ABOUT SAFE HARBOR
Safe Harbor was founded in 1998 in the wake of growing public dissatisfaction with the unwanted effects of orthodox psychiatric treatments such as medication and shock therapy. Seeking to satisfy the desire for safer, more effective treatments, the Project is dedicated to educating the public, the medical profession, and government officials on research and treatments that, minimally, do no harm and, optimally, cure the causes of severe mental symptoms. Our primary thrust is education on the medical causes of severe mental symptoms and the use of nutritional and other natural treatments.
Contact info:
Safe Harbor
1718 Colorado Boulevard.
Los Angeles, California 90041
U.S.A.
(818) 890-1862
mail@alternativementalhealth.com
www.AlternativeMentalHealth.com
WE WELCOME YOUR DONATIONS. AS A NONPROFIT ORGANIZATION, SAFE HARBOR IS SUPPORTED SOLELY THROUGH THE GENEROSITY OF THE PUBLIC. DONATIONS CAN BE MAILED TO THE ABOVE ADDRESS.WE ALSO ACCEPT VISA/MASTERCARD BY PHONE. THANK YOU.
EDITOR’S COMMENT
On May 2, 2001, actress Margot Kidder appeared on ABC’s The View with Barbara Walters to promote the recent release of Superman, the Movie on DVD. Margot was asked about her recent recovery and gave viewers an excellent, concise explanation of how mental symptoms can be caused by nutritional imbalances and thus treated with supplements.
She then encouraged viewers to find our more about it at AlternativeMentalHealth.com. We were then stormed by nearly 6,000 visitors in the next 17 hours. Site hits were 4 times normal over a two-week period.
The response to this brief mention of AlternativeMentalHealth.com demonstrates the intense hunger in the public for non-pharmaceutical treatments for mental problems. We were and are happy to be there for them. But more is needed. We routinely see the need for physicians to be trained in the know-how of finding the medical and nutritional causes of mental symptoms and treating them. Safe Harbor is currently planning such training seminars for doctors, but we invite others to help fill this need.
STUDY: SUPPLEMENT CUTS MEDS BY TWO-THIRDS
Excitement continues to run high at the Synergy Group in Alberta, Canada, as more positive results are reported on research into their 36-component nutritional supplement used in mental disorders.
On May 4, 2001, the results were presented at the annual meeting of the Society of Biological Psychiatry in New Orleans. The research is part of an ongoing study at the University of Calgary, financed by the government of Alberta.
The study followed 11 adults, diagnosed with bipolar disorder, for an average of 44 weeks. With patients on the supplement, the average use of medications dropped from 2.7 medications per person to 1.0. Several different rating scales were used to evaluate mood and behavior change and improvement was measured on all scales.
Anthony Stephan, founder of the Synergy Group, said, “What was really remarkable was the level of effectiveness the supplement was graded at. Drug effectiveness is measured on scale of 0 to 1.0, with most psychiatric drugs rating around the 0.2 – 0.3 range and lithium, at the highest, at 0.4. Our supplement had a rating of 0.8.”
As part of the study, 9 children classified with mood/anxiety disorders were followed for 14 weeks on the supplement. Significant improvements were observed in anxiety problems, social problems, thought problems, attention problems, delinquent behavior, and aggressive behavior.
The Synergy Group was founded by Stephan after the suicide death of his wife. Left with 10 children, three of whom manifested the same “bipolar” behavior as his wife (with two of the children on medication). Following the advice of an animal nutritionist, who had a formula that worked on “mentally disturbed” pigs, Stephan used the supplement on his children and all three are now recovered and drug-free.
More information on the group is at www.truehope.com. An abstract of the study is at www.truehope.com/Abstract%20May%204%20-2000.htm.
CONTROVERSY SWIRLS AROUND ANTIDEPRESSANT USE IN CHILDREN
Children who are so shy or so attached to their parents that they are afraid to go to school or sleep alone are typically diagnosed with an anxiety disorder and treated with a powerful psychoactive agent.
A recent study of 128 children ages 6 to 17 reported findings that the drug Luvox, widely prescribed for depression in adults, effectively suppressed the symptoms of “social phobia,” “separation anxiety” and “generalized anxiety” – psychiatric terms for common childhood problems that may well have external causes such as a bully at school.
The study, touted as “the first large, well-designed survey to examine the effectiveness of a psychiatric drug for a wide range of anxiety disorders in children,” was partly funded by Solvay Pharmaceuticals, which sells Luvox.
Researchers at Johns Hopkins University, Columbia University, New York University, Duke University and UCLA studied the impact of the drug over an 8-week period on children diagnosed with anxiety disorders.
Mark Riddle of Johns Hopkins, one of the study’s authors, offered examples of behavior that would be so diagnosed: a child who refused to go to school for two weeks has “severe social phobia.” A child who went to school and participated in clubs and group events, but with intense discomfort, would have a “milder” social phobia. Extreme separation anxiety disorder, he said, would be displayed in a child who avoided birthday parties and sleepovers. A medium-grade example would be children who refused to sleep in their own rooms and wanted to get into bed with their parents.
Generalized anxiety disorder, Riddle said, were “the worrywarts.”
Richard Harding, president-elect of the American Psychiatric Association, warned that clinicians should carefully evaluate anxious children to find out if their fears are caused by a social problem, such as a bully in school or child abuse at home, in which case medication would be inappropriate.
Luvox sales for the year 2000 exceeded $2 billion in the United States alone, according to IMS Health.
“The effects of the medicine were dramatic,” reported the Washington Post in April, “but experts were divided about its appropriateness: The medicine can help children with severe emotional problems, but it might also be abused as a chemical quick fix for normal anxiousness, with lasting effects on growing brains.”
Anxiety, nervousness, depression, and amnesia are a few of the side effects listed for Luvox.
In an article accompanying the findings in the April 26, 2001 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine, Joseph Coyle, chairman of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, voiced the concerns of many when he said, “Any drug that is effective is not going to be innocuous.” By contrast, natural remedies must be both effective and innocuous to be taken seriously in medical circles.
In May 2000, an Australian journal reported on a new study by Melbourne’s Baker Medical Research Institute that have “unsettled scientists and turned upside down their ideas on brain chemistry among the anxious.”
The study of 20 patients found that SSRI antidepressant drugs actually decreased serotonin levels in their first weeks of treatment on drugs such as Prozac, Aropax and Zoloft, accompanied by heightened anxiety. These drugs are supposed to increase serotonin.
An estimated 575,000 children throughout the U.S. were diagnosed with anxiety disorders in a recent 12-month period. The result was 390,000 prescriptions for Zoloft, Paxil, Prozac and similar drugs, including 89,000 for children under 10.
“Such vast numbers leave critics aghast,” observed the Washington Post. “Too many children are being put on powerful brain-altering drugs for behaviors that may be merely troublesome, critics say.”
“A good clinician will not commit a child to a life sentence on medicine,” said Riddle.
LOW CHOLESTEROL MAY BE FACTOR IN DEPRESSION, ANXIETY
Doctors have long warned about the health hazards of high cholesterol, but a growing body of evidence indicates that very low cholesterol can be dangerous, too.
In a study of 121 healthy young women, Duke psychologist Edward Suarez found that those with low cholesterol levels were more likely to score high on measures of depression and anxiety than women with normal or high cholesterol levels.
Results of the study, funded by the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, were published in “Psychosomatic Medicine” in 1999. While the subjects were not being treated for depression or anxiety, their scores on standard personality profiles clearly put them at risk for developing depression and anxiety, Suarez said.
“There is now a compelling body of evidence in both men and women that low cholesterol is a potential predictor for depression and anxiety in certain individuals,” said Suarez. “While we certainly don’t advocate that women indulge in high-fat foods, our data do suggest that women with naturally low cholesterol could benefit from raising their cholesterol through healthy dietary measures, like consuming more fish or fish oil.”
A woman’s cholesterol level drops dramatically after childbirth. In the University of Vienna Hospital’s Clinic of Obstetrics and Gynecology a study of 20 women with no other predisposing factors connected low cholesterol levels with postpartum depression.
An eight-year Finnish study of 29,133 men aged 50 to 69, published in the British Journal of Psychiatry, discovered a similar trend. Those reporting depression had significantly lower average blood cholesterol levels than those who did not, despite a similar diet.
The researchers analyzed the men’s total blood cholesterol levels, including a type of cholesterol associated with heart disease and another thought to protect the heart.
They asked the men to report any history of depression and checked medical records for treatment for a depressive illness. The researchers followed the men up five to eight years later.
They say previous research suggests a relationship between low levels of blood cholesterol and a fall in levels of the neurotransmitter serotonin in the brain. Low serotonin levels have been linked to depression and aggression.
Dutch researchers let by Dr. Diederick Grobbee of University Medical Center conducted a comparable survey of some 30,000 men, “as part of a large screening program,” Grobbee told Reuters Health. Because of earlier work that seemed to indicate an association between low cholesterol levels and a heightened risk of suicide, the investigators used this screening data to select men with persistent low serum cholesterol levels.
“We compared the presence of depressive symptoms, anger, hostility, and impulsivity in these men, to men with cholesterol levels in the normal range,” Grobbee explained. The researchers found that “men with chronically low cholesterol levels showed a consistently higher risk of having depressive symptoms.”
Grobbee added, “in general, patients… treated with cholesterol-lowering drugs… do not reach levels in this range.” He further cautioned, “it remains possible that serum cholesterol changed in response to depressive symptoms, rather than the other way around.”
SOME “SCHIZOPHRENIA” MAY BE VIRUS-INDUCED
One in four new cases of schizophrenia may be linked to a virus, researchers say. In a report by Reuters in April 2001, scientists studying schizophrenic patients claim to have found bits of genetic code resembling viral genes in their cerebrospinal fluid and brain tissue. The study appears in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
The research was led by Dr. Robert Yolken of John Hopkins University and was carried out on 35 Germans diagnosed with schizophrenia.
The virus in question is known as a retrovirus, a type that infects cells and causes the cell to manufacture DNA which is based on the retrovirus’ genetic code. Such viruses can cause tumors.
The scientists found evidence of a retrovirus in 29 percent of subjects with newly diagnosed acute schizophrenia and 7 percent of those with chronic schizophrenia. The researchers said that the greater prevalence in the newly diagnosed group suggests a viral cause in the onset of some schizophrenia.
In testing the brains and cerebrospinal fluid of healthy people and people with neurological diseases, the researchers found no evidence of the retrovirus.
Yolken claims that if the research pans out, antiviral treatments could rescue many from the life of doom they now experience. Research testing such treatments are in the planning stages. The study “certainly suggests that viruses are involved in the process,” he said. “At this point, whether the virus is causing some of the cases of schizophrenia or whether it’s activated during the process, we don’t actually know.”
IMPACT OF KAVA ON ANXIETY
Concern about the long-term safety and addiction potential of synthetic psychopharmaceuticals has led to increasing scientific interest in botanical approaches to the treatment of anxiety.
Extreme stress can trigger anxiety, but so can caffeine and other stimulants. Many anxiety sufferers experience relief after a week of no coffee.
The symptoms of anxiety are familiar to most of us: loss of sleep, a persistent feeling that something bad is going to happen, heart palpitations, dry mouth, muscle tightness in the back and neck.
The root of the Kava plant is renowned in many traditional cultures for its nutritional aspects that help maintain a sense of emotional well-being without affecting mental clarity. Kavalactones are particularly helpful because they do not induce potentially harmful chemical changes in the brain.
101 outpatients diagnosed with anxiety of non-psychotic origin (agoraphobia, specific phobia, generalized anxiety disorder, and adjustment disorder with anxiety) were included in a 25-week multicenter randomized placebo-controlled double-blind trial with WS 1490, a special extract of kava-kava. In the main outcome criterion, the Hamilton Anxiety Scale (HAMA), there was a significant superiority of the test drug from week 8 on.
WS 1490 was also found to be superior with respect to the secondary outcome variables (side effects). Adverse events were rare and distributed evenly in both groups. These results support WS 1490 as a treatment alternative to tricyclic antidepressants and benzodiazepines in anxiety disorders, without the tolerance problems associated with the drugs. (Pharmacopsychiatry, January 1997)
To test the anti-anxiety properties and tolerability of kava, a group of German researchers performed a double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical trial in 58 patients with “anxiety syndromes not caused by mental disorders.” Patients were randomized to receive either placebo or 100 mg kava extract (standardized to 70 mg kavalactones) three times daily for 4 weeks. Treatment outcomes were evaluated through standard psychometric assessments at baseline and at 7, 14, and 28 days.
After only one week of treatment, HAMA scores demonstrated a significant reduction in anxiety symptoms in patients taking kava as compared to placebo, and this improvement continued to increase throughout the course of the study. The differences between the HAMA scores of the two groups were statistically significant at all three assessment intervals. Improvements were observed for the kava group in many categories of the other outcome measures, including “mental anxiety” and “somatic anxiety” as rated by the HAMA subscales.
No adverse reactions were observed in the kava group during the course of the study. The investigators concluded that the positive risk/benefit profile demonstrated by the kava extract makes it “suitable for the general practitioner in treating states of anxiety, tension and excitedness.” (Lehmann, Kinzler, and Friedemann, 1996.)
SAM-E: A NATURAL ANTIDEPRESSANT
S-adenosylmethionine, a dietary supplement better known as SAMe (pronounced Sammy), is generating considerable attention as a new treatment option for depression. SAMe contains a compound that all living cells produce.
The compound — a key factor in the molecular process called methylation — helps neighboring organs and tissues by transferring one molecule, which contains a package of four atoms, to an adjacent molecule. This transfer changes the shape of both molecules and affects several physical processes, including the regulation of some hormones and the neurotransmitters serotonin, melatonin, dopamine and adrenaline (important regulators of mood).
In Europe, where it is a prescription drug, SAMe is widely used to treat depression. Of the 40 or so scientific studies looking at SAMe’s effect on depression, most suggest it works as well as pharmaceutical antidepressants — and without the side effects. Patients often experience the benefits within a week, while antidepressants may take much longer.
A study from the University of California at Irvine found the response rate to SAMe was 62 percent compared to 50 percent for the antidepressant desipramine (Norpramin).
According to an abstract of the UCI study by Bell, Potkin, et al., a double-blind randomized protocol comparing oral SAMe with oral desipramine, involving a total of 26 patients, was employed. At the end of the 4-week trial, 62% of the patients treated with SAMe and 50% of the patients treated with desipramine had significantly improved. Regardless of the type of treatment, patients with a 50% decrease in their Hamilton Depression Scale (HAM-D) score showed a significant increase in plasma SAMe concentration.
The abstract concluded: “The significant correlation between plasma SAMe levels and the degree of clinical improvement in depressed patients regardless of the type of treatment suggests that SAMe may play an important role in regulating mood.”
Comparable studies within the European medical community were summarized by researchers at the University Cattolica Sacro Cuore School of Medicine, Rome, as follows:
“Our meta-analysis showed a greater response rate with SAMe when compared with placebo, with a global effect size ranging from 17% to 38% depending on the definition of response, and an antidepressant effect comparable with that of standard tricyclic antidepressants. Since SAMe is a naturally occurring compound with relatively few side-effects, it is a potentially important treatment for depression.”
TO RETAIN MOOD-ENHANCING BENEFITS, KEEP EXERCISING
A UCSD School of Medicine study 944 northern San Diego County residents, ages 50 and up, has determined that while exercise improves mood, it has no long-lasting effects if it is stopped.
“To reap the beneficial effects of exercise on mood, you have to continue to exercise,” says the study’s lead author, Donna Kritz-Silverstein, Ph.D., UCSD associate professor of family and preventive medicine. “Exercising now will not protect against a future depressed mood if you stop the exercise.”
Published in the March 15, 2001 issue of the American Journal of Epidemiology, the study validated previous findings about the beneficial effects of ongoing exercise on mood. Individuals in the study who exercised in the 1984-87 study period, but who were not exercising in the 1992-95 follow-up period, had lost the mood-enhancing benefits of exercise.
Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) results indicated that the individuals who exercised generally had a healthy, non-depressed mood.
The same individuals were followed in the ’90s, with those still exercising studied separately from those no longer exercising. Those still exercising continued to have low BDI scores, indicating more positive mood and general well-being. On the other hand, the BDI scores of those no longer exercising had risen to levels similar to residents who had never exercised during the two-decade study.
“We determined that the increased age of the individuals was not a factor,” Kritz-Silverstein says. “We also looked at a group of elderly residents who had not exercised in the ’80s, but who began exercise in the ’90s. They had a less depressed mood in the ’90s and scores similar to those who were exercising continuously at both points in time.
ABOUT AlternativeMentalHealth.com
AlternativeMentalHealth.com is the world’s largest web site devoted exclusively to alternative mental health treatments. It includes a directory of over 180 physicians, nutritionists, experts, organizations, and facilities around the U.S. that offer or promote safe, alternative treatments for severe mental symptoms. Many of the physicians listed do in-depth examinations to find the physical causes behind mental problems.
Also included on the site are an array of articles on topics ranging from the medical causes of schizophrenia to the effects of toxic metals on mental health.
A bookstore page lists top books that cover many areas of alternative treatments with titles like Natural Healing for Schizophrenia and Other Common Mental Disorders and No More Ritalin.
AlternativeMentalHealth.com has been created to educate the public, practitioners, and government officials on the medical conditions that create “mental illness” and the many safe resources available for addressing and often curing severe mental symptoms.