[RuthinOttawa]

Hi - I'm new to this forum and I'm wondering if anyone has heard of success in treating very long term post concussive syndrome homeopathically.

I fell and hit my head in 1998. I am 51 years old now. My initiatial symptoms were headache, nausea, confusion, blurry vision, irritability, zero decision-making ability, low, low energy and worst of all - depression. My depression is unlike what's typicial, it doesn't change from morning to night or from day to day. It's just there like a suffocating blanket on my life all of the time.

These are the things I've tried: basic cognitive-behavioural psychotherapy x 4 years, neurofeedback therapy, hyperbaric oxygen therapy, acupuncture, osteopathy and chiropractic. Also excercise at the gym.

what's holding me together now is Effexor 225g and also 10 mg of Ritalin. I've been seeing a psychiatrist for that last 4 years, which made a big difference. She really helped me find my confidence again after doubting my abilities for so long. The Effexor removed the depression but also flattened my experience of feeling so that I can't feel the extremes - i.e. joy or despair. I don't feel the "lights" that go off in your mind when you read something beautiful. Actually, my reading is still turtle slow and I get easily confused. Working from home helps to control my environment/distractions etc.

I still don't feel like my real self. I was about to embark on a creative writing career when this happened but the fall wiped out the urge to create. Dead, just like that. Other people , even my husband and adult children don't see the difference. I guess it is too subtle. But to me the poetry of my left over 10 years ago and I can't help but try to get it back.

So, again, my desperate question is - have you heard of any success stories with homoeopathy.... thanks!

[Stonebearer]

Sad to hear that that(I must say) impressive combination of therapies hasn´t worked for you when it has for many others I've read and heard about. Sorry to say that I haven´t heard anything about homeopathy in regards to PCS treatment. I shall research that too like I research absolutely everything that has the slightest chance of helping. Stay strong and keep working. The brain is incredible!

[vini]

hi Ruth and welcome

I know of no therapy apart from G therapy which is a combination of salts and is probably expensive ,I did chat with a lady who,s girl it had helped but I would not go so far as to recommend it coz I just don,t know,its hard to loose a part of ourselves art helps me art can help you, if not writing, perhaps painting, pottery bead work anything infact thi tchi yoga all help to rebuild us perhaps not as before but develop a new part of ourselves, that is a nice place to be and a work in progress

[PCS McGee]

Hello Ruth, I sent you a message on here about your post, just wanted to make sure you receive it (this forum isn't very good about notifying people when they receive messages). If you're having trouble finding it, the link you want should be in the upper right corner of your screen, right below "Welcome, RuthinOttawa"

[Mark in Idaho]

Ruth,

Have you done anything nutritionally yet? A good vitamin therapy could be helpful, especially with the doldrums. I find that B vitatims are extremely helpful at staying at the top of your game, even though your game might be a bit slower now.

Before trying homeopathy, I would suggest looking into replacing the Effexor with L-Tryptophan. Do some research and see if you can find a naturopath who is knowledgeable about L-Tryptophan. You would need to do a slow transition, possibly adding L-Tryptophan as you decreased the Effexor.
You have to be careful to avoid serotonin syndrome. It can be very dangerous.

Check out www.breggin.com for issues about Effexor.

http://www.healthalternatives2000.com/newsletter4.html has information about L-Tryptophan.

Homeopathy is based on a concept of using an almost unmeasurable amount of an ingredient to trick the cells into a certain reaction. Therer have been double blind studies of homeopathy and brain injury. Do a google of "homeopathy brain injury" and you should find the articles. Basically, they found no benefit.

[Stonebearer]

headtraumarehab.com/pt/re/jhtr/abstract.00001199-199912000-00002.htm;jsessionid=J2fQRbs3sTFrnp7vGBb07P5GcT1bn CLRQb1zfT7Jc159JCkqSrRb!-1690570675!181195629!8091!-1

ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10671699

(both links point to the same trial)

The only trial I could find so far using Mark's search items. Will hunt for more. Doesn´t seem like too many big trials have been done. Found more links but all were the same trial.

[Stonebearer]

Here's the pdf of the only study I could find so far(same as the post above). Contains additional info and test scores.

http://www.homeopathy.org/research/clinical/Chapman.pdf

[Mark in Idaho]

I finally got to read the whole study report. I had previously only been able to read the Abstract Plus.

The conclusion of the whole article does provide some hope for homeopathy. But once I read the whole report, I realized that there is far to little information collected and reported to make any sound determinations.

The self-reporting of condition is a serious weakness. Also, there are to many variables in homeopathic substance used. Each substance should be studied individually to have a cohort (subject group) of significant size to get valid results.

There may be just one or two symptoms that respond to a specific remedy, while the rest may be no different that the control. There may be combined effects of two substances. The starting points between control and homeopathic are greater in some instances than the improvement. Some of the improvements could also be realized in a non-injured subject. It appears that they did not included a non-injured control group.

I still suggest nutrition as a valid therapy. An ortho-molecular psychiatrist can be of great help in this area. They aim to get the brain detoxified and then properly fed. Nutrition has always been shown to help, even if it is only getting your non-brain systems functioning better.

As one who has a 45 year history of head injury, I have seen what happens to me when I fall off the nutrition wagon. My 2001 injury has taken me on the same roller coaster. When I get myself back on my nutrition regimen, I feel and think much better. Usually, it is my wife who asks me if I have been staying up with my nutrition. She can see distinct changes in my behavior when I fall off the wagon.

[Stonebearer]

Totally agree on the nutrition aspect. The homeopathy study was severely flawed in many ways I´ve come to understand. Only one potency used for example. I think we need an "all of the above" approach in regards to the various therapies that have proven useful.

[RuthinOttawa]

thank you so much for digging into this for me! What kind of diet do you try to maintain?