This is Part II of a guest post by Beverley Thomson.
Part I, which has gained a lot of interest, can be read here.
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The Psychiatry Redefined website offers a functional medicine paradigm for the treatment of one of psychiatry’s most challenging presentations including the course ‘Functional & Integrative Medicine for Managing Medication Side-Effects’. For $170, ‘This course provides methods for managing medication withdrawal and side-effects (sexual dysfunction, weight gain, suicidality) through a lens of functional and integrative medicine. In particular, we examine nutritional interventions to ameliorate the withdrawal symptoms associated with SSRI antidepressants. We conclude with a general discussion regarding the role of medication in psychiatry.’
The claim is this “serious void” in the psychiatric model and this void created by psychiatry and psychiatric medication can now be filled by an evidence-based practice prioritising nutritional deficiencies. ‘Mental illness should be seen as a reflection of multiple internal imbalances. If we understand the causes of these imbalances, we will understand the cures.’ it would seem the chemical imbalance theory has been revised, updated and in this world of functional medicine it is no longer about serotonin deficiency rather a “reflection of multiple internal imbalances”. It is not the antidepressant which has caused the imbalances but our nutritional deficiencies!
The Alternative to Meds Center 7 in Arizona is just one of many luxurious clinics claiming to be a world authority on the subject of psychiatric medication withdrawal. With 15 years of experience, their program helps individuals with medication withdrawal using alternative mental health, holistic psychiatry, and holistic addiction treatment at a cost of up to $85,000.
According to their website these experts declare, ‘People coming off of psychiatric medication need special considerations not found in a “drug rehab.” You are likely well aware that getting yanked off of medications would be a disaster.
Surprisingly, most health professionals seem to be largely unaware of this. After almost 20 years of focusing on the worst of the worst cases, we have become world experts in safe, comfortable medication withdrawal.’ They use a host of holistic therapies including Intravenous Therapy described as ‘a great way to get a concentrated effect on the physiology, which is highly effective applied to medication withdrawal’. They have crafted their IV’s to be specific for each type of medication withdrawal.
Claiming to have an 87% long-term success rate, they say success is about more than just getting off of medications. ‘The symptoms that got a person on medications generally come back if the underlying causes are not attended to. In MANY cases, the neurotoxic accumulation of poisons based on individual genetics gets overlooked in medication withdrawal. Our program draws on the fundamentals of Environmental Medicine by pulling out heavy metals, hormone-mimicking toxins, and other physiological and neurological stressors. Simultaneously, highly specific neurochemical and hormone precursors and natural forms of top-shelf science support are administered so that getting off of the medications is even possible.’
Jamie, 43, had taken venlafaxine for over 14 years and during that time had suffered serious adverse effects. He was rapidly withdrawn from the drug by his psychiatrist. He was left with severe withdrawal adverse effects including depression, bouts of anxiety and Post SSRI Sexual Dysfunction, (PSSD). He consulted two psychiatrists who offered no option other than to reinstate the original drug. After a desperate search online for help with his Protracted Acute Withdrawal Syndrome (PAWS), he found a ‘Recovery Coach’ offering ‘a ‘Unique-to-You’ Blueprint Summary from a 130+ Check-Up Process, which would highlight all the ‘Dis-Ease’-Sustaining Factors which were contributory factors in his living in his current state-of-being’. He assured Jamie that by using a wide range of indicator and assessment tools, drawn from disciplines such as, Functional Medicine, Nutritional Health, Birth-to-Addiction Spectrum disciplines; Emotional, Mental, Psychological, Behavioural and Physical Health, he would be able to get back to living a healthy life. Jamie was told, ‘we humans are creatures of habit and much of how you are living today, whatever the cause, has become HABIT to your emotions, brain and body’.
Putting his trust in this professional, Jamie invested over £6,000 for the services, there was also an ongoing £250 monthly payment for supplements and nutritional advice. Some of the tests Jamie was subjected to; histamine, thyroid, pyroluria, blood lactate, chemical sensitivities, food sensitivities, food and chemical sensitivities, candida related complex, genetic, ADHD, vitamin and mineral deficiencies, OAT test, Dutch test, zinc / copper balance, heavy metal toxicity, methylation profile, celiac, GARS test and testosterone levels. It was suggested in a subsequent report Jamie was ‘Thinking in the ‘loop’ of being bio-chemically addicted to his emotions resulting in ‘emotional addiction’’, that he was ‘living every day through the Chemistry of Survival', and his body was doing his thinking rather than his mind. He was advised his ‘Post-Abstinence Withdrawal Symptoms’ were high priority for immediate action, and this required the ’Use of Live Life Beyond…. Daily Brain-Re-training and Life-Change Implementation Checklist, due to his general thought processes being negative in nature, more than positive’.
Jamie connected with me online, and I agreed (free of charge) to meet with him and the Recovery Coach. Following specific questions regarding Jamie’s Protracted Acute Withdrawal Syndrome, (PAWS), we realized the Recovery Coach and his organization had absolutely no understanding of antidepressant withdrawal and the effects venlafaxine and subsequent withdrawal had on Jamie’s biological state. The language used in Jamie’s test reports were indeed testimony to this. This is just one example of making a patient count for considerable profit. Thankfully the fees Jamie paid out have now been reimbursed.
We then secured a meeting with the Integrated Care Director of Jamie’s local NELFT NHS Foundation Trust. The trust provides an extensive range of integrated community and Mental Health services. Unfortunately, it does not provide the much- needed service for psychiatric drug withdrawal, however the Director was willing to listen, and he managed to find a psychiatrist to support Jamie in his attempt to find a solution to his post withdrawal symptoms. We had numerous meetings with the Psychiatrist to discuss the limited options and Jamie decided to reinstate a different SSRI at a very low dose. He is receiving weekly clinical monitoring from the psychiatrist, and I am providing ongoing psychological support (without payment). Jamie is an informed patient and decisions were made collaboratively on the understanding there are no guarantees of success. He is acutely aware this is trial and error, experimental and there are no guarantees. The case highlights some key issues; prescribers’ lack of safe tapering / withdrawal knowledge and the need for training, an example of the type of opportunistic services ready to exploit those looking for help and the vulnerable position patients needing help with withdrawal or iatrogenic harm find themselves in due to the lack of specialist services available.
If we are to better understand how to treat withdrawal and post withdrawal symptoms It is imperative, we put patients before profit and establish trusted authoritative services as a priority. There are millions dependent on antidepressants representing an emerging and growing potential future market available to this new wave of functional / integrative psychiatry. Perhaps this warrants the warning; if we choose to take antidepressants whenever possible we should do so at the lowest dose and for the shortest time. Never before has there been a need to become truly informed patients and choose wisely by putting our trust in those who are experts and honest about this complex issue. We have a right to pay for healthcare services if we so choose to and are able, but caution is required.
This current situation also reminds us of the need for responsible prescribing. Less prescribing of these drugs means less harm and dependence and ultimately less demand for the withdrawal and support services. However, while governments, medicine and psychiatry continue to deny patients best possible care and the answers they deserve, are we often sending those dependent on and harmed by psychiatric medication down expensive, experimental rabbit holes full of empty, lack of evidence-based promises? Are we sometimes trying to solve the unsolvable?
Beverley Thomson
7 https://www.alternativetomeds.com/
Beverley Thomson is a writer, researcher and speaker with a focus on psychiatric medication including antidepressants, benzodiazepines and ADHD drugs; their history, how the drugs work, adverse effects, dependence, withdrawal and development of patient support services. Her aim is to help inform and empower the patient to make informed choices about medication. She has a particular interest in withdrawal management and prescription drug-induced suicide. In the past 10 years, she has worked with organizations such as the British Medical Association, the Scottish Government (as part of a working group addressing the issue of prescribed drug harm and dependence in Scotland), the UK Council for Evidence-Based Psychiatry (writing evidence-based summaries to be used by professionals and the general public), and the UK All Party Parliamentary Group for Prescribed Drug Dependence. She has contributed to articles in the British Medical Journal (BMJ) and mainstream media including TV and radio.
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