<![CDATA[Orchid Advocacy - NEURO-DIVERSITY Wednesday]]>Sun, 15 Dec 2024 13:11:44 -0800Weebly<![CDATA[A search for "Balance" and Disrupters of "Homeostasis"]]>Wed, 27 Nov 2024 22:04:14 GMThttps://orchidadvocacy.org/neuro-diversity-wednesday/a-search-for-balance-and-disrupters-of-homeostasis
​Val's Take/Conjecture
  • Maternal Immune Activation was probably fairly common in Ancient Times.
  • In Modern Times, it has been fairly common-- affecting approximately 1/5 to a 1/4 of the population.
  • But it is only recently that we are starting to get a more complete BIOLOGICAL NARRATIVE.
I think disruptions in biological systems as a result of Maternal Immune Activation may have inspired Aristotle and others to focus on "Balance" and "Homeostasis/"
​Adult microglial TGFβ1 is required for microglia homeostasis via an autocrine mechanism to maintain cognitive function in mice (2024)
​Modulating microglia activation prevents maternal immune activation induced schizophrenia-relevant behavior phenotypes via arginase 1 in the dentate gyrus (2020)
]]><![CDATA[Sensory Processing, Energy, Super Powers and Burn-outs and Melt-Downs.]]>Fri, 22 Nov 2024 10:28:31 GMThttps://orchidadvocacy.org/neuro-diversity-wednesday/sensory-processing-energy-super-powers-and-burn-outs-and-melt-downs
Val's Take/Conjecture

A lot of neuro-diverse people --- talk a lot about the "SUPER POWERS" of various forms of neuro-diversity.

It is extremely important to identify those "SUPER POWERS."
I think the Catch 22 for many neuro-diverse people is that they are processing "MORE" information --- and have less ENERGY to process it.
There is a crying, desperate need to address the DISCONNECT between what people are processing and what it actually takes to do that.

Further, people on the neuro-diverse/psychiatric continuum are generally dealing with "ENERGY ISSUES."

In general, most people think of PSYCHOSIS as "mental health" or poor mental health --- and if someone is suicidal --- that seems like mental health.

​Beyond that I think most people would be hard pressed to recognize more subtle issues that are desperately important.

A lot of neuro-diverse people talk about BURN-OUTS and MELT-DOWNS and at least in part these are ENERGY issues.
"Brain Energy" has been a big book for Dr. Chris Palmer.

I think there is a lot to understand --- and appreciate and further develop and revise.

But at the end of the day ---
​
THIS IS BIG!  Brain Energy is an essential concept to neuro-developmental disorders and psychiatric disorders.
Sensory perception in autism. (2017)
Transdiagnostic Patterns of Sensory Processing in Autism and ADHD. (2024)
To make things more challenging --- this is when we generally talk about our "SUPER POWERS" and how we are so creative, innovative, and intelligent --- even as the latest BURN-OUT or MELT-DOWN is smoldering in the background.
Dealing with these energy issues is one of the keys to preventing a worsening of symptoms.

Many neuro-diverse people are coming with significant anxiety as the result of Maternal Immune Activation and any environmental contributors.

A source of HUGE ANXIETY for Neuro-Diverse people is not being able to manage their time in an atypical way in order to avoid BURN-OUTS and MELT-DOWNS.

Further, those Neuro-Diverse "SUPER POWERS" should be leveraged for mutual benefit.
]]><![CDATA[Neuro-diversity & "chronic iLLness"]]>Fri, 08 Nov 2024 01:52:42 GMThttps://orchidadvocacy.org/neuro-diversity-wednesday/neuro-diversity-chronic-illness
Val's Take/Conjecture
  • "Migraines" need professional treatment.
  • Neuro-Developmental and Psychiatric Disorders are PHYSICAL ISSUES.  That is much more apparent in 2024 than it has been in the past.

Psychiatric comorbidities of migraine (2024)

Handbook of Clinical Neurology

Migraine is commonly comorbid with psychiatric conditions, particularly major depressive disorder, anxiety disorders, and sleep disorders.

The presence of psychiatric disorders can make diagnosis and treatment more challenging. 
Autism from the Inside
Autism/Chronic Illness --- Is There An Overlap
​ADHD and Migraine: What‘s the Link? - Psych Central Mar 28, 2022 · Migraine with aura, also called “classic migraine,” has a particularly strong link with ADHD.
]]><![CDATA[Anti-Social Personality Disorder Is now considered a Neuro-Developmental Disorder]]>Sat, 19 Oct 2024 16:18:51 GMThttps://orchidadvocacy.org/neuro-diversity-wednesday/anti-social-personality-disorder-is-now-considered-a-neuro-developmental-disorder
Val's Take/Conjecture
  • One of the reasons why Criminal Justice is full of people with Neuro-Developmental Disorders--we don't have great systems of care or placement.
  • I think the next generation is going to have an easier time accepting that many people coming into contact with the Criminal Justice System are contending with Neuro-Developmental Disorders, Psychiatric Disorders and/or Brain Injury.
  • In the next 10 to 30 years, their will likely be vastly improved treatments.
  • Better treatments could make all of this a lot easier ---- BUT even just more accurate paradigms can be revolutionary and provide a foundation for PUBLIC SUPPORT of a COMPREHENSIVE CONTINUUM OF CARE.
The neurobiology of antisocial personality disorder (2024)
]]><![CDATA[Neuro-Diversity and Metabolomic Biomarkers]]>Sat, 19 Oct 2024 01:01:55 GMThttps://orchidadvocacy.org/neuro-diversity-wednesday/neuro-diversity-and-metabolomic-biomarkers
Val's Take/Conjecture
  • In 2013 when the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) determined the then new DSM 5 lacked scientific validity ---
    • It was widely reported, BUT
    • There wasn't a substitute and NIMH's Research Domain Criteria Program was just getting off the ground.
  • The DSM's Subjective Cluster of Symptoms is pretty less than ideal -- but if it is all you've got you probably go with it.
  • Well, the world of BIOMARKERS and specifically METABOLOMIC BIOMARKERS is exploding.
  • It is going to take a minute to get this to Clinicians, but it appears to be on its way.
Metabolomic Markers in Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) among Children and Adolescents-A Systematic Review.  (2024)

Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), characterized by clinical diversity, poses diagnostic challenges often reliant on subjective assessments. ...While guiding future research, this overview of the metabolomic findings in A …
Metabolomic biomarkers in autism: identification of complex dysregulations of cellular bioenergetics (2023)

Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD or autism) is a phenotypically and etiologically heterogeneous condition. ...We hypothesized that the application of metabolite-based biomarker techniques using decision thresholds derived from quantitative measurements could ide …
Metabolomic Biomarker Signatures for Bipolar and Unipolar Depression.  (2024)

IMPORTANCE: Bipolar disorder (BD) is frequently misdiagnosed as major depressive disorder (MDD) because of overlapping symptoms and the lack of objective diagnostic tools. OBJECTIVE: To identify a reproducible metabolomic biomarker signature in patient …
Metabolome - an overview (2017)

Metabolome: The complete collection of metabolites, or small molecules found in a given organelle, cell, tissue, organ, biofluid, or organism. Metabolomics: The comprehensive characterization of metabolites and other chemical species (both exogenous and endogenous) in biological specimens in response to different perturbations or interventions.
Metabolomics: an emerging but powerful tool for precision medicine (2015)
Association Between Human Blood Metabolome and the Risk of Psychiatric Disorders  (2023)
 
BACKGROUND AND HYPOTHESIS: To identify promising drug targets for psychiatric disorders, we applied Mendelian randomization (MR) design to systematically screen blood metabolome for potential mediators of psychiatric disorders and further predict target-mediated side effec …
Mitochondria in precision medicine; linking bioenergetics and metabolomics in platelets (2019)

Mitochondria possess reserve bioenergetic capacity, supporting protection and resilience in the face of disease. ...To test for correlations of platelet metabolites with energetic parameters, we performed an integrated analysis of metabolomics and MST parameters. Su …
Gut microbiota drives age-related oxidative stress and mitochondrial damage in microglia via the metabolite N(6)-carboxymethyllysine  (2022)

The absence of gut microbiota diminished oxidative stress and ameliorated mitochondrial dysfunction in microglia from the brains of aged mice. Unbiased metabolomic analyses of serum and brain tissue revealed the accumulation of N(6)-carboxymethyllysine (CML) in the …
]]><![CDATA[Dostoyevsky, Irritability & Sensory Processing]]>Tue, 08 Oct 2024 19:29:04 GMThttps://orchidadvocacy.org/neuro-diversity-wednesday/dostoyevsky-irritability-sensory-processing
Val's Take/Conjecture

The National Institute of Mental Health is identifying "IRRITABILITY" in children and adults as a significant factor in Mental Health issues.
  • IRRITABILITY is so ubiquitous in this society.
  • Further, if you're really sophisticated -- you're trying to attach that IRRITABILITY to some NOBLE CAUSE.
  • When you're not masking it.
Picture
Dostoyevsky
In Dostoyevsky's "The Brothers Karamazov" one of the main characters observes that he loves HUMANITY with all his heart --- but he can't really stand to be in the same room with another human being for 24 hours -- he finds people so IRRITATING.
“I love mankind, he said, "but I find to my amazement that the more I love mankind as a whole, the less I love man in particular.”
― Fyodor Dostoyevsky, The Brothers Karamazov
Associations Between Chronic Irritability and Sensory Processing Difficulties in Children and Adolescents (2023)
Irritability in Youths: A Critical Integrative Review (2024)
Abstract

Irritability, defined as proneness to anger that may impair an individual's functioning, is common in youths. There has been a recent upsurge in relevant research.

The authors combine systematic and narrative review approaches to integrate the latest clinical and translational findings and provide suggestions for addressing research gaps.

Clinicians and researchers should assess irritability routinely, and specific assessment tools are now available. Informant effects are prominent, are stable, and vary by age and gender.

The prevalence of irritability is particularly high among individuals with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, autism spectrum disorder, and mood and anxiety disorders. Irritability is associated with impairment and suicidality risk independent of co-occurring diagnoses.

Developmental trajectories of irritability (which may begin early in life) have been identified and are differentially associated with clinical outcomes.

Youth irritability is associated with increased risk of anxiety, depression, behavioral problems, and suicidality later in life. Irritability is moderately heritable, and genetic associations differ based on age and comorbid illnesses.
Irritability is also associated with Cancer, Huntington's Disease and Dementia.
]]><![CDATA[19th Century painters & Imagine Dragons ---"I'm gonna say all the words inside my head"]]>Wed, 11 Sep 2024 23:42:29 GMThttps://orchidadvocacy.org/neuro-diversity-wednesday/19th-century-painters-imagine-dragons-im-gonna-say-all-the-words-inside-my-head
Val's Take/Conjecture
  • When we're talking about people with Hyper-Connected Brains as a result of Maternal Immune Activation
    • We're often talking --- eccentricity and idiocyncracy.
    • So trying to find a "Community" can be hard.
  • There are a lot of 19th Century Painters --- the ones I'm going to focus on are Gauguin and Van Gogh. [I just learned that Gauguin was only 5'4"]
  • I would say both Gauguin and Van Gogh were neuro-divergent and were different from one another, often on each other's nerves.
When I first learned about these 19th Century Painters in a "Modern Art Theory Class" --- I was impressed by the art, and largely thought these guys were  nuts --- I really didn't  know why they were living the  lives they were living.

"Lifestyle Choices" are a big concept in Medicine, society generally and are often invoked in our public policy discussions regarding various issues.
Imagine Dragons
Believer
Due to the Eugenics movement of the 1920s and Nazi Germany, etc.  --- people became rightly suspect regarding "biological inferiority" claims.

Unfortunately, we've also become suspect of BIOLOGICAL DIFFERENCE claims.  I think that is not a good thing and leads to FALSE PREMISES which lead some of our public policy debates to become nonsensical.
Val's Take:  I'm not a painter, I'm kinda becoming a musician --- but I'm really an ABSTRACT THINKER.
Ted-Ed
Math & Van Gogh's Starry, Starry Night
For Neuro-Divergent people --- these hyper-connected brains can generate a lot of emotions and ideas that are taking up enormous amounts of space in your thinking --- and you need to have some way to download that.

That is  a PHYSIOLOGICAL NEED --- it's not really a lifestyle choice.
Further, I think that it can look selfish and self-absorbed and narcissistic.

Additionally, I think it can look "lazy" because the person is often dealing with low-grade fatigue.

Better understanding the dynamics of the biology will help better understand the life.
]]><![CDATA[Speech Differences]]>Wed, 11 Sep 2024 13:38:24 GMThttps://orchidadvocacy.org/neuro-diversity-wednesday/speech-differences
Val's Take & Conjecture
  • I was in Speech Therapy in Elementary School.
  • I don't remember ever being bullied in school for Speech Differences or Impediments. (Maybe I was and I just didn't know it, maybe I was blissfully unaware).
  • Further, my speech issues have waxed and waned and morphed.
    • Does stress play into it --- yeah probably
    • Dental Work
    • Orthodontics -- did help --- that's been awhile
    • allergies
    • the structure of my face
    • the list goes on

Further, if you take certain medications you can have Tardive Dyskinesia.

So I actually had speech issues as a young child and minor speech issues as an adult.

As an adult and now older adult taking psychiatric medication, I am having to more specifically address tardive dyskinesia issues.

Speech motor control and orofacial point pressure sensation in adults with ADHD.  (2021)

"Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is a predominant neurobehavioral disorder of childhood with motor and sensory symptoms often persisting into adulthood. ...Young adults with ADHD have subtle differences in speech …"
Dopamine, Vocalization, and Astrocytes (2021)
"Dopamine’s effects are widespread and include modulation of a number of voluntary and innate behaviors.

"Vigilant regulation and modulation of dopamine levels throughout the brain is imperative for proper execution of motor behaviors, in particular speech and other types of vocalizations."
10 Most Common Speech-Language Disorders & Impediments  (2024)
Speech and language patterns in autism: Towards natural language processing as a research and clinical tool. (2024)

Speech and language differences have long been described as important characteristics of autism spectrum disorder (ASD). ...Heterogeneity of findings and a reliance on qualitative, subjective ratings, however, limit a full understanding of linguistic phenotyp …
Alogia and pressured speech do not fall on a continuum of speech production using objective speech technologies.  (2023)

"Speech production is affected in a variety of serious mental illnesses (SMI; e.g., schizophrenia, unipolar depression, bipolar disorders) and at its extremes can be observed in the gross reduction of speech (e.g., alogia) or increase of speech (e.g., press …"
]]><![CDATA[Justice Sensitivity]]>Sat, 31 Aug 2024 13:53:45 GMThttps://orchidadvocacy.org/neuro-diversity-wednesday/justice-sensitivity
I love it when attorneys start pontificating on how much they have a "passion for justice" ---

COME TELL MAMA ALL ABOUT IT.
Especially in Law & Medicine, I think there are a lot of people who would be hard to classify as "straight" ADHD or Autism.

They fly under the radar of other people, professionals, and even themselves.

Further, there are other professions that are maybe more associated with ADHD or Autism.  

Engineering coming to mind for Autism --- I'm sure that is a stereotype.

My personal observations  may be of limited persuasive value --- But as we get more and more biomarkers --- that will change  views.
Picture
Image Credit: Liberty Maniacs

P.S.  I think Comedians are taking in an enormous amount of information and condensing it --- and are often emotionally dysregulated.

Can look like  Major Depression.
Robin Williams and the link between comedy and depression (2014)
Justice Sensitivity Is Plaguing Autistic & ADHD Individuals—Here's What to Know (2024)

Neurodivergent folks are prone to high levels of justice sensitivity
Well, WHAT IS JUSTICE?

It depends a lot on your sensory processing ---

and we're not processing everything

and we're processing things differently.
Inflammation-induced mitochondrial and metabolic disturbances in sensory neurons control the switch from acute to chronic pain (2023)
Transdiagnostic Patterns of Sensory Processing in Autism and ADHD (2024)

Sensory processing abilities are highly variable within and across people diagnosed with autism and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).

This study examined the transdiagnostic nature of sensory processing …
]]><![CDATA["Personality Disorders" and Neuro-Developmental Disorders]]>Mon, 26 Aug 2024 00:52:13 GMThttps://orchidadvocacy.org/neuro-diversity-wednesday/personality-disorders-and-neuro-developmental-disorders
Picture
Rashomon (1950)
Val's Take/Conjecture
  • There's a certain "Rashomon effect" to societal discussions about Human Behavior.
  • Even beyond different people in the same time and place having different perspectives of the same incident, we have people in different times and places having greatly different perspectives.
  • What I want to submit is:   Assuming that people are  telling the truth as best they can:
    • How can these accounts all be true "in some respect" / not all respects --- and reconciled to avoid a complete Contradiction.
  • This website has addressed Anti-Social Personality Disorder and the emerging view that it is in fact a form of "ADHD."
    • "Anti-Social Personality Disorder" and "ADHD" are categories in the DSM 5.
  • More recently, there is no shortage of speculation that the Myers-Brigg category of "INFJ" is actually Autism, including by a psychiatrist at Harvard and YouTubers with Autism.     Hmmm. . .
  • The challenge with these discussions is we don't have FIRM (RELIABLE) DEFINITIONS --- we have definitions of categories that are in flux, have been called into question and are in the process of being re-conceptualized
Myers-Briggs  
DSM 5
The "DSM" Personality Disorders were trying to cluster together personality traits that were  seriously problematic.

Interestingly, a prominent historian of psychiatry challenged whether these were in fact "disorders" or just "people who couldn't get it together."
I would say a few things:
There's a lot of "unconscious bias" in all this:
  • The Public Health System "may" be deemed a more appropriate place for you if you are White and Middle Class.
  • If you are White and Poor or a Person of Color ---- a jail or prison may seem a more appropriate placement.  [I'm talking here about people who may have an average or above average IQ, but nonetheless have significant needs]
Families, communities, government agencies, private agencies are struggling FINANCIALLY under the weight of Neuro-Developmental Disorders that last:
  • a lifetime and are not static
  • are not well recognized or accommodated
  • often are getting worse because we haven't had biomarkers and most researchers and some clinicians would admit the treatment is "rudimentary."
"ADHD" is over-represented in Criminal Justice Systems around the world and is more and more openly acknowledged by law enforcement, attorneys and first responders.
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