I have a 13 year old son who has been diagnosed with bipolar disorder. The pharmaceuticals he is taking for this is causing an enormous amount of weight gain (37 lbs in 4 months)and is not completely alleviating his symptoms. Any research out there on the treatment of mood disorders?

Homeopathy will greatly help your son, who is really just developing an iatrogenic (treatment-induced) illness with his meds.
His weight gain is not a healthy sign.

The best thing to do is find a competent classical homeopath who can take your son's case in person, close to where you are. You can find very reliable homeopaths listed in www.homeopathy-cures.com 's referral list.
Hope this can help you find someone close to home.

Divina

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...and deliverance has many faces<br />but grace<br />is an aquaintance of mine

Hi Becki,

I have some experience of a friend with bipolar disorder and I know it can be treated naturally, I'd agree with everything Divina says.

It is very definitely not about natural treatment but if you can get a copy of Kay Redfield's book (I think its "an unquiet mind") it is worth reading. She is a consultant psychiatrist with bipolar disorder and the book is an extremely positive one about her coming to terms with it and her medication (Lithium).

One thing I will say, at the risk of maybe upsetting others on the BB, please be extremely cautious about lowering the dose or stopping any medication your son is on. I don't want to spook you but there is a high risk of suicide among the bipolar disordered when they come down from a manic high and the allopathic (conventional) drugs are designed to balance his moods smoothing the highs and lows. In an ideal world your son's doctor would work along side a homoeopath towards removing the drug(s) as the homoeopathic treatment becomes effective.

If it hasn't already been done I'd suggest getting your son's blood sugar levels checked out. It is not unknown for extreme hypoglycaemia to mimic or underpin bipolar disorder. The other nutritional angle worth exploring is folic acid, a deficiency of which can similarly underpin the disorder.

I wish you and your son well,
take care
Dave

Thanks so much for the replies. I have spent the last several months researching bipolar disorder, and realize I cannot just stop his medications. It has to be a gradual discontinuance with something else replacing the pharmaceuticals. I have also done some reasearch into the nutrient deficiencies that could possibly be aggravating, if not causing the disorder. I am very intersted in the truehope supplement - www.truehope.com - as it is vitamins, minerals and amino acids and has proven to be very effective so far. I have had all blood work done and his glucose levels are fine. No chemical imbalances noted. An eeg was normal as well. He is cuurently stabel on his pharmaceuticals, but the weight gain is a concern for both of us.

Hi Becki,
Just one more thought if you are considering a nutritional approach, have you looked at the work of Melvyn Werbach. His books are a great source of references and "Nutritional Influences on Mental Illness" has a chapter on bipolar, unfortunately I have no means of posting it. The books are available in paper form or online at http://www.healthy.net/library/books/werbach the online version is not free and I think the bipolar chapter is about $6 although you can look at the list of nutrients reference FREE at http://www.healthy.net/library/books.../bipolard.htm.

Also the work of Carl Pfeiffer may be of interest.

Once again all the best

Dave

[ 26 April 2001: Message edited by: davegreen ]

What kind of bipolar disorder he has - Type I or Type-II ?

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Davegreen has good references although I could not get the second http.
I agree Carl Pfeiffer has good info too but I could not find his info on the web. Dave's advise is all sound.


Abram Hoffer MD, PhD did great work treating mental illness. He is the Founding Fellow of American Academy of Orthomolecular Physcians and he worked with Linus Pauling, Ph.D., American chemist. He won a 1954 Nobel Prize for work on the nature of chemical bonding and the 1962 Nobel Peace Prize. http://members.aol.com/pbchowka/hoffer.html He also endorses the work by Pat Lazarus in her book "Healing the Mind the Natural Way".

I found an interesting statement on page 21 of that book.
"Orthodox pyschiatrist strives to arrive at a correct diagnosis; for instance , does the patient have schizophrenia or manic depresion, (Bipolar disorder), ....... The orthomolecular philosophy of seeking underlying causes of mental symptoms - rather than covering up the symptoms with drugs - leads some othomolecular doctors to say that the "disease label" - diagnosing a specific syndrome - is not so important as pinpointing the boichemical imbalance in the individual's body. An orthomolecular pschriatrist will concentrate more on what can be done to restore a healthy balance....."
Sounds quite a bit like the philosophy of homeopathy, except I have found that with 'mega vit therapy' one usually needs to continue the treatment indefinately, where as if it is used in conjunction with homeopathy a cure may occur.

In one very difficult case of treating the patient with homeopathy some allopathic drug is still required, but it is now 1/4 the dosage of what it was and no side effect medication has been required. This patient uses some mineral supplements to avoid any side effects from the drug.
Homeopathy can greatly help persons with these problems and sometimes produce a cure.

For example 20% of certain mental illness patients drink large quantities of water or liquid, and this can be a leading symptom to the homeopathic remedy when it is considered with the other symptoms.

[ 27 April 2001: Message edited by: cib ]

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Anti-aging
Carole Franske

Judyth Reischenberg-Ullman and Robert Ullman have written two books, 'Prozak Free' and 'Ritalin Free Kids' which might be of interest to you. They are board certified homeopaths with a background in psychiatry. I will e-mail you with information.
Shirley

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Shirley Reischman

Thanks to all of you for your helpful suggestions and advice. Dr B, my son is neither type I or II, but Bipolar Mixed. He is "high and Low" at the same time. A bit harder to treat. I have already read many of the books/articles you all suggest, but some are unknown to me so will be reading up on those. Again, thanks so much......Becki