VITAL NUTRITIONAL SUPPLEMENTS FOR THE BRAIN
Nuclear Imaging of Brains
Images of Alcohol & Drug Abuse
Images of Brain Trauma & Injury
Images "Ring of Fire" & Alcohol Induced Violence
Images of Obsessive Compulsive OCD
IMAGES ANXIETY & POST TRAUMATIC STRESS DISORDER
Increased basal ganglia activity is often a finding we have seen with anxiety disorders. When there is increased activity on the left side it is often associated with anxiety and irritability (expressed anxiety) and when there is increased activity on the right side there is often anxiety, social withdrawal and conflict avoidance. Increased activity in the temporal lobes has also been associated with anxiety. When there is also increased cingulate activity a person may have trouble with repetitive thoughts about his or her anxiety. Here are several examples.
Marsha, a critical care nurse, was forced into treatment by her husband. She was 36-years-old when she first began experiencing panic attacks. She was in a grocery store when all of a sudden she felt dizzy, short of breath, with a racing heart and a terrible sense of impending doom. She left her cart in the store and ran to her car where she cried for over an hour. After her first episode, the panic attacks increased in frequency to the point where she stopped going out of her house, fearing that she'd have an attack and be unable to get help. She stopped working and made her husband take the children to and from school. Her subsequent symptoms typically included shortness of breath, heart palpitations, cold hands, a terrifying sense of impending doom, sweating and negative thinking. She was opposed to any medication, because in the past her mother, in attempting to treat her own panic attacks, became addicted to Valium and was often quite mean to my patient Marsha. She did not want to see herself as being in any way like her mother. She believed that she "should" be able to control these attacks. Her husband, seeing her dysfunction only worsen, made the appointment and physically brought her to see a family counselor. The counselor taught her relaxation and how to talk back to negative thoughts, but it didn't help her. Her condition worsened and her husband brought her to see me.
note increased right basal ganglia activity (arrow)
Given her resistance to medication I decided to order a SPECT study to evaluate and then also be able to show her her own brain function. Her SPECT study was abnormal. It revealed marked increased focal activity in the right side of her basal ganglia. This is a very common finding in patients who have a panic disorder. Interestingly, patients who have active seizure activity also have focal areas of increased activity in their brains. My colleagues and I wonder if the basal ganglia findings are the behavioral equivalent to seizures with the intense level of emotions associated with panic attacks.
The findings on her scan convinced Marsha to try medication. I put her on Klonopin, an anti-anxiety medication that is also used for seizure control. In a short period of time she became able to go out of her house, back to work and resume her life. In addition to the medication, I taught her the group of "Basal Ganglia Prescriptions" (given later) including sophisticated biofeedback and relaxation techniques and worked with her on correcting the negative "fortune-telling thoughts. Several years later she was able to completely stop her medication and has remained "panic free."
A Case Of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder
MARK 50 yr/old PTSD
Mark, a 50-year-old business executive, was admitted to the hospital shortly after he tried to kill himself. His wife had just started divorce proceedings against him, and he felt as though his life was falling apart. He was angry, hostile, frustrated, distrusting and chronically anxious. His co-workers felt that he was "mad all the time." He also complained of a constant headache. Mark was also a decorated Vietnam Veteran, an infantry soldier with over 100 kills. He told me that he lost his humanity in Vietnam and that the experience made him "numb."
In the hospital, he said that he was tormented by the memories of the past. Mark had post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). He felt that with his wife leaving him, he had no reason to live. Due to the severity of his symptoms, along with a history of a head injury in Vietnam, I ordered a brain SPECT study. It was abnormal, showing marked increased activity in the left basal ganglion. It was the most intense activity in that part of the brain I had ever seen.
Left-sided basal ganglion findings are often seen in people who are chronically irritable or angry. Mood stabilizers, such as Lithium, Tegretol, or Depakote, are often helpful in decreasing the irritability and calming down focal "hot" areas in the brain. I placed Mark on Depakote. Almost immediately, his headaches went away and he began to feel calmer. The hospital staff noted how much calmer he was. He stopped snapping at everyone and he became more able to do the psychological work of healing from his divorce and the wounds from Vietnam.
In working with Mark, I often felt that his experiences in Vietnam had reset his basal ganglia to be constantly on the alert. Nearly everyday for 13 months of the war, he had to be "on alert" in order to avoid being shot. Through the years, he never had the chance to learn how to reset his brain back down to normal. The medication and therapy allowed him to relax, and feel, for the first time in 25 years, that he had truly left the war zone.
Here are several other patient examples
note increased right basal ganglia
28 year old woman with chronic anxiety, conflict avoidance
note increased right basal ganglia
44 year old man with chronic mild anxiety, conflict avoidance
note increased right and left basal ganglia
48 year old man with panic disorder
Reproduced with permission from Amen Clinics.
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