Page 60 - Complementary and Alternative Medicine Treatments in Psychiatry

60 | Complementary and Alternative Medicine Treatments in Psychiatry

pharmaceutically may help to some degree, a far more effective
approach for improving wellness would be to identify and treat
the allergy or toxicosis.

Allergies and Mental Health

An allergy is a hypersensitivity disorder of the immune system.
Substances which should be innocuous create a reaction in the
individual ranging from bothersome to life-threatening.
Allergens activate the antibody Immunoglobulin E (IgE), which,
in turn, triggers mast cells and basophils, resulting in an
extreme inflammatory response.
Allergies can affect any or multiple systems of the body,
including digestive, respiratory, cardiovascular, endocrine, and
neurological. Allergic responses differ considerably amongst
individuals. The same substance—latex, for example—that can
cause one person to break out in hives can cause a different
individual to have a panic attack.
An individual can have allergies and not know it. Symptoms
may not be as recognizable as those of allergic rhinitis, with
sniffling and sneezing. Psychiatric symptoms, in particular, even
when they are of strictly physiological origin, may be mistakenly
assigned to life situations, stress, or other blameworthy causes.
Although the most common allergy-related psychiatric
symptoms that have been studied are depression and anxiety,
given the variability of human response to allergies, any
psychiatric symptom, including psychosis, has the potential of
being allergy-induced.
The key element of allergies is exposure. Sporadic exposure
results in intermittent symptom expression. Constant exposure
gives chronic symptoms. Therefore, allergies must be considered
as a potential causative agent, whether a patient has
intermittent symptoms or chronic.
For example, a person sensitive to mold who lives in an area
that had recent flooding may respond with chronic depression
for months if mold spores or mycotoxins are continuously