Mental Illness as a Multi-factorIal issue
Brain-Immune-Gut Triangle [big-T], criminal justice, altitude & Suicide
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It appears Mental Illness may be a product of the Brain-Immune-Gut Triangle [BIG-T]. So there are A LOT of things that can influence that. While pioneering researchers such as Cyndi Shannon Weickert are aware that there are:
Most clinicians are not really aware of that, or if they are aware of it -- they are afraid to acknowledge it -- especially when it comes to the efficacy of some current treatments for some people. Further, while some of the world's top researchers, including some of those @ the US National Institute of Mental Health may have known for over 5 years [& maybe longer than that] that clinicians are on the wrong track with the DSM -- by & large, clinicians don't know that. Additionally, the ethical problems this causes for the Criminal Justice System really aren't that hard to understand -- UNLESS WE'RE AFRAID TO UNDERSTAND THEM. Sometimes we're not so much afraid as just not open to the full range of factors that can influence BIG-T and ultimately the possibility of developing mental illness. Well, mental health issues aren't limited to High Altitude areas -- BUT High Altitude areas do have higher suicide rates & Colorado is right up there. Is Altitude the only FACTOR -- well it couldn't be if there are suicides in low altitude areas also -- and there are. BUT there is A LOT OF RESISTANCE to just recognizing Altitude as a pretty obvious factor among MANY, MANY FACTORS in a HIGH ALTITUDE STATE with SKY-HIGH SUICIDE RATES. We are really missing a HUGE PIECE of our MENTAL HEALTH SYSTEM when we don't have AN ADEQUATE BRIDGE between our RESEARCHERS & CLINICIANS. There is so much going on that RESEARCHERS may have trouble staying on top of it themselves-- much less mental health clinicians with heavy caseloads. This is really leading to A LOT of UNETHICAL practice in the Criminal Justice System & in Mental Health generally. So seeing authority figures HONESTLY and SUBSTANTIVELY deal with Large & Serious Systemic Problems & Failures could be HEALING for the SOCIETY & ALL CONCERNED. |
This interview of Prof. Weickert was made prior to her team's historic findings that there were more immune cells in the brains of some people with schizophrenia.
The Brain-Immune -Gut Triangle: Innate Immunity in Psychiatric & Neurological Disorders https://www.researchgate.net/publication /261994663_The_Brain-Immune-Gut_Triangle_Innate_Immunity_in_ Psychiatric_and_Neurological_Disorders See Also: The Emerging Link Between Autoimmune Disorders and Neuropsychiatric Disease https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3086677/ What Does The Environment Have To Do With Diseases Affecting The Immune System https://ensia.com/features/environment-diseases-immune-system/ |
Gut thinking:
the gut microbiome and mental health beyond the head (Nov. 2018)
ABSTRACT
Background: In recent decades, dominant models of mental illness have become increasingly focused on the head, with mental disorders being figured as brain disorders. However, research into the active role that the microbiome-gut-brain axis plays in affecting mood and behaviour may lead to the conclusion that mental health is more than an internalised problem of individual brains.
Objective: This article explores the implications of shifting understandings about mental health that have come about through research into links between the gut microbiome and mental health problems such as depression and anxiety. It aims to analyse the different ways that the lines between mind and body and mental and physical health are re-shaped by this research, which is starting to inform clinical and public understanding.
Design: As mental health has become a pressing issue of political and public concern it has become increasingly constructed in socio-cultural and personal terms beyond clinical spaces, requiring a conceptual response that exceeds biomedical inquiry. This article argues that an interdisciplinary critical medical humanities approach is well positioned to analyse the impact of microbiome-gut-brain research on conceptions of mind.
Results: The entanglement of mind and matter evinced by microbiome-gut-brain axis research potentially provides a different way to conceptualise the physical and social concomitants of mental distress.
Conclusion: Mental health is not narrowly located in the head but is assimilated by the physical body and intermingled with the natural world, requiring different methods of research to unfold the meanings and implications of gut thinking for conceptions of human selfhood.
Background: In recent decades, dominant models of mental illness have become increasingly focused on the head, with mental disorders being figured as brain disorders. However, research into the active role that the microbiome-gut-brain axis plays in affecting mood and behaviour may lead to the conclusion that mental health is more than an internalised problem of individual brains.
Objective: This article explores the implications of shifting understandings about mental health that have come about through research into links between the gut microbiome and mental health problems such as depression and anxiety. It aims to analyse the different ways that the lines between mind and body and mental and physical health are re-shaped by this research, which is starting to inform clinical and public understanding.
Design: As mental health has become a pressing issue of political and public concern it has become increasingly constructed in socio-cultural and personal terms beyond clinical spaces, requiring a conceptual response that exceeds biomedical inquiry. This article argues that an interdisciplinary critical medical humanities approach is well positioned to analyse the impact of microbiome-gut-brain research on conceptions of mind.
Results: The entanglement of mind and matter evinced by microbiome-gut-brain axis research potentially provides a different way to conceptualise the physical and social concomitants of mental distress.
Conclusion: Mental health is not narrowly located in the head but is assimilated by the physical body and intermingled with the natural world, requiring different methods of research to unfold the meanings and implications of gut thinking for conceptions of human selfhood.
