Dear Janine,
Wow....you could knock me over with a feather at this point. I'm going to need psychotherapy from the shock of your post, I think. Taking a biology of the brain course, AND asking me for advice? Holy moley....Okay, now to channelopathies. I dont think we knew much about them when we first began diagnosing these diseases. The most well known is Anderson Syndrome, and its pretty rare. I think that it was first described in the 70's, but it wasnt until 2001 that we found that it was caused by increased permeability of cell proteins from a defective gene. Now you have to realize that channelopathies do not just affect the brain. They affect all of the cells in the body and their use of your electrolytes. Electrolytes allow our bodies to conduct electrical impulses. If you mess with them, you get muscle spasms, water retention, water loss, slowed thinking, and heart stoppage. Some of the better known ones are sodium, chloride, calcium, and potassium. The woman in Florida who has been in a coma for years over whom the huge legal battle was recently fought, had heart stoppage due to potassium loss from an eating disorder.
Epilepsy may or may not be a channelopathy. The same with migraines. These cases are not as clear cut as Anderson Syndrome. But we know that one of the best ways to control epilepsy is to alter the sodium and calcium channels of the brain so that the neurons slow down their firing. Trileptal, Tegretol, and to a lesser extent, Lamictal, all function this way. Is it possible that mental symptoms could be caused by an unknown channelopathy? Absolutely. But it would have to be systemic in nature. I wish I knew of a study being done on channelopathies and mental illness - frankly, I hadnt really thought about connecting the two before, and there could easily be something there. But I dont think that this has been studied much yet. Channelopathies are a relatively new concept in medicine. I did read an abstract a while ago relating CFS to channelopathies, and since CFS ties in closely to depressive cases and fibromyalgia, it may help you.
Chaudhuri, A and Behan, PO. Chronic fatigue syndrome is an acquired neurological channelopathy. Human Psychopharmacology -Clinical and Experimental, 1999, 14, 1, 7-17.
Review article noting that the fatigue in CFS is distinct from the fatigue of neuromuscular disorders but similar to that found in disorders of the central nervous system such as multiple sclerosis, Parkinson's disease and multiple system atrophy. Though fatigue is a common symptom of depressive disorders, it is now clear that CFS patients differ from patients with major depression in their symptoms, biological markers such as steroid metabolism and response to standard antidepressant drug therapy. In this paper, the authors propose dysfunctional ion channels in the cell membranes as the key abnormality in CFS which may also be responsible for the altered neuroendocrine functions reported in this condition.
In this hypothesis, changes in the neuronal ion channel function from time to time offer a rational basis to explain fluctuating fatigue and related symptoms in CFS. Finally, ion channel abnormality leading to selective neuronal instability may be the common disease mechanism in CFS and other paroxysmal disorders affecting brain functions such as migraine and epilepsy.
Okay, I'll keep on the lookout for more abstracts, and I hope this helped at least a little. By the way, your lucky (or unlucky, depending how you view it) that I found your post way down here. I almost never stray away from the main forum. And thanks for the offer, but no psychotherapy for me, at least at the moment. I may be coming to New York to visit my sister this spring, though, who is a nun with the Daughters of St. Paul in Manhattan. Maybe we can swap brain theory at the psychoanalytic institute at that time...until then
Peace
Homeskooled
Let me know if I can help again!
