Lots of millivolts zipping and zapping from one neuron to the next neuron.

So can we, the medical doctors and medical researchers, figure out how to use electricity to tune up the brain?

That’s the BIG QUESTION.  

But the brain is the most complex structure in the universe aside from the universe itself.

But the work of using electricity to tune up the brain of those with mental health challenges is well underway.

Depression , for example, involves multiple neural circuits. This is different in different patients. So what is needed is a personalized approach to using electricity to treat depression.

The personalization is based on brain mapping of brain activity. EEG does that trick.

And then electrodes are programmed to target areas of the brain involved in creating depression.

This is like a pacemaker for the brain.  Deep brain stimulation with leads deep in the brain has been used for decades but it is very invasive and very expensive.

So transcranial brain stimulation using MRI targeting is a much less invasive and more accessible approach to treating depression and other conditions such as OCD.

Personalized brain stimulation requires accurate targeting of the right area of the brain but also the right rhythm. The neural code or the brain code is frequency dependent.  Like a song. Get the frequency wrong and Taylor Swift’s song is gaarbbage.

So the brain is and has been proven to be plastic. It can be rewired and using electricity in targeted and personalized methodologies will help humanity with the biggest illness of all – mental illness.

Raymond Rupert  health system disruptor and patient advocate.

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Unfortunately, if the child sustains adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) including trauma, separation and abuse, then there are likely to be resulting mental health concerns and challenges.

So planning for mental health for the family starts on day 1 of the infant’s journey in attachment and brain development.

If mental health challenges do arise, then the quality of socially and emotionally authentic relationships within the family are the key to helping the person with the mental health challenge.

The analogy often used in mental health involves the use of the oxygen mask on the airplane. The first thing to do on the airplane is for the parent to put on the oxygen mask and then the parent can help the child.

The parents have to take care of their mental health first in order to help the child.  The parents must be emotionally healthy in order to help the child.

The family system is an important part of our work at RCM Health Consultancy.   In family systems work, we look at the existing narrative within the family system.

The narrative is what the parent’s think. It is their assumptions about the child. If the problem has become entrenched and the parents have suffered with the problem for a decade or more, they might assume that nothing can be done. And then nothing will be done.

We recently spoke with the parents of a 30 year old child assumed to have “failure to launch”. The parent’s narrative and assumptions were that the child was not capable of becoming a productive and purposeful individual. When we offered to help with the narrative and assumptions, the parents said no thanks.  Nothing will change because of their assumptions which stopped any possible progress from being made.

If the narrative and assumptions can be unpacked and changed and a new more positive and optimistic outlook is adopted , then the ensuing changes in the conversation and actions might in fact work to help the child.  At least, an effort will be directed at changing in a positive and healthful way.

Challenges exist at this stage of implementing change, as well. Having the parents look at their own enabling behaviours is very difficult. It is hard work to change what is unexplored. Even if the parents had the best intentions in raising the child, things can go wrong.

Once the parents have examined their enabling behaviours,  and then changed the conversation and their actions including introducing consequences , then things might get worse before things get better. That is to be expected. So put on your seat belts for the bumpy ride and be patient.

This describes the family systems work that we do at RCM Health Consultancy when families commit to work with our teams in helping a family member with a mental health problem.

Raymond Rupert

CEO

RCM Health Consultancy Inc.

647 350 5500

info@rcmhealthconsultancy.com

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The young adult had overdosed on opioids but survived. He was stunned that he lived because he had learned a lot about how to suicide successfully but he had failed.

So there he was not really believing that he was alive.  But 5 days in a locked unit in a psychiatric facility dining on macaroni and cheese and listening to the other patients screaming at the nurses had brought him back to a reality that he did not really like.

So he was able to talk his way out of the locked facility.

Now at home, he could resume his secret activities on the dark web of buying and importing opioids. Unless someone started to monitor what he was doing. No one seemed interested in that. Might be a breach of privacy.

It did not matter that importing narcotics with the intent to distribute was a Federal crime. Didn’t matter. He was invicible, maybe.

So our ultimate job as patient advocates was to help him.

Unfortunately, our plan to introduce an integrated team of experts to provide advice did not fly with his parents.

In fact, there was a dust up with the parents and our team of advocates.

The only way for us to help this young adult was to transfer him to the care of another provider.

This is known as a bridging strategy.  So we offered to allow for a peaceful and seamless transition to the next provider.

And the bridging strategy was used to ultimately help this young adult who otherwise would have been left without a treatment plan or continued to break the law and eventually end up in prison or in the trunk of a car.

Remember, to use or recommend a bridging strategy if you run into a similar type of situation and ultimately want to help the patient.

Raymond Rupert patient advocate.

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People who receive telephone-delivered therapy are happy to have treatment that way. One interview study looking at depression and anxiety, for example, found that most people were broadly content with it, particularly saying how convenient it was. The trial of CBT for OCD in adults, discussed above, also found comparable and high levels of satisfaction with treatment delivery in either manner.

Post pandemic, it will be essential for health systems to continue to fund phone therapy or zoom therapy as an effective form of therapy for those with psycho-social challenges.

source: AEON magazine Oct 14 2020

Dean McMillanis professor of clinical psychology at Hull York Medical School and the Department of Health Sciences, University of York.

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