Neuro-Diversity, Sensory Processing and Mental health

Carly Fleishchmann's amazing story is captured on this episode of 20/20.

This does represent an "EXTREME" --- but it is often in the EXTREMES that we are able to understand the significance of basic principles.

​​ABC News -- 20/20

Non-verbal girl with Autism speaks through her computer 

@7:02 of the video above:

"Carly -- Why do Autistic kids cover their ears, flap their hands, hum, and rock?"

Carly types:

"It's a way for us to drown out all sensory input that overloads us all at once.  We create output to block out input .  . . "

​ADHD and Autism are the 2 BIG Neuro-Developmental Disorders --- that are considered BLURRED with psychiatric disorders such as Bipolar Disorder, Depression and Schizophrenia.

In both ADHD and Autism, there is information and sensory overload.

But see also:

• Impaired Sensory Processing measured by Functional MRI in Bipolar Disorder Manic and Depressed Mood States (2018)
• Sensory Processing Disorder May Be Sign Of Schizophrenia, Offering Hope For Early Diagnosis (2016)

National Migraine Centre -- UK

​MIGRAINE

On top of that, what is one of the BIG Physical Manifestations of Psychiatric Disorders:  MIGRAINE.

• ​MIGRAINE is now being conceptualized as loss of control of inputs.
• Pathophysiology of Migraine: A Disorder of Sensory Processing (2017)
  • ​ The pathophysiology of migraine has emerged from a historical consideration of the “humors” through mid-20th century distraction of the now defunct Vascular Theory to a clear place as a neurological disorder.
  • It could be said there are three questions: why, how, and when?
  • Why: migraine is largely accepted to be an inherited tendency for the brain to lose control of its inputs.
  • How: the now classical trigeminal durovascular afferent pathway has been explored in laboratory and clinic; interrogated with immunohistochemistry to functional brain imaging to offer a roadmap of the attack.
  • When: migraine attacks emerge due to a disorder of brain sensory processing that itself likely cycles, influenced by genetics and the environment.
  • In the first, premonitory, phase that precedes headache, brain stem and diencephalic systems modulating afferent signals, light-photophobia or sound-phonophobia, begin to dysfunction and eventually to evolve to the pain phase and with time the resolution or postdromal phase.
• ​Understanding the nature of psychiatric comorbidity in migraine: a systematic review focused on interactions and treatment implications (2019)
• The Link Between Migraine and Mental Health (2021)
• Evaluating Psychiatric Disorders Among Adolescents With Chronic Migraine (2021)

• Difficult to Treat Chronic Migraine: The Bipolar Spectrum and Personality Disorders
  Patients with refractory chronic migraine may also have a high prevalence of comorbidities, including anxiety, depression, bipolar spectrum, and personality disorders.
  • ​How many FORENSIC EVALUATORS are considering MIGRAINE as part of their evaluation?
  • WHAT IS A "PERSONALITY DISORDER?"
    • ​It certainly appears that it has a BIOLOGICAL BASIS
    • In some states it will be the JUSTIFICATION for KILLING a Criminal Defendant
    • In Colorado it will JUSTIFY a BRUTAL SYSTEM of INCARCERATION.
  • What is the link between migraine and psychiatric disorders? From epidemiology to therapeutics (2021)​
    • ​Recently, genome-wide association studies gave leads to a genetic common heritability between major depressive disorder and migraine.
  • ​Racial Disparities in Migraine and Headache Care (2021)​
  • ​A pilot study by the STAR Institute of Centennial, Colorado found that the 35% of the children in one large sample (n=550) from a gifted and talented center exhibited symptoms of SPD (Sensory Processing Disorder).
    
    This is significantly more than the 5% that pilot studies have found in the general population.

What's the Point?

• Well, there are a number of points.
• What I'm going to focus on is our SIMPLISTIC VIEW of STRENGTHS and WEAKNESSES.
• Where would some of our great thinkers and artists be without their SENSORY PROCESSING DISORDERS?  Maybe not very far.
• On the other hand, this can come with some BIG CHALLENGES even in the BEST of CIRCUMSTANCES, much less the widespread IGNORANCE ENVIRONMENT most people find themselves in today.
• It's not all good or all bad --- it can be good and bad.
• By and large people who are experiencing SENSORY OVERLOAD, are going to need more sophisticated Health Care and Emotional Support and OPPORTUNITIES to DEVELOP some BIG STRENGTHS that may be the result of a lifetime of INFORMATION and SENSORY OVERLOAD.