The CEO of the PAS, Katrina Burchell, has explored in A History of Pernicious Anaemia the socioeconomic changes that occurred from the 19th Century which shaped the geopolitical arena. This impacted on science, medicine and technology. Please also note that in this era, The Lunacy Act (1845) was introduced and often women were institutionalised due to ‘hysteria’.
One of the most notable deaths that has occurred most probably as a consequence of Pernicious Anaemia was Mary Todd Lincoln. However, symptoms of Pernicious Anaemia/B12D can mimick ‘schizophrenia’ or ‘bipolar’ formerly known as ‘manic depression.’
This group of patients are not tested for vitamin B12 deficiency/Pernicious Anaemia, folate or ferritin deficiency. They are prescribed antipsychotics and neuroleptics. In the U.K., they can become institutionalised under the Mental Health Act (1983).
I reflected on Vincent Van Gogh. He did not eat properly and suffered with delusions and psychosis. His poor nutritional status impacted upon his state of mind. Some of you know that I love music, the song Vincent by Don MacClean I believe is apt:-
‘Now I understand
What you tried to say to me
How you suffered for your sanity
How you tried to set them free
They would not listen, they did not know how
Perhaps they'll listen now.’
Apparently, Vincent’s last words to his brother were, ‘The sadness will last forever.’
My thoughts today are with those who have suffered unnecessarily in an archaic psychiatric system and those who have lost loved ones as a direct result.
Written by
Narwhal10
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I knew lupus and the steroids prescribed can create psychotic symptoms but great to have new names who are at the forefront of this. Prof Belinda Lennox, the head of psychiatry at the University of Oxford is now added to my collection.
There’s a large neuropsychiatric research centre in my city. I tap in to their lectures. I must admit some of the words, I then have to find out what they mean. Everyday is a school day.
Another condition that shows up to the party with neuro / psychiatric symptoms - that should not be treated as a mental health / SEN / psychiatric only problem - is PANS / PANDAs.
Slowly, slowly doctors are waking up to this condition - how it presents, how it can be (wrongly) otherwise diagnosed and what the dangers of not picking it up can be.
Yes, my friend's little one affected by it. Family member was a paediatrician registrar now a neonates consultant. These are very serious illnesses indeed.
I hope his / her little one gets good help for it.
I have been refused NHS help for my child’s repeated symptoms caused by it on several occasions.
The only targeted and informed help we can access is via the private system. Of course all the doctors in the private system use to work for / still work for the NHS. So it’s doubly ludicrous that the NHS won’t help.
Schools also don’t know anything about it - which means all flares are treated as disciplinary offences. And any absences aren’t properly understood.
All of this heavy gas lighting takes its toll on the parents witnessing their child ill and who are patronised even where their child has, for example, hallucinations or seizures, by being told these are one-off occurrences without any pattern between them. Never mind that the child has suffered from symptoms in this pattern for 6 years already.
I am dreadfully sorry to hear of what your child, you as a family unit are experiencing and the lack of support you are getting. Not only from the medical profession but in school.
So, looking at the Social Model of Disability, your child and you are experiencing barriers because of the attitudes of organisations. The Equality Act (2010) comes into play for reasonable adjustments. If you have not already then it is worth contacting Scope.
For anyone interested in medical-journal articles supporting Narwhal10's comments about B12 deficiency and psychiatric symptoms, this link leads to a Google Scholar search with search terms "B12 psychiatric":
Oh sad, started a long reply and it disappeared. I trained in Rainhill , people sometimes spent until they died in there. An elderly lady who had been dumped by relatives , she appeared very demented and really agitated, so they may have been encouraged to leave her, who knows. I remember feeling really upset, anxious trying to help her. One day she kept being clingy, grabbing at me I nearly shouted at her but I stopped and thought what if that was my Mum, or me. On the way to get her meds we sat down and I put my arms round her and just kept saying it's ok your safe and she calmed down and sunk into me. A young Doctor who had been called , oh so has she had mer meds (antipsychotics and tranquilisers) I said no. He kneeled down in front of us and asked her if he could help, she cried. He took bloods, we got a urine sample, reduced meds just leaving some to help her anxiety and sleep. Turns out she was very Hypo, apparently been so for some time, no treatment. Then we found out she had several deficiencies and she was started on anti biotics for urine infection. The young Doctor was lovely but felt we could do more, his consultant was old school but a goodun. I vaguely remember a raft of injections, kitchen being told she needed liver and spinach and of course started on Levo. She was much calmer a bit more communicative. I was in classroom for a few weeks and then went and saw her, it was a different woman. She threw her arms round me, said I remember you, you heard me, you saw me. I was shocked. A member of staff I wasn't too keen on tried to stop her, I held on and said we are Ok.
She was struggling to get it all out, to be heard, and no one would listen, she'd been wrote off. I listened for an hour or two, she explained everything was put down to her age, being a woman, being hysterical, not knowing her place.
Last time I saw her she was a different woman, being discharged home vibrant and a real badass.
You are an angel, she was desperate to be heard and you listened. She was physically sick. She needed medical treatment and knew that she was in the wrong place. Her family did not believe her and wanted nothing more to do with her. You saved her, you got doctors to listen, to treat her and you cared.
She had hypothyroidism, deficiencies and an infection. That woman had proper treatment because of you. She did not have a ‘mental disorder’.
How many other people are not listened to and do not have a voice ? The other member of staff you were not keen on, what would she have done with the patient ? Would the doctors have listened ? People die in nursing/care homes, psychiatric wards and prisons but under the European Court of Human Rights which is an international court, ‘The failure to provide adequate healthcare can amount to a violation of Article 3.’
Psychiatry somehow thinks that this does not apply to them. They are very wrong.
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