Suggestion:
A friend of mine was diagnosed with Schizophrenia a few years ago and has rotated through a variety of medicines, some that have caused him to have dramatic muscle paralysis, others audio hallucinations. What I am finding very important in the discussion of brain related problems like Schizophrenia, is knowing the persons history. I think it's difficult to find cures if people are not listing, sharing, and linking together common causes. What I am finding in my research is that a lot of these brain diseases have overlapping symptoms and are likely being misdiagnosed. Upon further research, I believe he actually has Parkinson's Disease Dementia.
He has problems walking and with balance, his hands tremble and shake, he has problems learning and problems talking. Many people assume that if someone is hearing voices and is paranoid they have Schizophrenia. However the dementia aspect causes the same thing. I only uncovered this after looking into the cause, since I know what the cause of his problem is. I just have yet to find the cure.
1. He he a history of drug abuse: he was heavily into smoking marijuana in high school. He has done other drugs like ACID on rare ocassions. In high school there has been alcohol poisening through drinking liquor requiring a stomach pump. Heavy beer drinking throughout the process to the point of severe alcoholism. Never during this point or after did he hear audio hallucinations, have severe paranoia, or have muscle problems.
2. Escalated severe substance abuse: he started huffing lacquer thinner over the course of a year. Following this time period, he began having audio hallucinations, severe paranoia, and had muscle problems.
3. Violent behavior led to medication: after a violent act of agression and threats of personal harm to himself, he was medicated and diagnosed with Schizophrenia.
4. Mixing drugs: He took his drugs and continued drinking alcohol because he was addicted, even with AA meetings. He stopped his medication.
5. Poor evaulation of hallucinations: It's unknown whether the audio hallucinations began to happen during huffing, of after huffing. If after huffing it would suggest that the brain damage caused ongoing hallucinations afterwards, even as huffing was discontinued. What is known is that while on his new meds, audio hallucinations continue to occur, possibly less frequently, it's hard to define when no proper evaluation ever done.
Theory 1:
It's possible that huffing caused the hallucinations as he huffed, and the new meds cause the current hallucinations to continue. For those that say they have stopped medicating and continue to hallucinate, the question arises of dependency and lingering toxicity in the system of that med. Also the question arises, what would happen if a normal healthy person took those drugs, would they hallucinate? If so it would suggest strongly that the drugs are causing it. Research could be done into the recreational use of these drugs to see if there is any truth in this and to testimonials of people who quick usage that stop hallucinations.
Theory 2: Based on all his symptoms, it appears he was misdiagnosed with Schizophrenia and actually has Parkinson's with Dementia. I've come to this conclusion after not research Schizophrenia or Parkinson's, but by researching Huffing Lacquer. I came across an article of someone else who huffed for was diagnosed with Parkinson's and shown to have it for at least 3 months at the point of diagnosis.
"Abstract
We report the first description of a patient with parkinsonism induced by solvent abuse. Our patient developed parkinsonism acutely, following heavy abuse of lacquer thinner. Her clinical deficits wee indistinguishable from idiopathic parkinsonism (Parkinson's disease) and she responded to levodopa. Parkinsonism has persisted for more than 3 months. Brain computed tomography was normal. Positron emission tomographic studies showed normal fluorodopa uptake and reduced raclopride binding, indicating an unusual disturbance of striatal dopaminergic function. This patient suggests that organic solvents may cause parkinsonism in susceptible individuals."
"http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/journal/109680295/abstract?CRETRY=1&SRETRY=0
What this is suggesting is that things you inhale like lacquer thinner, can lead to Parkinsons. This pushed me to research the symptoms of Parkinsons, all things he appeared to have problems with. Showing that a strong comparison of history can help tie together causes and find links, leading to possible cures.
It should also be noted that Celiac Disease is associated with wheat related foods causing intestine problems, that cause nutrient absorption problems. My research showed that almost all beer has gluten in it because they are mostly brewed from malted barley or wheat. This like ties in a series of additional problems like depression and severe anxiety and irratibility.
Theory 3: Many symptoms are actually pre-existing to the disease. If you lookup Schizophrenia, Parkinsons and Dementia, their are similarities. Also they list things like anxiety, feeling uncomfortable in social settings, etc. These are actually things that he felt prior to any hallucinations or any severe issues. This was actually the reason why he started heavily drinking. He stated that it made him loosen up and took the edge off in a social setting. He would drink to talk to women. This theory suggests that many of the symptoms are not symptoms of the disease because they prexist it. It was the huffing lacquer that started the cycle of audio hallucination and paranioa followed by medication that continued it. When forced to stop drinking, the crutch was removed and he was forced to face that underlying issue of anxiety and fear of social situations. It was amplified by his inability to walk, muscle parilysis and inability to talk and think normally that made him even more conscientious. However it was a pre-existing problem that shouldn't be used to define the disease directly because it misleads people and creates an overlapping of disease symptoms and misclassifications.
