Healing of Dissociative Identity Disorder, Borderline Personality Traits, and Bipolar Disorder Through Lifestyle Interventions: A Case Report.

BACKGROUND: This case report illustrates that the use of a series of lifestyle interventions delivered via the "Vital Mind Reset" online program led to the resolution of disabling psychiatric symptoms. SUMMARY: A 40-year-old, married, Caucasian female, with onset of suicidal ideation as a teenager, was treated with antidepressants and was later formally diagnosed with dissociative identity disorder (DID), borderline personality traits, and bipolar disorder (BD). In the ensuing years, the patient was treated with 35 psychiatric medications. Additionally, she experienced numerous hospitalizations and received over 30 electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) treatments. Despite this extensive conventional treatment, she reported limited gains. In October 2017, the patient committed to the Vital Mind Reset (VMR) online program and implemented a series of lifestyle changes over 44 days, starting with 30 days of dietary, meditation, and lifestyle protocols, followed by supplementation. Notably, the patient has since resolved both physical and psychiatric symptoms including fatigue, acne, migraines, cold sweats, dizziness, nausea, blood sugar crashes, resting tremors, brain fog, anxiety, depression, suicidal ideation, auditory hallucinations, and delusions. In this patient's case, hypertension, bradycardia, headaches, increased frequency of mania, tremors, insomnia, and weight gain accompanied her medications. This case exemplifies the dramatic resolution of disabling psychiatric symptoms after engagement in the lifestyle interventions outlined in the VMR program, medication taper, and supplementation. When medication demonstrates limited clinical yield and a plethora of side effects, tapering combined with lifestyle interventions and supplementation should be considered as first-line therapy. This case is evidence of the potential for healing and resolution of severe and persistent psychiatric illness with dietary and lifestyle changes.

Schizophrenia Symptom Alleviation Through Implementation of a Lifestyle Intervention Program.

BACKGROUND: This case report illustrates the use of a lifestyle intervention program entitled "Vital Mind Reset" which led to the alleviation of disabling schizophrenic symptomology. SUMMARY: A 22-year-old male with onset of Tourette's Syndrome and depression with suicidal ideation as a teenager began declining in mental vitality, resulting in the eventual diagnosis of treatment-resistant schizophrenia at the age of 17. At this time, he was admitted to an adolescent mental health ward due to delusional thinking and auditory hallucinations. Despite administration of a multitude of antipsychotic medications throughout the ensuing years, he was admitted yearly to the same hospital during the winter months until 2015. The patient began the Vital Mind Reset (VMR) program in 2017, committing to a series of lifestyle interventions which included dietary modifications, daily meditations, and detoxification practices. After completing the program, the patient experienced significantly improved quality of life, as he was once again able to leave his house. One year after completing the program, his physicians reported his schizophrenia appeared "to be in remission." Given these results, when medication and conventional therapies gain limited progress, lifestyle interventions outlined in the VMR program should be considered, perhaps even as first-line therapy. This case defies the chronicity of severe psychiatric symptomologies such as schizophrenia and exemplifies the potential for healing and resolution of persistent psychiatric illness.

Efficacy of a Multimodal Online Lifestyle Intervention for Depressive Symptoms and Quality of Life in Individuals With a History of Major Depressive Disorder.

Background Major depressive disorder (MDD) is a complex bio-psycho-social syndrome that affects millions of individuals and is one of the leading causes of impaired quality of life (QOL). In addition to the symptoms of depression and low mood, many individuals with MDD also suffer from isolation without the sense of a supportive, surrounding community. Given the challenges of treating individuals with MDD, social isolation and a lack of communal connection, this randomized controlled trial was designed to determine the efficacy of a multimodal, online and community-based lifestyle intervention for improving depressive symptoms and QOL in individuals with a history of MDD. Materials and methods The study enrolled 71 female or male participants between the ages of 20 and 64 with a self-reported BMI between 18.4 and 34.9 kg/m2 and a history of MDD. Individuals were randomized to either participate in a 44-day multimodal, online, community-based lifestyle intervention or placed on a wait list where they would complete the intervention at a later date. The multimodal intervention involved a self-directed learning program where individuals were guided to make lifestyle changes including adopting a whole-foods diet, increasing movement, and adopting stress management and mindfulness practices. All participants completed the 36-Item Short Form Health Survey (SF-36), the Cleveland Clinic Center for Functional Medicine's Medical Symptoms Questionnaire (MSQ), and the Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9) before and after the online program to assess health-related QOL, overall symptom burden, and depressive symptom burden, respectively.  Results A total of 37 participants were randomized to participate in the multimodal intervention with 26 completing all three study questionnaires at both study time points; 34 participants were randomized to the wait list control group with 27 completing all three study questionnaires at both study time points. There were no clinically or statistically significant differences between the control group or the intervention group at baseline. The control group showed no clinically nor statistically significant changes in the MSQ, PHQ-9 or any of the eight subdomains of the SF-36 from the beginning to the end of the 10-week study period. When compared to the control group, the intervention group showed statistically and clinically significant improvements in median (M) scores of the SF-36 subdomains of vitality and mental health, and clinically but not statistically significant improvements in the subdomain of emotional role functioning. There were additional statistically and clinically significant improvements in the mean score of the MSQ and M scores of the PHQ-9 (treatment pre-intervention M = 10.5, inter-quartile range [IQR] = 14, to treatment post-intervention M = 5, IQR = 8.25; control pre-intervention M = 15, IQR = 8, to control post-intervention M = 13.5, IQR = 12.5). Conclusions  Our randomized controlled study provides evidence for the role of a multimodal, online and community-based lifestyle intervention to improve depressive symptoms, QOL, and total symptom burden in individuals with a history of MDD. Given the growing challenges of effectively supporting individuals suffering with MDD, it appears critical to further explore the utilization of novel, multimodal and self-directed lifestyle interventions.