My 32-year-old husband has been diagnosed with bipolar disorder. A brilliant computer engineer, he often travels abroad for work and is doing very well for himself. However, since the last few years, I have noticed a visible change in his behavior. He has become moody and withdrawn, gets irritated, throws tantrums and loses his temper too often, for unexplained reasons. Though he has always been a bit of a loner, nowadays, he refuses to participate in any social function. We have two children but he is hardly interested in their affairs. Recently, after approaching a psychiatrist for treatment, he has started taking tablets like Pacitone and Serenace. But with medication, he feels drowsy and sluggish throughout the day. Is there a remedy in homoeopathy for bipolar disorder?

Bipolar disorder or mood disorder is also known as manic depressive psychosis. It derives its name from the extreme mood swings (poles) that the patient goes through – from euphoria to depression. During the euphoric stage, the patient experiences heightened physical and mental activity and energy and expresses grandiose ideas coupled with increased talking. The patient may also experience total sleeplessness and fatigue. Ideally, an alert parent or spouse must consult a doctor at this stage. During the depressive phase, the patient becomes | melancholic, dull, withdrawn, restless and irritable.
There is a marked decrease in his concentration! And he experiences feelings of guilt and helplessness. He may even contemplate suicide and may actually attempt it. At times, the patient may experience a mixed state wherein the symptoms of mania and depression surface simultaneously. Although the exact cause is not known, it appears that multiple factors interact with each other to produce a chemical imbalance of neurotransmitters like serotonin and dopamine. Bipolar disorder often runs in families suggesting a genetic component. Above all, a stressful environment and negative life events like a broken engagement or relationship, a sudden bereavement, failure in exams or a sudden death of a loved one, can take a toll on the person’s system and eventually lead to such problems. Homoeopathy zeroes in on the genetic evolution of a disease and the trigger factors that are responsible for an acute flare-up. By studying the patient’s constitution and his predispositions minutely, a homeopath arrives at a specific remedy for the individual patient. Considering the nature of your husband’s illness and the medicines he is taking, you must consult an experienced homeopath at the earliest, which will carefully monitor your husband’s condition while initiating the treatment. This may be done in conjunction with his psychiatrist. Do not fear. Bipolar disorders can be very well treated and your husband can lead a normal and socially compatible life.

My mother has motor neurone disease. Can you explain this condition for me?
This is one of the nastier diseases that can attack humans. We do not know its cause, and there is no cure; but doctors do know what happens inside the body, and to the patient.
Nerves occur in two main types—sensory and motor. The sensory nerves detect heat, cold, pain and touch. The motor nerves send messages from the brain to make every muscle in the body move as we want it to. In motor neurone disease, these motor nerves slowly degenerate, often in a random pattern around the body, causing weakness in the arms and legs, poor posture, difficulty in speech, and eventually difficulty in breathing. It may get better spontaneously for a few weeks or months, but eventually the disease progresses to the point where the body cannot function adequately.
It is a tragedy to see these people deteriorate, particularly as they maintain
their normal mental state and intelligence. Active physiotherapy, good nursing care, medications to relieve muscle spasm and infections, and lots of T.L.C. are the main forms of treatment.

I was astonished to read in your column your advice that an orthopaedic surgeon would perform an operation to do a carpal tunnel repair. My operation was done by a neurosurgeon. You should know better?
Some of the less polite and wildly scrawled letters bring up some of the most interesting subjects.
I can assure readers that the column is written by a doctor, in fact by a general practitioner in private practice. There are no set rules about which doctors may perform which procedures, but by training, certain surgeons tend to perform operations on certain areas. Legally, there is no law restricting me as a GP from performing routine brain surgery, but it would be ethically wrong, and no reputable hospital would allow me to perform such surgery, as I have not been trained to perform this work.
Once a doctor has a surgical fellowship (and all surgeons have the same qualifications, but with emphasis in their training in a certain area), it is very difficult to delineate certain areas of the body to a particular type of surgeon. The simple operation on your wrist could have been equally well performed by an orthopaedic surgeon, neurosurgeon, general surgeon or a general practitioner with only moderate surgical skills (eg. in a rural area). Most are performed by orthopaedic surgeons.
Many other areas of overlap occur, particularly in the head and neck where otorhinolaryngologists (ear, nose and throat surgeons), plastic surgeons, general surgeons and even dental surgeons all may be involved.
Geographic location is another factor, and in major cities, more highly specialised surgeons are available. The emergency of a burst blood vessel in the brain would be dealt with by a neurosurgeon in the city, by a general surgeon in a major country town and by a general practitioner in a small country town.