5 ms·

> When penicillin was first used to treat syphilis, thousands of cured schizophrenics were released from mental asylums Syphilis itself produces psychosis and

by stef25 8y ago

> When penicillin was first used to treat syphilis, thousands of cured schizophrenics were released from mental asylums Syphilis itself produces psychosis and those "schizophrenics" were most likely never schizophrenics in the first place (shame on you Newsweek) https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11186166 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11186166 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/1521109 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/1521109 If those diet based treatments work for you then that's great but, respectfully, I think everyone should take those statements with a serious pinch of salt (no pun intended) Edited 2x for brevity, grammar

deleted 8y ago
[deleted]
perl4ever 8y ago
Anecdotally, I've heard of and seen nursing home patients and other elderly people that have seriously altered mental states, with anger and/or disorientation, that recover immediately with antibiotics, where the medical people describe the infection as a UTI. And also in my experience, even once it's repeated a couple times, they can be obtuse about inferring the mental changes are a sign that they should treat with antibiotics. I've also seen a cancer patient on chemo with symptoms that resemble some forms of psychosis, and of course that is someone who is immuno-compromised and susceptible to opportunistic infections. So I think that probably syphilis is only one example of an infection that leads to an altered mental state, and there's no reason to assume that because something is treatable with penicillin, that is is necessarily syphilis.
- therein 8y ago
  > So I think that probably syphilis is only one example of an infection that leads to an altered mental state, and there's no reason to assume that because something is treatable with penicillin, that is is necessarily syphilis. I don't doubt this at all however: > I've also seen a cancer patient on chemo with symptoms that resemble some forms of psychosis, and of course that is someone who is immuno-compromised and susceptible to opportunistic infections. this might simply be due to the stress of a life changing, life threatening event. Couldn't it be?
  - perl4ever 8y ago
    No. I'm not talking about something like shock moments after being diagnosed, I'm referring to cognitive issues that developed later, in someone who was terminally ill and suffering the effects of both the cancer and the chemo. And, you know, people get worse and better and then worse so the contrast is clear. Especially when the treatment is massive amounts of antibiotics, vancomycin among others, I think?
- odyssey7 8y ago
  > where the medical people describe the infection as a UTI Very interesting. Are you suspecting that the medical diagnosis of a UTI wasn't totally accurate?
  - perl4ever 8y ago
    Not particularly suggesting it was incorrect. I don't have any other hypothesis, but neither do I know what the mechanism would be for it to cause mental symptoms. It might be that the diagnosis is technically correct but misleading. See: blind men and the elephant. The main issue was just that it recurred and the medical people did not have an overarching theory about what was going on. They seemed to regard the test results and symptoms as just random disconnected facts without a pattern. The belief among some of the relatives of the patient was that the mental symptoms were a harbinger of the UTI and therefore treatment should start sooner. Of course, that's what happens with elderly patients, doctors just don't try that hard, because being old is explanation enough for anything that goes wrong and if you fix one problem another will occur.

by stef25 8y ago

deleted 8y ago

[deleted]

perl4ever 8y ago

Anecdotally, I've heard of and seen nursing home patients and other elderly people that have seriously altered mental states, with anger and/or disorientation, that recover immediately with antibiotics, where the medical people describe the infection as a UTI. And also in my experience, even once it's repeated a couple times, they can be obtuse about inferring the mental changes are a sign that they should treat with antibiotics. I've also seen a cancer patient on chemo with symptoms that resemble some forms of psychosis, and of course that is someone who is immuno-compromised and susceptible to opportunistic infections. So I think that probably syphilis is only one example of an infection that leads to an altered mental state, and there's no reason to assume that because something is treatable with penicillin, that is is necessarily syphilis.

therein 8y ago
> So I think that probably syphilis is only one example of an infection that leads to an altered mental state, and there's no reason to assume that because something is treatable with penicillin, that is is necessarily syphilis. I don't doubt this at all however: > I've also seen a cancer patient on chemo with symptoms that resemble some forms of psychosis, and of course that is someone who is immuno-compromised and susceptible to opportunistic infections. this might simply be due to the stress of a life changing, life threatening event. Couldn't it be?
- perl4ever 8y ago
  No. I'm not talking about something like shock moments after being diagnosed, I'm referring to cognitive issues that developed later, in someone who was terminally ill and suffering the effects of both the cancer and the chemo. And, you know, people get worse and better and then worse so the contrast is clear. Especially when the treatment is massive amounts of antibiotics, vancomycin among others, I think?
odyssey7 8y ago
> where the medical people describe the infection as a UTI Very interesting. Are you suspecting that the medical diagnosis of a UTI wasn't totally accurate?
- perl4ever 8y ago
  Not particularly suggesting it was incorrect. I don't have any other hypothesis, but neither do I know what the mechanism would be for it to cause mental symptoms. It might be that the diagnosis is technically correct but misleading. See: blind men and the elephant. The main issue was just that it recurred and the medical people did not have an overarching theory about what was going on. They seemed to regard the test results and symptoms as just random disconnected facts without a pattern. The belief among some of the relatives of the patient was that the mental symptoms were a harbinger of the UTI and therefore treatment should start sooner. Of course, that's what happens with elderly patients, doctors just don't try that hard, because being old is explanation enough for anything that goes wrong and if you fix one problem another will occur.