Page 24 - Complementary and Alternative Medicine Treatments in Psychiatry

24 | Complementary and Alternative Medicine Treatments in Psychiatry

Thus, while it may not seem like a CAM treatment, the
searching medical exam is an often-overlooked but fruitful
option that can result in dramatically increased patient wellness
and reduction or elimination of the need for medication.
Failure to identify one or more medical conditions that are
causing or exacerbating mental symptoms may result in:
− A continuation or worsening of psychiatric symptoms.
− Prolongation or worsening of physical illness.
− Failure to respond to treatment.
− Unnecessary use of psychiatric medication, possibly for life.
− A patient falsely believing he/she has a purely psychiatric
condition.
− Early death.

Signs That Mental Symptoms Have a Medical
Cause
Numerous signals exist that indicate medically-caused
psychiatric symptoms (Koran 1991):
1. The mental disorder is a first episode.
2. The mental symptoms occur in a patient who is:
a. Aged 40 or more.
b. Currently ill with a major medical illness.
c. Taking prescribed or over-the-counter medications that
can cause mental symptoms.
d. Experiencing neurological symptoms such as unilateral
weakness, numbness, paresthesias, clumsiness, gait
problems, headaches of increasing severity, vertigo,
visual symptoms, speech or memory difficulties, loss of
consciousness, or emotional lability.
e. Experiencing weight loss (10% or more of baseline
weight), unusual diet (e.g., complete vegetarianism) or
self-neglect that could cause vitamin-B deficiencies.
f. Not experiencing serious life stress.