So here are some highlights of Mental Health in the Media this month:

• Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) Center for Women’s Mental Health is a Center for Perinatal and Reproductive Psychiatry and has an excellent blog on this topic. This month’s posting “Children of Depressed Mothers Exposed to Multiple Risk Factors for Psychopathology” captures not only some important findings regarding Children of Depressed Mothers and their risk factors for later-life psychopathology, but also speaks to the dramatic increase in research in (Reproductive) Psychiatry. http://www.womensmentalhealth.org/posts/cwmh-briefs-a-sampling-of-what%E2%80%99s-new/ ²
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• Charlie Rose, of the Charlie Rose Show, continues the ‘Brain Watch Series’ interview s the authors of The Emotional Life of the Brain by Richard J. Davidson and Sharon Begley who examine 6 proposed emotional styles and traits and what these may explain about one’s susceptibility to mental illness. They also discuss how knowledge of these styles can improve one’s outlook and life. You can watch the interview in its entirety at: http://www.charlierose.com/view/interview/12227 ³

• Christopher Lane, the author of several books including Shyness: How Normal Behavior Became a Sickness and author of Psychology Today’s “Side Effects” Blog, is interviewed in the March issue of Sun Magazine. The interview is entitled Side Effects May Include. Christopher Lane On What’s Wrong with Modern Psychiatry. This interview is an in-depth conversation on the origins and evolution of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Health Disorders (DSM) and the state of affairs of psychiatry today. You can read an excerpt of this article at: http://www.thesunmagazine.org/issues/435/side_effects_may_include ⁴   

• eyes & ears is a Mental Health Survivor/Consumer Newsletter supported by Cascadia Behavioral Healthcare and the Mental Health Association of Portland. Each month there are news and highlights about mental health resources and events locally and beyond. The March issue can be found at: http://www.mentalhealthportland.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/ee1203March2012online.pdf ⁵

 There are so many more resources out there… more to come in time…

If there are resources that you have found particularly interesting or helpful that you would like me to share with others, please email me and I will review them for my Resources page and future educational materials. Thanks for reading!

If you would like to be notified of future blog posts by email and would like to receive our e-newsletter, sign-up here.

References:

¹Whitaker, R. (2010). The Anatomy of an Epidemic. Magic Bullets, Psychiatric Drugs, and the Astonishing Rise of Mental Illness in America. New York, NY: Crown Publishers.

² Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) Center for Women’s Mental Health. (2012, Mar.).  CWMH Briefs: A Sampling of What’s New. Retrieved from http://www.womensmentalhealth.org/posts/cwmh-briefs-a-sampling-of-what%E2%80%99s-new/

³ Rose, Charlie. (2012, Mar. 12).The Emotional Life of Your Brain. [Interview of  Richard J. Davidson, Ph.D. and Sharon Begley on the Charlie Rose Show]. Retrieved from http://www.charlierose.com/view/interview/12227

⁴ Cooper, A. (2012, Mar.). Side Effects May Include. Christopher Lane On What’s Wrong with Modern Psychiatry. The Sun. Retrieved from http://www.thesunmagazine.org/issues/435/side_effects_may_include

⁵ Green, D. & Haataja, D. (2012, Mar.).  eyes & ears. A Mental Health Survivor/Consumer Newsletter Retrieved from http://www.mentalhealthportland.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/ee1203March2012online.pdf ⁵

“I can easily imagine giving a patient a good (homeopathic) remedy for eczema and placing them on a deserted island fully expecting them to get better. But I do not imagine this to be true of the patient who is suffering from depression or from a compulsive disorder. These patients need to be in relationship, they need the relational field to heal.” ¹

In my practice, I place great value on the relationship that I have and foster with my patients, for without a connected, trusting and caring relationship, healing does not occur, no matter how powerful the medicine. I have observed homeopathy to heal through relationship. I see remedies as restoring one’s relationship to oneself and to the external world on multiple levels.  In so doing, it changes one’s relationship to one’s ailment. Time and again I have seen someone debilitated by a condition, let’s use a case of eczema as an example. The individual is prescribed a single homeopathic remedy and  when they return for a follow-up soon after taking the remedy and are asked how their skin is, though it does not yet look any different, they report that it no longer bothers them?! And then I know that a more complete shift and resolution of their symptoms will soon follow as their relationship to their symptoms has changed and the healing process has begun.

This brings us to a brief examination of illness. Arguably there are pathogenic organisms that afflict us, but many would contend that it is the terrain versus the germ that determines what and if we are affected by an organism or condition.

Florence Nightingale “There are no specific diseases; there are specific disease conditions.” 

William Osler “It is much more important to know what sort of a patient has a disease than what sort of a disease a patient has.”

I tend to agree with this viewpoint in most cases and link this back to relationship. It is the harmonious relationship between our bodily systems, our mind and our environment that determines health from a naturopathic perspective. When these systems are in right relationship, health is to be had. When these systems are imbalanced, symptoms appear, and ultimately more severe conditions manifest if the imbalances are not addressed.

So what does the modern medical literature have to contribute to this discussion? Evidence comes from studies on the efficacy of psychotherapy and from studies on the placebo effect. Compelling evidence on the efficacy of psychotherapy can be found in a 2010 article by Jonathan Schedler, entitled “The Efficacy of Psychodynamic Psychotherapy”, in which an in-depth review of the literature in the field is presented. Schedler speaks to the importance of the psychotherapeutic relationship:

“The relationship between therapist and patient is itself an important interpersonal relationship, one that can become deeply meaningful and emotionally charged….The recurrence of interpersonal themes in the therapy relationship (in theoretical terms, transference and countertransference) provides a unique opportunity to explore and rework them in vivo. The goal is greater flexibility in interpersonal relationships and an enhanced capacity to meet interpersonal needs.”²

The placebo effect has been widely studied and can be summarized very simply as the effects of treatment that cannot be attributed to the medicine itself. The placebo effect can thus be considered the effect that results from the doctor-patient relationship and the patient’s expectation/hope/belief that the treatment will be helpful.  A recent 60 minutes episode interviewing psychologist Irving Kirsch, the associate director of the Placebo Studies Program at Harvard Medical School, says that his research challenges the effectiveness of antidepressants (especially for mild-moderate depression). You can view his interview at: http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=7399362n ³ .

Finally to extend this discussion a little farther, the relationship of medicine needs to heal. Our current state of affairs is a fragmented system which often leaves practitioners and patients unsatisfied and unwell. I feel that greater collaboration and integration could bring some healing into the medical sphere. This spring I hope to present a case which illustrates the healing potential of integrative care. This was a case in which I collaborated with a psychiatric colleague in treating a case of alcoholism, obsessive-compulsive disorder and depression using a combination of homeopathy, nutrition, herbal medicine, psychotherapy and antidepressants with good long-term results. More to follow…

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References:

¹ Heron, K. (2012). Expectations. Simillimum. Journal of the homeopathic academy of naturopathic physicians, 2011/2012(XXIV), 43-45.

² Schedler, J. (2011). The Efficacy of Psychodynamic Psychotherapy. E-Journal of American Psychologist, 65(2), 98-109. Retrieved from http://www.apa.org/pubs/journals/releases/amp-65-2-98.pdf

³ Stahl, Leslie. (2012, Feb 19.) .Treating Depression: Is there a Placebo Effect. [Interview of Irving Kirsch, PhD. on 60 minutes]. Retrieved from http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=7399362n