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Mental Health A new approach to mental illness you need to look into

Middleway

Middleway

Ex-Bluelighter
Joined
Apr 10, 2007
Messages
1,033
Location
Melbourne
Treatment of mental health problems with Anti-inflammatory drugs

I have a severe lifelong depression and anxiety/panic disorder and learning problems. Very treatment resistant, I have been through literally every medication used to
treat these conditions plus off label drugs intended for use in dementia and neurological illnesses.
I have not been able to work for the past 6 months.

I thought you may be interested to know my experience.

For the past 4 days I have been treating myself daily with a combination of 200mg of minocycline, 400mg ibuprofen and
Meloxicam 7.5mg along with a minimal dose of phenelzine 30mg per day which I have been taking for years at varying doses with terrible side effects.

I know that it is premature to get excited but since starting this combination I have experienced a change like I have never felt with any other medication.
Firstly, my depression has lifted - it is totally absent without any flattening or elevation of my mood or any side effects.

It is difficult to put my finger on exactly how I have changed but I would say that my mind is now clear where as before I was constantly ruminating.
Even when I was subjectively not depressed , the rumination positive negative or neutral was always there - it is a very strange experience for me to
be free of all the internal dialogue that I have had all my life.

I have just swapped the ibuprofen for aspirin to mirror one of the major studies and I may drop the meloxicam too.


I have ALWAYS insisted to Doctors that my problems had a physical basis and not psychological. It never made any sense to me that one day I could be fine and the next wracked with anxiety and depression.

There is SO many studies underway using minocycline and aspirin and other anti-inflamatory and antibiotic drugs for depression, schizophrenia, bipolar - just google it.

Very few results out yet - but why wait, its safe and the drugs are readily available ...give it a try on top of your regular meds!
 
The anti-inflammatory approach is an interesting one as in the past we have had a tendency to not explain mental illness that way. There are successful studies done with omega-3 fatty acids too and they state highly significant benefits: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19499625
 
You don't fancy there to be the possibility of I'll side effects, using minocycline (a tetracycline antibiotic) on a chronic basis?

Other than that concern i would personally have, this all comes as very interesting news to me that begs further inquiry (thanks for the link, FnX)!

I appreciate your sharing this, Middleway.... I'm going to look into this further, myself....
 
How very interesting. I compulsively take 800mg of ibuprofen every 12 hours and have always found ti makes me feel slightly better. Me and my care coordinator chalked it up to the placebo effects, but now i'm wondering if there is some logic in my otherwise random choice of self medication.
 
Super interesting! Thank you for the post. I'm going to research it some more myself too. If I find some helpful links I will post them :)
 
Thanks for the info! I have been taking 2 effervescent tabs "ASA 500mg/caffeine 50mg" every morning for years for pain, and I thoght that the slight mood elevating effect were because of pain relief. Very interesting :)
 
They had me prescribed to 15mg Meloxicam once a day for joint pain, but I only took it a few days because the side effects concerned me. Have you read into what that shit can do to your body? I treat my body terribly, but I wasn't about to start taking that stuff on a regular basis. Plus I didn't like how I couldn't drink on it. But typically, any time I am not in pain I am happier. That may be why I fell so hard for opiates? Who knows.

Good luck with your experimental treatment, really I hope there are no ill side effects.
 
taking ibuprofen chronically isn't a great idea either. Many many side effects.

I think being on opiates/benzos/stims would have less side effects than that combo you are taking OP. I'd be careful and do some research before really going down that road and perhaps speak to a professional on the matter.

these drugs aren't safe to use daily and at high doses! NSAIDs in general have terrible side effects, even if they help with anxiety, it's not a great path to go down without research being done first.

especially don't use aspirin or acetaminophen or naproxen!

yes physical pain has some link to emotional pain, there's no question about that but this isn't the right way to go about fixing it.
 
RobotRipping said:
taking ibuprofen chronically isn't a great idea either. Many many side effects.

I think being on opiates/benzos/stims would have less side effects than that combo you are taking OP. I'd be careful and do some research before really going down that road and perhaps speak to a professional on the matter.

these drugs aren't safe to use daily and at high doses! NSAIDs in general have terrible side effects, even if they help with anxiety, it's not a great path to go down without research being done first.

especially don't use aspirin or acetaminophen or naproxen!

yes physical pain has some link to emotional pain, there's no question about that but this isn't the right way to go about fixing it.
Click to expand...

That's a good point.

When I was using ibuprofen daily for about 3 months I developed bleeding in my stomach.
 
rx_prn said:
Food allergies? Care to expand? :)
Click to expand...

I was actually about to, but I don't know the exact mechanisms, so I left it at that. Wanted to come back but hadn't.

I know that food allergies cause inflammation, and from my personal experience, I have felt a variety of things that when chronically there, could lead to a diagnosis of mental illness. These things are rage, depression, and anxieties, even delusions, or magnifications of anxieties. I really don't know enough, to say, except what I have experienced, especially when I was drinking milk, and not having a healthy diet, in general. It wasn't just the milk, but it was the first thing that I realized was effecting me. I stopped consuming as much food, with pesticides, hormones, preservatives, etc., and started taking fish oil/eating fish, and eating more vegetables, and this helped.

My symptoms were extreme anxiety, and sometimes paranoia. I couldn't even go into stores without breaking a sweat. Eye contact was hard. It all began around college. I started to feel a tightness in my left jaw-side of my face. Over the years, this increased to include inflammation, and extreme pain that radiated through the nerves of the face. I believe the trigeminal nerve, or 5th cranial nerve, was compressed. Cranial nerves, and this trigeminal nerve, have a direct connection into the brain, and are wired in directly to the emotional center, and place of regulation of various bodily functions. I'm pretty dicked up.. Or was... Honestly still am, but I have taken more control than I had before, through awareness of how the environment has been effecting me.

Basically, indirectly or directly, inflammation in parts of the body, which allergies can cause greatly, can effect mental health. I know it is metabolically related... As in chronic allergic reactions can disrupt metabolism and make it hard for your body to deal with things... It's just... dense. The problem is dense. Very complex.

There have been studies related to this, where in some, 80 percent of the pool (schizophrenic patients) tested tested positive for egg allergies. In another, I heard something like 30 percent for corn allergies... In each, they only mention one allergen, so it's possible there were other allergies as well.

I have heard voices, but as of now they aren't troublesome. My diet is regulated extremely. I eat organic hemp seeds, chicken livers for b12/selenium and other vitamins i can't get... canned tuna from a very clean supplier that doesn't use bpa, and only uses smaller fish. I've been kind of filed into this, as I have recognized food-reactions/allergies, swelling in my throat and ear, stomach issues (mind-gut connections might be highlighted with the digestive troubles experienced with food allergies/sensitivities), and the like from virtually all foods except these.

Caffeine in any amount I'm sensitive to, but how negative the effects depends on if the exposure is a little or a lot, and duration. Negatives are anxiety related.

I will try to find sources other than my own experience, but here's one I ran into that talks about the same things, at least: http://www.wholeapproach.com/newsletter/archives/2003/04_April.html

googling "mental illness (and or health) and food allergies" will turn up many results. i just can't seem to find the exact studies that could be used as sources, at this moment.

googling "depression and food allergies" might bring up results, as well as "milk allergies depression/schizophrenia/anxiety"... thinks of those sort. Like I said, I am not exactly sure of the mechanism of action... If the allergies literally cause inflammation in the brain, or what. I know there are things known/referred to as as cerebral/brain allergies.
 
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Wow thanks so much for that information! I'm definitely going to look more into that because that's really intriguing to me.
 
No problem.

I wasn't sure in my last post if the brain had mast cells (involved in allergic reactions, for one), but it does. This supports the connection with food and chemical allergies/sensitivities and mental illness as being more direct, as well as indirect- as I was more confident of before.

Many food allergies go un-diagnosed, and are hidden. The symptoms aren't obvious enough, and are misdiagnosed for something else. Mine were hidden for years, and caused a number of health problems throughout my life, from childhood into adulthood... mainly chronic ear infections and sinus trouble. It became really painful around college though, like I said... But I still had no idea what it was for another 7-8 years or so.

I've also considered it possible that sick people such as those diagnosed with schizophrenia, depression, anxiety, etc.... that it's possible that they are even allergic to their medications, or one or several of the fillers, binders, or individual ingredients. They are basically kept sick. They might experience some relief from things, but not complete. Medications- the one/ones that "work", can be the lesser of the evils.

For an illustration of what might be occurring in the heads of those with illnesses that manifest with mental symptoms, think the hives/welts that someone experiences when bitten by an insect, or eats a food they are allergic to, but in the brain. I don't really know, but it was an idea. Maybe on another level, something like. But the chronic inflammation in the brain could undoubtedly account for the structural changes sometimes seen in those with chronic mental illnesses. Some things might just get choked off, damaged, or die. This is why the "hidden" trait of some food allergies is especially troublesome. The issue just starts small, and gradually gets worse, because the offending material (food, chemical...) is repeatedly exposed to the body's systems, and the connection is never made. Food allergens can even be addicting, too... providing relief momentarily after consumption, it has been likened to a drug-effect.
 
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Just updating.
Although I really did feel that I was getting benifet out of it to begin with, I can't really say that I think it is workin.


Sorry for getting people's hopes up, it may still be worth a try for you. I may play around with it a bit longer and see what happens
 
in some time, i'm going to try hookworm therapy. it has been said to benefit even those with multiple sclerosis, which also involves inflammation. some have even gone into remission.

inflammation plays a role in many illnesses. not sure if all, but many.
 
rx_prn said:
That's a good point.

When I was using ibuprofen daily for about 3 months I developed bleeding in my stomach.
Click to expand...
Im glad that you have found something you think is working, but IMO mixing the ibuprofen and the meloxicam has a really good chance of causing an ulcer and/or other gastric problems. I hope you find the answer you are looking for<3
 
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