Alcohol, vitamin/mineral imbalances, and Delusional Disorder

I have noticed that my girlfriend's DD-like symptoms are much worse when she drinks heavily. When I think back and remember all of her temper tantrums and rages, the majority of instances happened after she had been drinking. Also, many of her sudden baseless accusations occurred while she was inebriated, and she seems to have been the most distrustful during those periods. She still believes in certain delusions when she is sober, but I have definitely noticed that overall, she is calmer and the symptoms are better when she is sober. Has anybody else experienced a significant effect/correlation between severity of DD symptoms and alcohol consumption?

My research has led me to discover that alcoholism and heavy drinking is known to cause psychosis and paranoia in certain individuals. There are, in fact, some known conditions called "Alcohol Psychosis" and "Alcohol Paranoia".

My girlfriend does have a history of alcoholism, but I have managed to help her cut down on it. I would still consider her a borderline alcoholic, as she still will frequently self-medicate with alcohol to deal with emotional/psychological pain, depression, and social discomfort.

Since mental health/illness is so much related to brain bio-chemistry, and chemical balances/imbalances, I wonder why there is not more focus on nutrition and basic deficiencies/imbalances regarding its effects on mental health. I have recently discovered Dr. Abraham Hoffer's amazing work on orthomolecular medicine, and how he has successfully treated alcoholism, depression, schizophrenia, and psychotic type mental disorders with Vitamin B3 (Niacin) therapy (along with other vitamins and minerals).

What I find fascinating is that even people who are not alcoholics have been successfully treated with vitamin/nutrition therapy for their psychotic mental disorders. Could this be another pathway, or at least an additional pathway for preventing/curing the disease of DD?

Has anybody else pursued this line of inquiry? I would think that a DD person who is totally resistant and mistrustful of the standard psych profession and unwilling to consider going to a psych doctor would be much more open to vitamin/nutrition therapy, under the guise of an overall physical/mental health benefit as a first step.Then, if they can be softened up a little bit with a potential improvement in the person's symptoms, that might be enough to make them more open to the next step? Anyway, just some brainstorming.

What do others think?

In my girlfriend's case, it could be a perfect "set-up". The fact that the same exact vitamin therapy that is known to help reduce psychotic symptoms is also used for alcoholism - to restore the chemical balance from excess alcohol and reduce the craving for alcohol. So, I could honestly tell my girlfriend that it is for the latter, while knowing that it can possibly treat the former without having to get agreement from her, which would be impossible as she does not believe she has any mental disorders. I will definitely give this a try and see what happens.

keenan wrote:... I have recently discovered Dr. Abraham Hoffer's amazing work on orthomolecular medicine, and how he has successfully treated alcoholism, depression, schizophrenia, and psychotic type mental disorders with Vitamin B3 (Niacin) therapy (along with other vitamins and minerals)....

What I find fascinating is that even people who are not alcoholics have been successfully treated with vitamin/nutrition therapy for their psychotic mental disorders. Could this be another pathway, or at least an additional pathway for preventing/curing the disease of DD?...



What do others think?

....

I've never heard of this guy or orthomolecular medicine until just now but prevailing medical and psychiatric opinion seems to be that his theories aren't valid and his studies weren't rigorous enough to prove efficacy.

(I've actually taken college courses on clinical trial design, setting up a good trial to prove or disprove the efficacy of some medicine or other treatment can be very tricky. I wouldn't pin my hopes on this if I were you.)

peytonmanning18 wrote:I've never heard of this guy or orthomolecular medicine until just now but prevailing medical and psychiatric opinion seems to be that his theories aren't valid and his studies weren't rigorous enough to prove efficacy.

(I've actually taken college courses on clinical trial design, setting up a good trial to prove or disprove the efficacy of some medicine or other treatment can be very tricky. I wouldn't pin my hopes on this if I were you.)

I agree that the studies have to be rigorous and that we should be skeptical of claims and unconventional therapies until they are proven or have a track record. Prevailing medical and psychiatric opinion should carry a lot of weight, I agree, but at the same time I have seen too many instances in which prevailing conventional medical/psychiatric opinion was biased and closed minded and resistant to change and ended up being on the wrong side of history. Sometimes it was because they didn't want to admit they were wrong for so long and refused to being upstaged. Other times they were stuck in a narrow minded tunnel vision in their thinking. Examples I can think of are the way chiropractors used to be labeled "quacks" by conventional medicine, and there was even a time when it was illegal to practice chiropractic medicine. There are many examples of various kinds of alternative medicine and indigenous cures that worked but were completely dismissed by mainstream medicine/psychiatry. Even today, here in California, the conventional medical industry has managed to pass a law making it illegal to treat cancer with anything other than dangerous chemo-therapy and radiation, despite that fact that those remedies have a dubious success record at best, while many people have been cured using alternative non-toxic methods, one example being the the Gerson Therapy. The Gerson Therapy utilizes organic foods, juicing, meditation/relaxation, detoxification and natural supplements to activate the body’s ability to heal itself. Over the past 60 years, thousands of people have used the Gerson Therapy to recover from so-called “incurable” diseases such as cancer, diabetes, heart disease and arthritis. Of course, they have to go outside of California and certain states to get access to it. Check out a documentary called "Dying to Have Known (2006)" http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid ... 0536485998. It turns out that getting sick and dying of cancer is mainly the result of the failure of body's natural immune system, which is the best defense against cancer. A healthy and fully functional immune system can normally fight off cancer cells, as most healthy people are fighting off cancer cells all the time and don't come down with cancer until their immune system is compromised. Chemotherapy and Radiation severely damage people's immune system, so that it is a matter of luck if the cancer is killed before the effects of chemotherapy and radiation do the patient in. In some ways, "modern" Western medicine seems to be stuck in the middle ages.

As far as Hoffer's Orthomolecular approach goes, there ARE double blind sutides proving its efficacy. For example, check out:
Orthomolecular Treatment of Schizophrenia A Hoffer M D Ph D http://www.docstoc.com/docs/2976026/Ort ... r-M-D-Ph-D. It discusses several double-blind studies, including the double-blind Study of Eighty-two Schizophrenic Patients that clearly showed a high success rate of improvement with the use of mega doses of nicotinic acid (B3).

Since we "are what we eat", why wouldn't it be logical to expect that diet and nutrition wouldn't have at least some effect on mental health, which is so much dependent on the right bio-chemical balance? Even if vitamin/nutritian therapy can't cure DD, it's at least worth a try to see if it can at least improve the symptoms, I would think.

keenan wrote:

peytonmanning18 wrote:I've never heard of this guy or orthomolecular medicine until just now but prevailing medical and psychiatric opinion seems to be that his theories aren't valid and his studies weren't rigorous enough to prove efficacy.

(I've actually taken college courses on clinical trial design, setting up a good trial to prove or disprove the efficacy of some medicine or other treatment can be very tricky. I wouldn't pin my hopes on this if I were you.)

I agree that the studies have to be rigorous and that we should be skeptical of claims and unconventional therapies until they are proven or have a track record. Prevailing medical and psychiatric opinion should carry a lot of weight, I agree, but at the same time I have seen too many instances in which prevailing conventional medical/psychiatric opinion was biased and closed minded and resistant to change and ended up being on the wrong side of history. Sometimes it was because they didn't want to admit they were wrong for so long and refused to being upstaged. Other times they were stuck in a narrow minded tunnel vision in their thinking. Examples I can think of are the way chiropractors used to be labeled "quacks" by conventional medicine, and there was even a time when it was illegal to practice chiropractic medicine. There are many examples of various kinds of alternative medicine and indigenous cures that worked but were completely dismissed by mainstream medicine/psychiatry. Even today, here in California, the conventional medical industry has managed to pass a law making it illegal to treat cancer with anything other than dangerous chemo-therapy and radiation, despite that fact that those remedies have a dubious success record at best, while many people have been cured using alternative non-toxic methods, one example being the the Gerson Therapy. The Gerson Therapy utilizes organic foods, juicing, meditation/relaxation, detoxification and natural supplements to activate the body’s ability to heal itself. Over the past 60 years, thousands of people have used the Gerson Therapy to recover from so-called “incurable” diseases such as cancer, diabetes, heart disease and arthritis. Of course, they have to go outside of California and certain states to get access to it. Check out a documentary called "Dying to Have Known (2006)" http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid ... 0536485998. It turns out that getting sick and dying of cancer is mainly the result of the failure of body's natural immune system, which is the best defense against cancer. A healthy and fully functional immune system can normally fight off cancer cells, as most healthy people are fighting off cancer cells all the time and don't come down with cancer until their immune system is compromised. Chemotherapy and Radiation severely damage people's immune system, so that it is a matter of luck if the cancer is killed before the effects of chemotherapy and radiation do the patient in. In some ways, "modern" Western medicine seems to be stuck in the middle ages.

As far as Hoffer's Orthomolecular approach goes, there ARE double blind sutides proving its efficacy. For example, check out:
Orthomolecular Treatment of Schizophrenia A Hoffer M D Ph D http://www.docstoc.com/docs/2976026/Ort ... r-M-D-Ph-D. It discusses several double-blind studies, including the double-blind Study of Eighty-two Schizophrenic Patients that clearly showed a high success rate of improvement with the use of mega doses of nicotinic acid (B3).

Since we "are what we eat", why wouldn't it be logical to expect that diet and nutrition wouldn't have at least some effect on mental health, which is so much dependent on the right bio-chemical balance? Even if vitamin/nutritian therapy can't cure DD, it's at least worth a try to see if it can at least improve the symptoms, I would think.

Well, it seems like you've already made up your mind. Suffice it to say I am unimpressed with the evidence presented and you and I have very different ideas about conventional vs. unconventional medicine.

I've already given my opinion in another thread about your relationship with this person but you seem resolved to try to "fix" her, and are pinning your hopes on alternative medicine to do it. I wish you sincere good luck with that.

Personally, I find the theory quite interesting. Despite the fact that there may not be enough scientific evidence to support the efficacy of this treatment, the fact is - to my knowledge - there is NO ONE else that can report a better solution, nor can anyone else out there truly report that anything ELSE they've tried has put a dent in this illness. NOT ONE. Therefore, I think any attempt is a good attempt. And frankly, when it comes to naturopathic remedies, there really is no hard and fast evidence of the outcome of any sort of treatment but one thing is for sure: we are organisms and our sheer existence is completely contingent upon our metabolic (for lack of a better word) composition. Psychotheraputic drugs certainly don't help.

Furthermore, I am not fully aware of your attempt to salvage your GF or your relationship, but I truly commend any attempt that is made to try to help a person escape from the hell that is DD. It is not just the ill person that suffers, their loved ones suffer tremendously also. Many give up (much like I have pretty much done) because it just becomes entirely too difficult. I for one, am hoping that your attempt at helping your GF works. Good Luck!