RESEARCH REPORT

In recent years there have been several instances of people suffering from syndromes that remain unrecognised by the medical profession so that the sufferers are treated as malingerers until the syndrome is officially recognised. Only then do  the unfortunate sufferers receive recognition and treatment for the disorder. The most obvious recent case is that of ME that is now widely recognised as a medical condition, though was previously seen as laziness or lack of moral fibre. The question as to whether it is a psychological disorder remains to be answered.

It has come to the attention of the authors that there is a similar syndrome that appears to be a type of mental illness that at present appears to be unrecognised by the psychiatric profession. It does, however,  appear to have a profound effect on the lives of the sufferers and is present in a large proportion of the population at one time in their lives. This syndrome appears to have gone unrecognised because, except in the most extreme phases, it does not severely affect the functioning of the individual, and as the symptoms tend to be rather embarrassing and socially unacceptable and make the sufferer feel rather silly, they tend to hide the fact that they are suffering from this syndrome as much as possible.

This syndrome also results in marked physical and emotional disturbances - feelings of nausea, dry mouth, headaches, tightness in the chest and  dyspepsia. Emotional symptoms include changes in appetite, removing of focus of activity, possibly social withdrawal, worrying preoccupations about the future and in certain circumstances the afflicted individuals have been known to commit suicide.

This syndrome shares many of the symptoms of recognised mental illnesses. Like schizophrenia it tends to manifest itself in early teenage years, and typically exhibits itself as several brief and intense episodes, before settling down to a prolonged episode in the early twenties from which most people fortunately recover slowly as they grow older. During the more acute phases of the illness the patient may suffer from delusions which tend to be of a specific type, although this depends on the sex of the patient. Males tend to be deluded about their ability to do things that they are not very good at, females tend to suffer delusions about their physical shape.

 Like Manic Depressive Psychosis the patient tends to suffer from rapid and extreme mood swings with relatively brief periods of normality in between. In low phases the patient appears to have lost all hope of living, and this is accompanied by loss of appetite and insomnia in some instances the patient appears lethargic and suffers from an inability to concentrate. In other instances the patient will appear very agitated, anxious and will be unable to settle. There are some overtones of an obsessional-compulsive disorder also present as patients have a tendency to become obsessional about their appearance, wanting to  be perfect, hiding their faults, and tending to feel that their whole world may fall apart if they commit a faux pas, in other words engaging in concrete thinking. There also seems to be a rather  bizarre prevalence for obsessions about telephones and postmen.

 Unlike schizophrenia, which is probably a recent condition, this disorder has been known for thousands of years. It is referred to in the bible, and is known to have affected humanity since written records were kept. By examining past records and literature we can see that this syndrome has in fact been present for at least several hundred years, and like schizophrenia seems to occur in all societies with approximately the same frequency. The way the syndrome manifests itself does, however, appear to be changing, as past literature seems to show that the farther back in time you go, the sooner and more completely people seemed to recover, though this may of course be a result of a bias in reporting, as only those cases with a good outcome may have been written about. It does appear, though, that the pattern of this illness has changed dramatically in the last few decades, as patients tend to oscillate between the good and bad phases of the illness for far longer before settling down, and seem far more likely to settle in the low state than in the past. Women appear to be far more prone to this illness than men, though it is suspected that to some extent men are perhaps better at hiding the effects than women. The universality of occurrence, the similarity of behaviour between sufferers and the fact that the closer one's biological  relationship, the more likely one is to be affected  clearly indicates a  genetic basis. The actual mechanism by which it affects its victims appears to be via the hormonal system. This may partly explain why women appear to be far more affected than men. It does however provide hope that some sort of treatment may be found in some form of hormone replacement therapy that may eradicate at least the worst forms of the illness.

 Because this syndrome has so far remained unrecognised by the psychiatric profession it has as yet not been given a name. Several possibilities spring to mind, but perhaps it would be simpler to continue to refer to it by the name by which it is known colloquially, namely 'love'.

What's it all about?

This is a demonstration of how easy it is to pathologies normal behaviour and look for treatments to get rid of it.

Many of the great artists, thinkers and religious leaders of the past would today be locked up in a psychiatric hospital on Neuroleptic drugs.

People are treated with antidepressants to overcome normal grief reactions, schoolchildren offered counselling within hours of a death of a schoolmate. To be sad has become unacceptable, a condition to be treated.

We live in a world full of suffering and death, sadness and grief are a normal part of human experience, as is violence, love, sacrifice, great genius and eccentricity. We have to be careful that psychiatry isn’t allowed to iron out all our crinkles and turn us all into normal, bland and compliant citizens. We all need a healthy degree of craziness.