Nutrient Therapy and Mental Illness

http://www.alternativementalhealth.com/articles/walshMP.htm

"Most mentally ill patients have a lousy diet, and aren't functional enough to achieve a major life-style change, such as fixing their diet. We've learned that the recipe for success is to first correct the primary chemical imbalance, and then fix the diet.

We've also learned to never attempt to take away their cigarettes, until AFTER they begin to respond to treatment..... for the same reason. Sometimes medical care (like politics) is the art of the possible.

We have major compliance problems with mentally-ill patients who hate medications. They become revulsed with swallowing capsules of all kinds, and it's hard to convince a paranoid patient that there really are nutrients inside.

Very few of our SZ or bipolar patients have any money or any insurance other than medicare. At present, about 65% of patients with private insurance receive coverage for our fees. PPO's pay about 20% of the time, but HMO's almost never cover our services. As a public charity, we provide financial assistance for most of our seriously mentally ill clients.

Compliance with nutrient therapy is a big problem even in cases of 100% recovery. Eventually a patient will wonder if they really need to continue swallowing those capsules daily, and may stop for a few days. They don't realize that it may take several weeks/months for their brain chemistry to revert to the original condition..... Often they are ok for about a month and then relapse. Nutrient therapy is much slower in response than medications.

We learned that best results are achieved if the patient continues their medication(s), if any, during the first few months of treatment. After the patient is significantly improved, we suggest that the medication be slowly reduced "to determine the optimum dosage of the medication". Many psychiatrists will agree to this..... but often are astonished to discover that the patient is just fine with zero medication.

Medications can usually take away a patient's psychosis, but the resulting over-sedation and "zombie-like" condition is repulsive to many. (March 18, 2003)"