Mental Health issues can be caused by physical illness

[marigold22]

There is a lot of new research being done and some results are being publicised. It is looking like many mental health issues are being caused by problems in the gut and undiagnosed autoimmune disease. I know schizophrenia is a serious illness, but other issues with mental health are being proven to be physical illnesses.

Exclusive: as evidence emerges that schizophrenia could be an immune system disease, two-year trial will use antibody drug currently used for MS

British scientists have begun testing a radically new approach to treating schizophrenia based on emerging evidence that it could be a disease of the immune system.

theguardian.com/society/201...

[Gambit62]

sorry but I have to say this is far from being new news that depression can be caused by physical illness

The psychological effects of B12 deficiency have been known about for decades but unfortunately GPs don't understand that the common name for the most common cause - an autoimmune gastritis - pernicious anaemia is an historical accident, they are often completely unaware that anaemia is a symptom of the condition and not a cause (it was given the name at least a century before vitamin B12 was discovered and despite the identification of the neuropsychiatric effects decades ago most GPs are totally unaware that it can cause a number of psychiatric problems, or that these can precede any sign of macrocytic anaemia in blood work.

One thing that does seem to be new is the identification of a specific antibody that seems to be involved directly in damage to the brain and implicated in a number of psychiatric disorders as a result and I think that is what the study mentioned is about.

[marigold22 in reply to Gambit62]

Thank you. This is a forum called Mental Health Support. Presumably the vast majority of people on this forum do not know what you know. If my post helps just one person to recover from debilitating depression and anxiety, then it's worth it. I have written a few posts on this section of HU in an attempt to alert sufferers to the vital knowledge that is out there. I too know that lack of vitamin B12 causes mental health problems as I am also on the Thyroid section of HU.

When I myself was incarcerated within a psychiatric unit, no blood was taken to test for any physical illness. Why then are GPs and all doctors not doing blood tests on patients with mental health problems?

[Gambit62 in reply to marigold22]

Marigold22 - wasn't a dig at you - more frustration that things that GPs and even a lot of practising psychiatrists should be very aware of aren't even considered and ruled out ... and the way things get reported as if the possibility that mental health disorders may arise from physical disorders - particularly auto-immune disorders is something completely new just adds to the frustration :).

It was quite saddening and maddening to see the 'trust me, I'm a doctor' special on mental illness treat the connection as something new and fail to touch on a huge number of physical conditions that can lead to depression.

[marigold22]

Thanks Gambit62. It's only fairly recently that I have discovered that physical illness is responsible for mental health issues. It slowly dawned on me that my hypothyroid condition was still not properly medicated despite knowing that I had that thyroid illness. For 30+ years my life was trashed because no GP, consultant, even Professor of Endocrinology prescribed enough of the correct thyroid medication to make me well. I had an uncle who was diagnosed with schizophrenia aged 20, and he lived an awful life up til he died aged 83. It's only recently I've realised that he most likely had an autoimmune illness. It's taken me decades to piece this massive jigsaw puzzle together. It also makes me so so angry that doctors are failing millions of people.