Posted by Burt on October 4, 2002, at 1:41:07
Hi. I'm new to this forum.
My wife has suffered from severe depression with occasional "psychotic features" (as our psychiatrist called it). After years of research it was determined that her episodes of severe depression are triggered by alcohol. Given enough alcohol, the depression turns into a psychosis.
When she stops drinking (no withdrawal symptoms), the psychotic symptoms cease after three days, the depression lingers on for 10 days. After two weeks, she is as good as new.
According to her doctor, who treated her for more than 10 years, she is not considered an alcoholic. She can go for months without alcohol. But if she drinks, the above happens. Like clockwork.
Her doctor, with whom I had a very good relationship, recently passed away. He told me that her case is extremely rare, but it is documented.
I have a problem communicating his findings to my wife's new psychiatrist. I have invested a lot of time and serious money into my wife's treatment. Now I am faced with doctors who do not want to listen and who will repeat past mistakes. For instance, if she is in her full blown psychotic state, she is easily misdiagnosed as schizophrenic. Her late psychiatrist was adamant that she is not schizophrenic. He also absolutely forbade intake of antipsychotic drugs, even SSRIs. She reacted positively to MAOIs (such as Parnate) and ECT. Before we found the psychiatrist who recently passed away, she was treated by another one with Thorazine. It triggered extremely serious side effects. According to her late doctor "two more months on Thorazine and she would have been dead."
I am extremely worried about her being misdiagnosed again.I am searching for the correct diagnostic term for "depression and psychosis triggered by alcohol."
What makes her drink remains a mystery. Her deceased psychiatrist was one of the preeminent experts in the field of chemical dependency, but he also was honest. He said: "We know what alcohol does to her. She knows it also. We really don't know why she drinks."
poster:Burt
thread:122250
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20020930/msgs/122250.html