http://www.knoxnews.com/news/2008/apr/06/040608greg/

After thinking about this all day, I decided to post this article for everyone. It's a heart breaking story. From what I read, his mental illness didn't start until after his treatment with Beta started.

Some people think that mental illness automatically comes with MS from the comments and that burned my rear! No wonder so many talk about disclosure.

Curious what everyone thinks.

Thanks

OMG! That story is so sad! There will always be those few idiots who just have to make comments like that . I wish there had been more info about what happened with the Beta. It sounds like a SEVERE reaction to the interfon. I feel so badly for that poor family. I wish that there was more widespread, accurate knowledge about MS. But, sadly, I didn't know much about the disease until I had it myself

Wow....what a poorly written piece of work. At first I thought the author was confused and saw the two MS and mental illness as TWO diseases, but wasn't writing well....but by the end, I think he thought of them as the same.

What is really sad is that people who live in this readership, and know people with MS are sadly misinformed. And you know there are a LOT of people who BELIEVE what they read in the paper.....If I were you, I would write a letter to the editor. I would also ask your neuro to do so. Send this to your local chapter of NMSS and MSF....

Sensationalism. That is all this article is. Sad thing, for the readers, is that we all aren't sensational!

wow heartbreaking is an understatement,

my ex is a bi polar schizophrenic and was able to hide and or contain it to a degree, till a certain thing happened in her life that acted, for lack of better word, as a trigger, and off the deep end she has been ever since, osama and the leader of iraq were both after her,

its a horrible illness, and as far as I can tell I dont think there is a state in the union that has a good plan to deal with mental health, with other than a big band aid, medicate for 15 days calm them down, safe guard them and release them out to the general population, that seems to be the status quo as to state care, unless a criminal act is involved,

now whether this gent was bi polar schizo prior, and it laid dormant and was triggered by the stress of the ms news, or the stress of his friends passing, I dont know.

it would, in my eyes, make more sense, saying this triggered it, then saying the MS caused it, sure I have gotten depressed, at times and snapped(when on high doses of steroids) but i do fix it and i do keep things in check I dont fore see me going over the edge, like this,

have I thought of telling deb to take kids and go yes, why cause i dont want to deal with the guilt I have inside of what my illness is and will do to this family down the road, and that is a possibly not a definite, thanks to some meds.

but I have not done so, for it would not be fair to her or my children they care for me and i for them, so the feelings of what he is doing are there for me but not to the severe degree he has them. which really makes me think this scizo-affective disorder is sort of like the ms disorder dormant till its triggered in a number of us and what triggers it is still open to discussion and debate.

I pray that some miracle graces this families life and lifts them from this pit of despair,

Great...if someone in my extended family were to read that article, they'd be ready to get me the jacket that buttons up in the back, and the Thorazine smoothies and a nice "apartment" at the local mental hospital.

Some of my relatives are the type to believe that MS would cause mental illness. I'm betting it's just a certain percentage...like a certain percentage of MSers will be in a chair, and a certain percentage of MSers will have serious vision problems. It just depends on what parts of the brain gets affected.

Not everyone who has MS is going to end up with a mental illness. I know I have my own weirdness to deal with, but I dont think that I currently have a problem with MS-induced mental illness unless I consider my mother's head injury induced dementia as my problem.

I really hope the mis-information in that article doesnt get advertised too much, I'd really hate for people to think that all of us will turn into slavering lunatics just because we have some neurological weirdness going on.

Bird is right, a letter to the editor is a must. From each of us.

His story is definitely sad, but this story is entirely irresponsible and was obviously run as a Sunday space filler. The writer did a grave injustice not only to MS patients, but also to mental illness patients— the implied connection is entirely misleading.

I feel that Ansley Haman (may be reached at 865-342-6341) and her editor should hear from as many MS patients as possible and Knox.com should print an apologetic retraction.

What I find very odd about this is his dx of schizophrenia.

My mom was schizophrenic, and so were a few other of the extended family; an uncle and two cousins, and possibly my Grandmother.

Schizophrenia is like MS in that it is more prevalent in families with a history of mental illness, but of course it happens in families without a history of it too. My sisters and I were very afraid of ending up with this mental illness, and of course we all worry/worried about our kids too.

We were told that if a person is going to get schizophrenia, it would be blatantly obvious there was a serious problem before the age of 30, and that if there are no signs of something amiss by then, we wouldn’t get it. Perhaps DocJohn, if he is reading, might be able to clarify this . . .

Quite honestly, I was afraid to tell anyone about my physical problems because my mom imagined all sorts of neurological concerns too (in addition to the "clear" mental illness problems she suffered from). She would often say that her head “felt like it was blown off on one side”, body parts “burned”, her hearing was acute and distorted, etc. Of course she was on many meds too, so perhaps some of what she went through was just side-effects and not related to the mental illness at all.

This guy is 53, and when he was dx with MS and mental illnesses he he must have been in his 40’s. The story seems to indicate that he was in good mental health up until he was hit with the MS, and then the mental illnesses.

I have a hard time believing that MS can cause schizophrenia, but believe it’s possible to end up bi-polar because of MS. I’ve actually heard of many people who have both bi-polar and MS over the years, but not one with a schizophrenia dx with MS.

Odd story.

Cherie

While this family's story is indeed sad - I don't think we got a full or realistic picture.

This article was SO poorly written. I think the point that was trying to be made - If I had to guess - is the discussion of persons with co-occuring disorders being in the prison system. They have no system in place to deal with the needs of someone who has a severe mental illness AND a physical condition such as MS. However, he (the author) did not explain this at all - and made some random correlations - or rather, leads the reader to form random correlations between MS and schizophrenia.

I'm not sure what his symptoms from MS were...but as far as I know there is not a link to schizophrenia. Definitely a link to depression (not from when a person finds out they have MS and then get depressed - depression is actually a sx of MS) - and by extension then, even bipolar disorder (formerly known as manic-depression). Not to mention, the writer doesn't even give good examples of him being schizophrenia and thus I question even that dx, unless he heard it from a family member or doctor.

Wow - the article is beyond misleading - it is downright disturbing how poor of a job the author did and what an injustice he has done to people who have MS - and people who struggle with schizophrenia! While I don't consider myself an activist, I certainly do think I will take action about this and contact the editor.

I certainly hope this article wasn't picked up by other papers! (I can't see the AP running such a piece of crud....but these days, you never know!)

Thanks for sharing this with us,

~Keri

ugh that is something that has always worried me.. i have no family history knowledge being adopted so i always live in a little fear of what is waiting around the corner for me..

schizophrenia has been one of my biggest fears ever since i was DXed with panic/anxiety disorder at 17... i had and still do have thoughts that are so loud and racing at times of high stress that could be misinterpreted as voices if i tried to explain them to someone who knew nothing about anxiety disorder...

after i was Dxed MS i kept thinking oh no what if MS makes me crazy...

BTW: i have heard/read the same thing that if you don't have any signs of it by 30ish.. odds are pretty good you will not develop it... id also like to know how true this is..


i do believe MS can make people a little off... and i only say this because i have read countless posts from people with MS (myself included) that have heard/seen/felt things that are not there.. but none of them ever believed them as truth or real.. big difference from schizophrenia..

I'll agree, very poor journalistic skills in this article.

That being said, in a small percentage of MS patients, psychosis can be caused by the disease or some meds used in the disease treatment. It makes me wonder if that was the case with this man.

Google psychosis and multiple sclerosis and you should come up with the numbers of those whose MS can lead to dementia or psychosis. You can also google psychosis and Betaseron and it's listed as a side effect.

So although the journalist does a poor job of defining this man's situation, it could be his MS or the Beta that caused it.