Some 'presumed' causes of Schizophrenia and/or Psychosis

Cause: Cough Syrup

Mr. A, an 18-year-old high school student, came to the psychiatric emergency room after several days of consuming cough syrup (one to two 8-oz bottles per day containing dextromethorphan, 711 mg per bottle). He described experiencing dissociative phenomena involving the belief that he had died and had "become just [his] thoughts," coupled with the experience of observing himself from outside his body. He reported vivid visual hallucinations, including the ability to "see 360° in all four quadrants" and to literally "see into people." He also recounted delusions of telepathy (he could ascertain the thoughts of other students at school if he sat near them and could communicate with them without speaking) and paranoia (his employer was trying to kill him and strangers might hurt him). Mr. A had previous diagnoses of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and social phobia. His past medical history was unremarkable. He recounted occasional marijuana use (one to two joints per week). His father had bipolar disorder.

Mr. A’s symptoms showed complete remission without neuroleptic treatment within 4 days after discontinuing the abuse of dextromethorphan, and he was discharged from the hospital with no evidence of psychosis. He was rehospitalized twice more over the next 2 months with similar symptoms. Each time, he reported consuming large doses of dextromethorphan and showed complete resolution of his psychotic symptoms with abstinence from the ingestion of cough syrup. During a subsequent sustained abstinence from dextromethorphan while participating in outpatient substance abuse treatment, Mr. A had no recurrent psychosis. He acknowledged that his previous episodes of cough syrup abuse were routinely followed by states of hallucinosis, paranoia, and dissociation.

Earlier reports of psychosis following excessive cough syrup ingestion were generally attributed to the sympathomimetic amines contained in many preparations (2, 3). However, Schadel and Sellers (4) first suggested that dextromethorphan could be the causative agent because of its metabolism to dextrorphan, a noncompetitive NMDA receptor antagonist. Individuals with the rapid metabolizer phenotype cytochrome P4502D6 can be particularly vulnerable to these psychotogenic effects (5). Since dextromethorphan is not routinely assayed in urine toxicology screenings, clinicians should be vigilant in treating cases that suggest dextromethorphan abuse.

Read the full article here: Dextromethorphan-Induced Psychosis

Cause: Ego Collapse

Q: Can you tell me what a psychotic break is? I can't seem to find any information about it.

A: There are, at least to my way of thinking, several states of mind..."normal", meaning consistent over time and situations; "disorganized", meaning a little scattered, unfocused, fragmented; "disturbed", meaning a state of mind leading to behavior that is socially unacceptable and potentially harmful to self and others; "disordered", meaning a display of clinically definable and diagnosable symptoms that are clustered under one primary heading (Depression, Borderline, Kleptomania, etc.); and "dissociated", meaning a collapse of the "ego integrity", a state of mind where the person is unsure of who they are, where they are, what they are doing and how they should be behaving - a pervasive and overall loss of "identity" and "sense-of-self".

The last, "dissociation" is generally considered a "psychotic break". In other words, a person is so overwhelmed by either internal or external turmoil that what we generally think of their "ego" just plain collapses.

Source: Ask the Therapist

Cause: Ego Death

... These issues tend to arise naturally in life, especially during transitions and intense events, but they also are brought forth intensely due to the inner work. They arise especially as the soul learns to penetrate and transcend her ego structure. To follow our example, when the soul begins to see the limitation of structure and experiences herself as presence, the structure begins to reveal its nature as a mental construct characterized by past conditioning, ideas, memories, etc. The soul begins to experience an inner emptiness, a meaninglessness, a dread of falling apart, and terror of death and annihilation. These experiences of falling apart or being annihilated actually come to pass as the structures dissolve. The soul experiences disintegration and dissolution, disorientation, and a loss of identity; she feels lost and despondent. These existential crises are actually elements of some stages of working through ego structures that then lead to deeper realizations of true nature, moving to timelessness and formlessness. (The Inner Journey Home, p 231)

Read the full article: Ego Death

Cause: Blood Type

... we have isolated that schizophrenia is largely linked to Blood Type O. Genetic predisposition to alcoholism runs in Blood Type A. There is continuous on-going research, but links are being identified.

You can see manifestations of this clumping in the emotions: depression in Blood Type O, for instance. Often they are not eating enough protein, and when they start eating more protein they begin to feel much better. Most notably, mental functioning improves, whether on or off medication.

Read the full article: Blood Types and Nutrition

Cause: Qigong

Manifestations of Psychiatric Disorders
It is quite interesting that most patients have relatively acute attacks of short duration. After the attacks, they feel relatively exhausted and many have partial or complete amnesia about their behaviour. The most common syndrome is an acute psychotic reaction, quite a significant proportion of which are similar to that of schizophreniform disorder.

These psychotic syndromes usually occur a couple of days after Qigong practice. Other presentations could mimic affective disorders, dissociative (hysteria), and other neurotic disorders. For those diagnosed with schizophreniform disorders, the clinical symptoms include delusions, hallucinations, and disorganised speech. Quite often, there is accompanying over-talkativeness and elation of mood. There can also be abnormal behaviour, especially that of 'posturing' using the various exercise postures of the Qigong practice. The first rank symptoms of schizophrenia described by Schneider such as thought control or alienation may be apparent, but are not always present.

A number of patients could be described as suffering from an affective disorder, with either depressive or manic episodes. For those diagnosed as having various forms of neurotic disorders, the clinical manifestations can be divided into physical and psychological forms. Nearly all patients have a special complaint of something like "the Qi moving within the body, and dashing or rushing into the head". Often, such `qi' becomes stagnated somewhere, leading to headache, dizziness, or strange perceptions in the lower abdomen (called the `Dan-Tian point'). Psychological symptoms include hypochondriasis, obsessive thoughts or images, phobia, suicidal ideas, and feelings of sadness, anxiety, and worries about being out of control. For those who manifest with the dissociative state (previously labelled the 'hysteric syndrome'), there are features of disturbed consciousness, disorientation of time, place, and person, and visual and auditory hallucinations. Such features usually occur after Qigong practice for 2 weeks or a month.

Read the full article here: Culture Bound Psyciatric Disorders Associated With Qigong Practice in China

Cause: Kundalini

Two patients are described who had been diagnosed as schizophrenic, but had actually instead been going through spiritual crises, which in Eastern spiritual tradition are called raising the kundalini. Perhaps this experience is not a disease, but many--especially if not understood by oneself, the nearest relations and the medical profession--cause mental illness. In WHO ICD-10 the experience could be classified as F48.8, disordines neurotici specificati alii. The process falls outside the categories of both normal and psychotic. When allowed to progress to completion this process culminates in deep psychological balance, strength, and maturity.

Source: Schizophrenia or spiritual crisis? On "raising the kundalini" and its diagnostic classification

Have you ever heard anything about schizophrenia and gluten intolerance?
I read somewhere about how some that where found to have gluten intolerance and then had it restricted from their diet had an improvement in their schizophrenic symptoms. I can't find where I read that though-- do you know anything about it?

mandy

Cause: Gluten Intolerance

Intriguing early research suggests that people with a genetic intolerance to gluten may also be at increased risk for schizophrenia. Investigators say the link, if proven, could lead to new treatment options for a small subset of schizophrenic people.

Using a Danish health registry, researchers from John's Hopkins University's Bloomberg School of Public Health found people with the genetic digestive disorder known as celiac disease to be three times as likely as the general population to develop schizophrenia. Lead researcher William W. Eaton, PhD, says the next step is to determine if following a gluten-free diet makes a difference in the symptoms of schizophrenic people with celiac disease. He estimates that 3% of schizophrenic people could potentially benefit from such a diet.

Celiac disease is a lifelong (chronic) condition in which foods that contain gluten damage the small intestine. Gluten is a form of protein found in some grains (notably wheat, barley, and rye). The damage to the intestine makes it hard for the body to absorb nutrients, especially fat, calcium, iron, and folate, from food.

"We can now screen for celiac disease, so it is at least conceivable that we can locate the folks with schizophrenia for whom gluten withdrawal might work," he tells WebMD. "But we still have to do those studies."

Source: Gluten Intolerance Linked to Schizophrenia

There you go Mandyfins. There is a link between gluten intolerance and schizophrenia. I beg of you (and all other readers) please do not ask me if the brand of lightbulb used in your bedside table during childhood is a cause of schizophrenia. I'm afraid that if I go looking for an answer, I'll find a study that a causal link has been found between the use of Brand X lightbulbs and schizophrenia, although naturally, more studies are needed.

As a side note, some of you may have noticed that the title of this topic changed. It was suggested to me that the insertion of the word "Presumed" would be most appropriate. I agreed wholeheartedly and Moderator LMo was good enough to edit the opening post on my behalf -- I could no longer do so because the 90 minute editing period had expired.

I thank you kindly for your assistance LMo.

Thank you spiritual_emergency.
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I beg of you (and all other readers) please do not ask me if the brand of lightbulb used in your bedside table during childhood is a cause of schizophrenia.

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Not to worry, I'm not brainstorming for things.... I'd researched a while back about causes and thought I'd read about gluten intolerance-- thus the reason I brought that up. I promise no "lightbulb" questions or if one stands on their head too long or...etc...etc...

mandy

mandyfins: I promise no "lightbulb" questions or if one stands on their head too long or...etc...etc...

lol. It is kind of funny. I've occasionally put such a list together off the top of my head but this is the first time I've compiled this kind of list to this degree. I intend to add to it if I come across other "causes" and I hope others will too. I also confess to rolling my eyes at some "causes" whereas others really resonated for me. I have no doubt that other readers may have had the same reaction.

There was also some information in there that I might follow up on personally. For example, some of the nutritional information looked intriguing to me -- I suspect that somewhere in there my adrenal glands got fried so I'll probably follow up on that "adrenochrome hypothesis". I'm past the point of looking for a cure but I acknowledge that bodies still have to heal. It's quite possible that other readers identified areas that may be applicable to their personal situation.

Overall, it was both fun to do and informative. And that video opener was perfect for this topic! It makes me laugh every time I see it.

Thanks for posting this, Spiritualemergency. I, and many others, I am sure are frustrated and overwhelmed by the sheer number of scientific study findings out there and like myself, do not know what has been discredited and what is good science. Lots of studies seem to funded or affiliated in some way by those who stand to profit .

Your "research" supports a scientific conclusion:

"It's no wonder our heads are spinning."

Meta

Meta: Thanks for posting this, Spiritualemergency. I, and many others, I am sure are frustrated and overwhelmed by the sheer number of scientific study findings out there and like myself, do not know what has been discredited and what is good science. Lots of studies seem to funded or affiliated in some way by those who stand to profit .

You're most welcome Meta. I found myself wondering too about some of the links between studies and funding -- perhaps there's more research dollars out there if you tag the term "schizophrenia" to your research.

It is interesting to begin gathering up all the "presumed causes" in one place, (I'm certain we can add to that list). Nonetheless, having done so we can begin to break the "presumed" causes down into a few subsets...<blockquote>[*] Nutritional: Milk; Lack of Sunlight/Vitamin D; Niacin Deficiency; Caffeine; Lack of Polyunsaturated Fatty Acids; Gluten Intolerance

[*] Psychosocial: Trauma; Stress; Social Environment; Attempt at Self-Healing; Cultural Memes &amp; Mutations; Double-Bind Theory &amp; The Family; Ego Collapse

[*] Biomedical: Dopamine Dysfunction; Genetics; Brain Trauma; Blood Type

[*] Viral / External Cause: Cat Poop; Marijuana; Neuroleptics; Cough Syrup; Qigong

[*] Psychospiritual: Demon Possession; Shamanic Calling; Ego Death; Kundalini</blockquote>Based on what we each know of our personal histories, we can then begin to identify which subset and therefore, which form of treatment may best aid us in recovering on an individual basis. For instance, in my own case, psychosocial and psychospiritual factors are the most significant "causes". Is it any wonder then that I responded best to "talk therapy" and the insights and spiritual connection offered by "depth psychology"?

It's worth drawing attention to this entry as well: Schizophrenia &amp; Hope. The two clinicians with the best recovery rates -- 80% to 85% -- are a clinical psychologist (Jaakko Seikkula) and a Jungian psychiatrist (John Weir Perry). With that kind of match between cause and treatment, it was almost inevitable that I would make a full recovery. Naturally, it doesn't hurt to have "Jesus" (Love) and "Kali" (Time) on your side either.

Cause: Multiple

The term "schizophrenia" is an inadequate and misleading diagnosis. "Disperceptions of unknown cause" is a better term.

If we include fevers, environmental pains, and drug reactions, there must be a hundred ways to go crazy and be diagnosed as schizophrenic.

A comprehensive list of possible causes for disperceptions that cause schizophrenia is shown in the table below.

Causes of Schizophrenia – well-known, less-known, and almost unknown<blockquote>Well-known:[*] Dementia paralytica [*] Pellagra [*] Porphyria [*] Hypothyroidism [*] Drug intoxications [*] Homocysteinuria [*] Folic acid/B12 deficiency [*] Sleep deprivation [*] Heavy metal toxicity

Less Well-known[*] Hypoglycemia [*] Psychomotor epilepsy [*] Cerebral allergy [*] Wheat-gluten sensitivity [*] Histapenia – copper excess [*] Histadelia [*] Pyroluria [*] Wilson's disease [*] Chronic Candida infection [*] Huntington's chorea

Almost Unknown[*] Prostaglandins [*] Dopamine excess [*] Endorphins [*] Serine excess [*] Prolactin excess [*] Dialysis therapy [*] Serotonin imbalance [*] Leucine, histidine imbalance [*] Interferon, amantadine, anti-viral drugs [*] Platelets deficient in MAO (monoamine oxidase)

[b]Read the full article here: Twenty-Nine Medical Causes of “Schizophrenia”

Cause: Repressed Bisexuality

Mankind has long searched for the cause and meaning of madness. The 639 quotations contained in this volume, each followed by explanatory comments by the author, point inexorably to the factor of unconscious bisexual conflict/gender confusion as forming the basic etiological role in all functional mental illness, including schizophrenia. Because we are all born with an innate bisexual constitution, we all have the potential to become mad when this basic bisexuality is unnaturally repressed and denied. Many examples of how this transpires are examined throughout the pages of this book, and a clear and irrefutable answer is thus provided to the age old question: What is the cause of madness?

The disease we call 'schizophrenia' is but an arbitrary name used to designate the end-stage of a process beginning with a slight neurosis. The more severe the bisexual conflict and gender confusion in the individual, the more severe the degree of the mental illness which is experienced. No other species but man is afflicted with mental illness, because no other species has either the intellectual power to repress their sexual feelings nor the motivation to do so.

Source: Schizophrenia: The Bearded Lady Disease

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Note: I am including all "presumed causes" I can find in this list and while I must say that a number of them have caused me to roll my eyes, this is the first one I've come across that I would say is downright offensive. It doesn't take much perusing of the site to realize that the author is extremely biased in his perception, i.e., on the death of Joan of Arc...<blockquote>Joan herself reported during her trial that her voices and visions first appeared to her at the age of thirteen, and here we are informed by another source that she first adopted "man’s attire" at the age of fourteen. Thus her hallucinations and her transvestism, following closely the one upon the other, were the first concrete signs of her schizophrenic psychosis, which clinically would be termed of the paranoid type. ...

Thus we are presented with the tragic and heart-rending spectacle of a severely mentally-ill young girl, no more than 19 or 20 years of age at most, being tied to the stake and burned alive as the direct consequence of actions she had taken in pursuance of the tasks, and in obedience to the commands, levied upon her by her hallucinated "voices".

Source: Sample Quotes</blockquote>

This assessment completely ignores the history of the times in which Joan of Arc lived. As another site notes...<blockquote>Joan of Arc, in French, Jeanne d'Arc, also called the Maid of Orleans, a patron saint of France and a national heroine, led the resistance to the English invasion of France in the Hundred Years War. ...

In 1430 she was captured by the Burgundians while defending Compiegne near Paris and was sold to the English. The English, in turn, handed her over to the ecclesiastical court at Rouen to be tried for witchcraft, heresy and for wearing male clothing, which was considered an offense against the church. Joan was convicted and on May 30, 1431 she was burned at the stake in the Rouen marketplace.

Source: The History of Joan of Arc</blockquote>

How many women went to war in dresses during the Hundred Years War? How many women led the resistance to the English invasion of France? How many women were sold to Rome to be tried as a witch? Is the reader supposed to disregard these facets of that reality in favor of believing that Joan of Arc's tragic demise was directly related to her repressed sexuality as evidenced by her wearing men's apparel?

A similar story is alleged to have taken place some 300 years earlier...<blockquote>In this account the alleged popess is placed about the year 1100, and no name is yet assigned her. The story runs that a very talented woman, dressed as a man, became notary to the Curia, then cardinal and finally pope; that one day this person went out on horseback, and on this occasion gave birth to a son; that she was then bound to the tail of a horse, dragged round the city, stoned to death by the mob, and was buried at the place where she died...

Source: Catholic Encyclopedia</blockquote>

Is this yet another tragic tale of a repressed bisexual or was it simply a matter that men were afforded greater value and opportunity in that era and both women were capable of seeing as much?

Cause: Subliminal Distraction

In the 1960's designers and engineers accidentally discovered a 'conflict of physiology' when it caused mental breaks for office workers. They were using prototypes of movable close-spaced workstations. The cubicle was their solution to stop the mental breaks.

They made three basic mistakes.
[*] They thought their encounter was the first time the phenomenon had appeared.
[*] They believed that it could only happen in a business office.
[*] To this day they believe it can only cause a harmless period of confusion and pseudo psychotic behavior.

This site gathers historic records to show that none of that is true. So few people are aware of it that it is never considered when there is a mass school shooting, college suicide, or strange student disappearance.

Source: Subliminal Peripheral Vision Psychosis

It was pointed out to me, quite correctly, that I hadn't included my own "cause" within this list. Mine borrows on some of the above themes but I'll include it anyway.

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<blockquote>How To Produce an Acute Schizophrenic Break

To produce a schizophrenic break you need to collapse the ego, preferably as rapidly as possible. There are different ways of defining the ego but I define it thusly: The ego is a structure of the personality that is made up of what we believe to be true about ourselves, others, the world around us, and our place in it. We form these beliefs as based on our relationships, our experiences, the roles we play and the activities we engage in. All of these combined create our ego, which is, for most of us, our sense of "who we are". I prefer to think of the ego in this regard as the little self.

When the ego collapses, fragments or disintegrates, shadow and archetypal content floods in from the personal and collective unconscious. Those are Jungian terms and I use them because it's the best model I've found thus far for explaining this experience to others. During psychosis, what is experienced, and what is seen by the people around you, are fragments of the collapsed ego (one's shattered sense of self), shadow material (which produces fear, terror, paranoia, shame, etc.), and archetypal material, such as the sense that one is Jesus Christ, or Buddha, or God... or has just seen one of those figures get into a cab on 49th street.

Yet, each of those religious icons are also symbols of center which is where the larger Self resides. If you make it all the way through the unconscious to the center, for a little while at least, -- you don't just play God, you are God -- because there is nothing left at that point to separate the I-From-The-Thou. Within an Eastern framework, this might be called Self-realization or God-realization. In the West, it's called delusions of grandeur.

There are a number of spiritual traditions that work to slowly polish these layers of selfhood away so as to come into contact with the pure source of the All; meditation in the Buddhist tradition or contemplation in the Christian mysteries are two such examples. There are also various drugs that temporarily displace the ego such as the use of peyote among Native Americans; LSD among university professors; ayahuasca among shamans of the Amazon. In addition, there are ritual activities one can engage in -- kundalini yoga, drumming, chanting, sacred forms of dance, tantric love-making or creating a work of art. Note that none of these activities produce neurological dysfunction, they simply remove the ego -- one's sense of the little self from the larger equation.

Falling in love can displace the ego. Losing someone you love can displace the ego. Shock and trauma can displace the ego. Retiring, or losing a job or role you had strongly invested yourself in can displace the ego. All of us have likely had these kind of experiences and we're familiar with the feeling that life feels a bit shaky for a while afterwards. We don't quite know how to be who we believed we were if we're no longer "Joe's wife" or "Director of Internal Affairs" or "Mary's best friend". If we thought of those people, roles, belongings as positive (i.e., we were attached), we experience their departure as losses. We may need to replace them in some form -- a new spouse, new friend, or a new job -- before stability returns and we feel we are back to being "ourselves" once more.

In a matter of months I lost my self-identity as a daughter, my self-identity as a mother, my self-identity as a wife, my self-identity as a worker, and I also lost my community and my two best friends; externals that otherwise could have helped provide some structure in the midst of those losses. In addition, trauma was interwoven through those events: trauma from my past, trauma in my present, and a trauma that came to be in which many people died and I felt responsible in some twisted way for their deaths. I wasn't, but something doesn't have to be true to believe that it's true.

You cannot try this at home because you require the co-operation of the entire Universe which strips you of most everything that you have loved or believed in, in one relentless blow after another with hardly any time in between to catch your breath until you really and truly, absolutely cannot stand anymore. This is how you produce rapid ego collapse, which in turn, produces an acute schizophrenic break -- no faulty neurological wiring required.

Source: How to Produce an Acute Schizophrenic Break

[b]See also: [*] Ego Death[*] The Mandala Experience: Schizophrenia and Self-Disintegration[*] The Inner Apocalypse[*] Jung's Model of the Psyche[*] Strange Days ~ Beautiful Midnight[*] Episodes of Unitive Consciousness

Cause: Parental Exposure to Dry-Cleaning Agents

A reader (who wants me to write an article on autism and paternal age-- I swear I'm getting to it) sent me a reference to a 2007 article finding an increased rate of schizophrenia in those born to parents who were dry cleaners... The authors speculate it's tetrachloroethylene exposure.

Source: The Last Psychiatrist

Cause: Lyme Disease

Lyme disease is no small health threat to persons living in the Northeast, the Mid-Atlantic states, Wisconsin, Minnesota, and northern California. True, the first signs of its onslaught are usually no more than flulike symptoms. But it is also capable, over the long haul, of inflicting a variety of other physiological insults—say, muscle pain, arthritis, heart inflammation, severe headache, stiff neck, or facial paralysis.

Now a new study adds one more malady to that list: psychiatric illness.

The study was conducted by Tomá Hájek, M.D., a psychiatry resident at the Prague Psychiatric Center in the Czech Republic, and his colleagues. It is reported in the February American Journal of Psychiatry.

Source: Psychiatry Online

hi spiritualemergency. one of the presumed causes was:

"Heavy metal toxicity "

was that referring to metal as in the genre of music or are we talking chemicals found in metals?

sorry just wanted to clear it up out of cuiosity as im a massive heavy metal fan.

tc cheers