Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:My dd with increasing anxiety and mood disorder saw a developmental ped first (Dx was that she didn’t have any concerns except mild social cognition issues), then a therapist (who helped a lot but didn’t diagnose or make the mood/anxiety really go away). Finally DD asked to see a psychiatrist, which I resisted because I felt Dd was looking at meds as a silver bullet.
To my surprise, the psychiatrist has been great so far—the first steps were to have some deeper tests done which revealed that DD, a staunch vegetarian (nearly a vegan) has some critical deficiencies that impact her health. (This despite Dd eating an incredibly healthy diet—a spectrum of fruit snd veggies, unprocessed foods, even vitamin D and iron supplements. But the psychiatrist, being an MD, drilled down on what is missing in DD’s biomarkers and recommending both supplements (like omega 3) and meds for the short term as a “scaffold”. Of course, omega 3 (as one example) seems like a no-brainer but to see the actual levels DD has vs what’s needed for optimal brain health was extremely convincing and really provided a clear road map. It’s early days for DD on medication but it’s been helpful to think about all these different factors and solutions.
OP. OMG. My child is almost vegan with that diet. We don't supplement with Vit D (assumption play outside) but do Omega 3. Can you please share your MD's info. Thank you.
Hi, PP. The test that DD's psychiatrist prescribed is the "Nutreval/Metabolomix" test from Genova Diagnostics ('GDx'). (I don't know which name applies--or whether they are 2 components of one text or one's the test and the other is a technology). It's a 'nutritional and functional' assessment that seems really comprehensive. Here is a sample report:
https://www.gdx.net/core/sample-reports/Metabolomix+Sample-Report.pdf
2 caveats:
1. The test is not typically covered by insurance, and it's expensive ($hundreds); I'm grateful I could afford it and I felt it was a worthwhile investment (much cheaper than the developmental pediatrician's appointments/assessment, for example--who I'd expected would do this kind of analysis, but didn't), and hopefully reducing family stress in the long run.
2. The depth of the report is more than I could initially explore with DD's psychiatrist; I suspect it will benefit you all the more if you are willing to dive into the detail yourself as well and put it together with your own observations. When DD and I reviewed the report with the psychiatrist (a 1-hr appointment) we also covered the results of 2 additional/different tests (also useful). So although we went into some detail, and got some very clear direction on what to do next, there's still more in the 14-page report that leaves room for exploration. For example, knowing my DD's diet/eating habits much more fully than the psychiatrist does (understandably), I was surprised that DD's microbiome indicators were low, and wonder if it could be complicated by certain other things. This is my first time working with a psychiatrist and I am assuming they would be happy to look into things further, but that it's more efficient if I could narrow down the areas that I want to further discuss...and that they might need time to do it (whereas I'm happy to google away to read various medical studies).
I'd rather be a bit vague about the specific psychiatrist but I will say that they work at Potomac Psychiatry. I think there would be other psychiatrists who use this kind of test/approach, though I'd recommend that before making an actual appointment you explicitly ask if they'd be willing to have this test (or similar) performed.
I hope this helps...does your nearly-vegan DD have mood issues and anxiety? My DD is a high schooler now and she has gotten more anxious/irritable since becoming a vegetarian in 5th grade, which coincided with puberty, so I was always wondering how everything related. Now I have some science to help me navigate. On that front, discussing the report with the psychiatrist finally convinced my stubborn DD to be willing to have omega-3 from fish sources.
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