Question:
Chemical Sensitivity Tied to physical symptoms of Anxiety, Depression?
Answer:
Anxiety and depression may be important features
of multiple chemical sensitivity (MCS), a controversial diagnosis given to
some people with apparent allergic reactions to a range of everyday
exposures.
A small study of MCS patients found that they were more likely to suffer
depression than either healthy individuals or people with asthma. And both
asthmatics and those with MCS showed greater-than-average "anxiety
sensitivity," an exaggerated response to anxious feelings that is
characteristic of panic disorder.
People diagnosed with MCS typically report a range of symptoms, from
headaches and joint and muscle pain to fatigue, memory loss and depression.
The medical community is divided over whether MCS actually exists, but some
believe that low-level exposures to everyday chemicals like those in
cosmetics, soaps and detergent trigger physical reactions in MCS patients.
Some researchers have also proposed that the psychological disorders that
often accompany MCS are a reaction to the syndrome, and not the underlying
cause, according to the authors of the new study.
This study, they note, could not pinpoint whether MCS patients' anxiety and
depression were the cause of or reactions to their MCS symptoms.
"However," they report in the October issue of the Journal of Occupational
and Environmental Medicine, "given the poorly understood and uncontrolled
nature of MCS, both depression and anxiety may represent a reaction to the
frustration of this disorder."
Dr. Elise Caccappolo-van Vliet of UMDNJ-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School
in Piscataway, New Jersey, led the study.
The researchers looked at 30 people diagnosed with MCS, 19 asthmatics and 31
healthy individuals. Overall, more MCS patients met the clinical definitions
of depression and somatization disorder, in which a patient complains of
recurrent physical symptoms that have no apparent physical cause. Both
asthmatics and participants with MCS had higher rates of anxiety sensitivity
and "chemical odor intolerance" to substances such as pesticides, paint and
perfume.
According Caccappolo-van Vliet and her colleagues, if a person associates
symptoms with a certain environmental trigger, "fear and anxiety would also
be expected to accompany such exposures and contribute to symptoms."
They note that for asthmatics, this idea is "generally accepted as
reasonable" since environmental irritants are known to trigger asthma
attacks.
"However," the researchers add, "for MCS patients this response tends to be
attributed more to psychiatric causes, perhaps a result of the lack of an
identified organic basis to the illness."
But whatever the cause of MCS symptoms, they conclude, the current findings
suggest that if the anxiety and depression that come with MCS are treated,
patients' physical and mental symptoms might improve. This very well could be part of it. I also think the exposures to things may
also, in very susceptible people, cause problems. Here is a case in point. A friend of mine had fleas in her apartment and then
went nuts with flea powder and spray to get rid of them. However she still
felt she had fleas!! So-- what did she do but spray all over again, treat the
dogs, and so forth. But when she slept she said fleas would wake her up
crawling in her ears!! So, she spent the night with her sister, but kept
bombing the apartment.
The more she treated the apartment for fleas, the more she thought she had them
and that they were crawling on her. When she spent the night at her apartment,
she didn't sleep because of the fleas on her, and woke up desperate, etc.
The next day I visited her and I can tell that she was clinically depressed.
All her reactions, her crying, etc., and a little irrationality were part of
it. Of course she had been reacting pretty violently to the flea powder, and
had reactions that were similar to what she thought flea bites were.
We went out of the apartment for a while, and when she walked in the door, she
looked at me with wild eyes and said "Don't you feel those fleas?"
I was pretty concerned about her, muscle tested her for the flea powder
(extremely weak), opened the windows, had her spend the night at my house,
cleared her (with NAET) of the flea powder. She was nauseated in the middle of
the night from that treatment.
Anyway, the story has a happy ending because she stopped using the flea powder
and is fine. But with her symptoms, had she seen a doctor in her condition,
any doctor would have prescribed an SSRI.
So, I think in certain susceptible people, exposures to toxic things can cause
neuropsychiatric reactions. Multiple chemical sensitivity" is not a legitimate diagnosis
Many people diagnosed with "MCS" suffer greatly and are very difficult to
treat. Well-designed investigations suggest that most of them have a
**** psychosomatic disorder*****
in which they develop multiple symptoms in response to stress. If this is true
-- and I believe it is -- clinical ecology patients run the risks of
misdiagnosis, mistreatment, financial exploitation, and/or delay of proper
medical and psychiatric care. In addition,
****insurance companies******
, employers, other taxpayers, and ultimately all citizens are being burdened by
dubious claims for disability and damages. To protect the public, state
licensing boards should scrutinize the activities of clinical ecologists and
decide whether the overall quality of their care is sufficient for them to
remain in medical practice.
The expression "multiple chemical sensitivity" ("MCS") is used to describe
people with numerous troubling symptoms attributed to environmental factors.
**** Many such people are seeking special accommodations, applying for
disability benefits****
, and filing lawsuits claiming that exposure to common foods and chemicals has
made them ill. Their efforts are supported by a small cadre of physicians who
use questionable diagnostic and treatment methods.
*** Critics charge that these approaches are bogus and that MCS is not a valid
diagnosis.****
Many experts have studied "MCS" patients and concluded that their basic problem
is
***psychologic rather than physical.***
The best current data suggest that certain
****psychologic factors****
predispose individuals to develop symptoms and to seek out someone who will
provide a "physical" explanation of their symptoms.Many of these patients
suffer from
**** somatization disorder, an emotional problem ****
"MCS" in Court
Many claims and lawsuits filed to collect workers' compensation and Social
Security Disability. Even when the ruling body does not recognize MCS as a
disease, it may disregard causation and award benefits to a plaintiff
considered disabled by a
****somatization disorder or other psychological impairment.**** I assume that by 'susceptible people' you are also considering people that
have a pre-diosposition to be affected by hearing about a problem, and then
developing symptoms related to that problem. I like to call it the Marcus
Welby Syndrome. While there may be a physiological basis for some of the complaints, I
believe that the problems are more psychological than physiological.
