Remission of Schizoaffective Disorder Using Homeopathic Medicine: 2 Case Reports.

Context • Research on the schizophrenia spectrum is primarily focused on pharmaceutical interventions, although alternative treatments have been gaining increasing popularity in recent years because patients are seeking treatments that are effective and have reduced side effects. A significant body of evidence already exists supporting the effectiveness of homeopathy to treat a wide array of illnesses. Objective • The research team intended to demonstrate the need for using both alternative and conventional treatments to improve clinical outcomes in the treatment of schizoaffective disorder. Design • The research team performed 2 case studies. Setting • The study took place at Arizona Natural Health Center (Tempe, AZ, USA), an outpatient clinic where Dr Tara Peyman worked as a naturopathic doctor from 2008 to 2014. Participants • The participants were a 23-y-old female (case 1) and a 34-y-old female (case 2), both of whom had been diagnosed with schizoaffective disorder of the bipolar type. Intervention • Individualized homeopathic treatment was initiated for the 2 patients, who previously had received medication of atypical antipsychotics and mood stabilizers. Outcome Measures • A Likert scale was used to evaluate the intensity of each patient's symptoms at each follow-up, based on self-reporting, using a scale from 1 to 10, with a score of 10 being the highest. Results • During the course of treatment, both patients' symptoms normalized, and they regained their ability to hold jobs, attend school, and maintain healthy relationships with their families and partners while requiring fewer pharmaceutical interventions. Conclusions • The 2 current case reports demonstrate a successful integrative approach to the treatment of schizoaffective disorder. They illustrate the value of individualized homeopathic prescriptions with proper case management in the successful treatment of that disorder. Future large-scale, double-blind, placebo-controlled studies should investigate individualized homeopathic treatments for mental health concerns, because the diseases cause great economic and social burden.

The pathway followed by psychotic patients to a tertiary health center in a developing country: a comparison with patients with epilepsy.

The objective of this study was to describe and compare the pathways followed by Malay patients with psychoses (schizophrenia and schizophreniform disorder) and Malay patients with epilepsy to a tertiary health center in the northeastern area of peninsular Malaysia. There were 60 patients in each group. The most popular pathway for both groups was first contact with traditional or alternative healers. Consultation with Malay traditional healers (bomohs) and/or homeopathic practitioners (44.2%) was significantly higher for psychotic patients (61.7%) than for patients with epilepsy (26.7%) (chi(2)(2)=15.609, P<0.001). Direct access (24.2%) was the second most popular pathway and almost equally followed by both groups of patients. The third and last pathway was initial contact with private general practitioners and government doctors, respectively. Patients with epilepsy dominated the last two pathways. The treatment delay (TD) was significantly longer in epileptic than psychotic patients regardless of their visit to a bomoh and/or homeopathic practitioner (P<0001) or not (p<0.01). The socioeconomic status of psychotic patients also was significantly better than people with epilepsy (chi(2)=9.957, chi(2)(4), p=0.041).

Complementary treatment of psychotic and epileptic patients in malaysia.

The objective of this article is to describe and compare the use of traditional/complementary medicine (T/CM) among psychotic (schizophrenia and schizophreniform disorder) and epileptic Malay patients in peninsular Malaysia. There were 60 patients in each group. T/CM consultation was uniformly spread across all levels of education and social status. We could not find a single over-riding factor that influenced the decision to seek T/CM treatment because the decision to seek such treatment was complex and the majority of decisions were made by others. Fifty-three patients (44.2%), consisting of 37 (61.7%) psychotic and 16 (26.7%) epileptic patients had consulted Malay traditional healers (bomoh) and/or homeopathic practitioners in addition to modern treatment; of these, only three had consulted bomoh and homeopathic practitioners at the same time. The use of T/CM was significantly higher in psychotic than in epileptic Malay patients.

Low-dose treatment strategies.

Dose-comparison studies in chronic, continuously hospitalized patients show that megadoses of antipsychotic drugs are reasonably well tolerated. These findings, together with dose-comparison studies in acute patients, support the notion (and current practice) that the therapeutic index of antipsychotic drugs is wide. Recent work with outpatients indicates that fluphenazine decanoate 5 mg (versus 25 mg) every 2 weeks is effective for at least the first year. In addition, patients report feeling better when they take the lower dose. A dose-comparison study with haloperidol in newly admitted patients indicates that a 20 mg daily dose has neurotoxic effects. A similar dose-comparison study with oral fluphenazine indicates that a 5 mg daily dose is efficacious over a 3-week period. Thus, both inpatients and outpatients can be managed on doses that were formerly regarded as homeopathic. Patients taking low doses have fewer side effects (particularly less akinesia) and probably fewer dysphoric emotions than patients taking high doses, although they improve at a slower rate.

Transtorno esquizotípico e homeopatia: relato de caso / Schizotypal personality disorder and homeopathy: case report

Transtornos da personalidade são um grupo de condições caracterizadas por incapacidade para se relacionar com outras pessoas e aprender da experiência. Sujeitos com transtornos da personalidade podem vir a perceber que as suas crenças e atitudes são diferentes daquelas da maioria das pessoas. Outros descobrem que a sua conduta é inusual, inesperada e mesmo ofensiva. No presente artigo é discutido o caso de um paciente de sexo masculino e 42 anos de idade com transtorno esquizotípico, tendo a alucinação típica de ser sujeito de abuso e perseguição, e posterior sensação de formigamento. Com o medicamento homeopático corretamente selecionado a autoconfiança, sintomas somáticos, estresse e preocupação, ansiedade e alucinações melhoraram, o que sugere que a homeopatia pode ser muito útil no tratamento deste tipo de transtornos da personalidade...

Personality disorders are a group of conditions characterized by an inability to get on with other people and learn from experience. People with a personality disorder may find that their beliefs and attitudes are different from those of most other people. Others may find their behavior unusual, unexpected or perhaps offensive. In this paper, we discuss a case of a 42- year-old man with schizotypal personality disorder with typical delusions of being abused and persecuted and subsequent formication. With a properly selected homoeopathic medicine the patient experienced symptom improvement in self-confidence, somatic complaints, stress and worry, anxiety, and delusions, suggesting that homoeopathy is quite useful in the treatment of such personality disorders...

Transtorno esquizotípico e homeopatia: relato de caso / Schizotypal personality disorder and homeopathy: case report

Transtornos da personalidade são um grupo de condições caracterizadas por incapacidade para se relacionar com outras pessoas e aprender da experiência. Sujeitos com transtornos da personalidade podem vir a perceber que as suas crenças e atitudes são diferentes daquelas da maioria das pessoas. Outros descobrem que a sua conduta é inusual, inesperada e mesmo ofensiva. No presente artigo é discutido o caso de um paciente de sexo masculino e 42 anos de idade com transtorno esquizotípico, tendo a alucinação típica de ser sujeito de abuso e perseguição, e posterior sensação de formigamento. Com o medicamento homeopático corretamente selecionado a autoconfiança, sintomas somáticos, estresse e preocupação, ansiedade e alucinações melhoraram, o que sugere que a homeopatia pode ser muito útil no tratamento deste tipo de transtornos da personalidade. (AU)

Personality disorders are a group of conditions characterized by an inability to get on with other people and learn from experience. People with a personality disorder may find that their beliefs and attitudes are different from those of most other people. Others may find their behavior unusual, unexpected or perhaps offensive. In this paper, we discuss a case of a 42- year-old man with schizotypal personality disorder with typical delusions of being abused and persecuted and subsequent formication. With a properly selected homoeopathic medicine the patient experienced symptom improvement in self-confidence, somatic complaints, stress and worry, anxiety, and delusions, suggesting that homoeopathy is quite useful in the treatment of such personality disorders. (AU)

Arte homeopática / Homeopathic art

Como o objetivo do trabalho é ressaltar a possibilidade clínica e prognóstica da “arte homeopática” procurei frisar os aspectos concernentes a esse tema. Já que o espaço era exíguo, procurei resumir ao máximo. Tenho só do primeiro caso 30 páginas de história clínica. Como nosso referencial experimental é textual, o quê fazer com desenhos, esculturas ou qualquer outro ramo da arte? Tivemos finalmente a primeira prova parcial da utilização clínica da arte homeopática, com aplicabilidade em outros casos.

[The psychopathology of early and chronic psychotic symptoms in young drug-users]. / Zur Psychopathologie beginnender und chronischer psychotischer Zustandsbilder bei jugendlichen Drogenkonsumenten

Among the psychotic symptoms in juvenile drug-consumers one can find autonomous, i.e. drug-independent developments, whose connection with the drug-abuse is to be assessed in differing ways. A beginning psychosis can be modified in its actual symptoms by drug-consumption. On the other hand one must consider the manifestation of a latent psychosis or purely symptomatic psychosis, which, in its symptoms, can hardly be distinguished from schizophrenia. Finally drug-induced personality-changes can develop together with secondary psychotic symptoms. Psychotic symptoms are determined and influenced in a varying degree by drugs. Both after short drug-consumption and after a longer drug-anamnesis with polytoxicomanic symptoms psychotic syndromes can be discovered. Even the initial psychotic symptoms can hint at an adverse development and a bad prognosis. Sometimes the drug-experiences conceal the autonomous development of the psychosis, which, as a rule, shows predominantly schizophrenic symptoms. In addition to a quick change of the actual symptoms, acute states of confusion and depressive-suicidal syndromes, flash-back and horror-trip phenomena, closely connected with the psychotic experience, and a schizophrenic colouring of affective psychoses can be found as frequently drug-induced modifications of the psychotic symptoms. Furthermore one finds an increase of symptoms and of the psychotic episodes in the case of psychoses of the schizophrenic variety which have already begun. Grave personality changes with psychotic symptoms after chronic drug-abuse can cause differential-diagnostic difficulties.

Twenty psychotic males with Klinefelter's syndrome.

Twenty males with Klinefelter's syndrome discharged from psychiatric hospitals with diagnoses classified as psychosis are presented. It is concluded that the higher frequency of psychoses in males with the Klinefelter syndrome most probably is due to reactive psychosis. Personality traits commonly found in these males may explain this. The importance of early diagnosis of the Klinefelter syndrome is stressed, as it is believed that treatment and advice in due time may prevent most of the reactive psychoses.

Traumatic macroglossia: a life-threatening complication.

OBJECTIVE: To describe the use of muscle relaxants and a bite raiser to avoid continued tongue trauma. DESIGN: Case report. SETTING: A tertiary general intensive care unit (ICU). INTERVENTIONS: Muscle relaxation and bite raiser. MAIN RESULTS: Muscle relaxation and a bite raiser were used in a 17-yr-old male with traumatic macroglossia, which allowed for rapid resolution of edema and prevented additional trauma to the tongue. CONCLUSION: Early use of a bite raiser together with muscle relaxants allows for more rapid solution of edema and prevention of additional trauma to the tongue in patients with traumatic macroglossia.

La toma del caso en enfermos mentales / The taking of the case in mental sicks

Se presenta a consideración las dificultades habituales para la toma del caso de enfermos mentales debido principalmente a la proliferación de síntomas psíquicos causados por su enfermedad y por los cambios provocados en la personalidad por las psicodrogas, entre otras. Se expone el pensamiento de Hahnemann al respecto expresado en el Organón entre los parágrafos 216 al 230 y se presenta un caso clínico profundamente estudiado y seguido a través de muchos años. Finalmente se propone un esquema para la toma del caso con el siguiente orden jerárquico: 1) Causalidad: a) Enfermedad somática precedente. b) Desencadenantes afectivo-emotivos. 2) Personalidad premórbida. 3) Síntomas generales. 4) Síntomas mentales de la insanía. 5) Tipos de insanía

El delirio como cerimonia de iniciación / Delirium as initiation rite

Este trabajo se propone presentar dos hipotesis: 1.Ciertossíntomas de la crisis psicótica característica de Stramonium parecen corresponderse con elementos presentes en las ceremonias de iniciación celebradas con bebidas alucinógenas preparadas con Datura stramonium. 2.Desde el punto de vista homeopático el delirio puede ser interpretado como síntoma exonerativo y, como tal, si no es reprimido puede contribuir al proceso de curación del paciente. (AU)

O desejo do analista e o desejo de curar / The desire of the analyst and the desire to heal

O texto tenta demonstrar o estatuto da anorexia na psicose e estabalecer uma diferenciação entre o desejo do analista de curar. Aponta a posição ética e a exigência de um rigoroso cálculo diante de um sujeito que encontrou, no dispositivo analítico, a via para construir uma solução particular, condição para limitar a satisfação mortífera. Este caso circuscreve o desejo do analista como um operador possível no tratamento do real nos casos clínicos de psicose.