS BIOLOGY --- far from being IRRELEVANT to BAD BEHAVIOR things like POVERTY, INEQUALITY, PERCEIVED AND/OR LARGELY OBJECTIVE INJUSTICE and DISCRIMINATION do IMPACT our BIOLOGY.

    That can be very hard for established social orders to acknowledge -- much less substantively address in a timely manner.

A lot of the problems we face in the WORLD are NOT problems of religion or nationality as much as problems of the COMPLICATED INTERACTION OF HUMAN BIOLOGY & ENVIRONMENT and very primal determinations of IN GROUPS & OUT GROUPS that we make "pre-consciously" in a matter of seconds.

What Is Empathy?

What we love about this video is that Tedx presenter Adam Irshaid makes the CRUCIAL point that "mental illness" is NOT BINARY. It is much more complicated than you have it or you don't.

We would go further -- biological problems in COGNITION & BEHAVIOR -- are not limited to traditional notions of "mental illness" and do include brain injury, developmental disabilities, substance use problems and individual and unique combinations of those issues and others.

This requires HIGHLY INDIVIDUALIZED & ADVANCED MEDICINE.

Why We Form Groups

<<Previous

Val's Blog

IS NEURO-DIVERSITY A "GOOD THING" OR A "BAD THING" ???? THE FIRST STEP IS RECOGNIZING IT'S A "THING"

OUR "ROCKY MOUNTAIN" BREAKDOWN

MOVING FORWARD: WE DON'T HAVE TIME TO PLAY A LOT OF GAMES

REFERRING CO STATE GOV'T VIOLATIONS OF FEDERAL LAW FOR INVESTIGATION

WORKING WITH NATIONAL GROUPS TO IMPROVE PSYCHIATRIC DIAGNOSTICS

ASSERTIVE COMMUNITY TREATMENT VS BETTER DIAGNOSTICS

"IF MORE PEOPLE ACTUALLY GOT BETTER, THE DEMAND FOR SERVICE WOULD DECREASE"

Autoimmune encephalitis and Distinct Autoimmune Thyroid diseases -- bridgeS between the Immune System & Mental Health

ACT & Federal court, CO & the Need to Update clinical Practice

VAL'S JOURNEY: INVESTIGATING AUTO-IMMUNE ENCEPHALITIS

HUMAN PROBLEMS: RATIONALLY ADDRESSING VIOLENCE IN HUMAN SOCIETIES

REMEMBRANCE OF THE VICTIMS OF 9/11

Author

Archives

Categories

Val's Blog

REFERRING CO STATE GOV'T VIOLATIONS OF FEDERAL LAW FOR INVESTIGATION WORKING WITH NATIONAL GROUPS TO IMPROVE PSYCHIATRIC DIAGNOSTICS ​

Author

Archives

Categories

REFERRING CO STATE GOV'T VIOLATIONS OF FEDERAL LAW FOR INVESTIGATION

WORKING WITH NATIONAL GROUPS TO IMPROVE PSYCHIATRIC DIAGNOSTICS