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As media coverage subsides, so do new movement cases at Dent

By Howard B. Owens

Over the past week, there have been no new patients at Dent Neurological Institute from Le Roy with any kind of movement disorder, according to Dr. Laszlo Mechtler.

During the same time period, the national media spotlight on Le Roy over what some outlets have mischaracterized as a "mysterious illness" has nearly faded away.

A search of Google News indicates there's been no national news coverage since Feb. 8.

Mechtler said the lack of new patients and decrease in coverage is no coincidence.

"Mainstream and social media have exacerbated the movement disorder,"  Mechtler said.

In the two weeks prior to Feb. 8, when much of the national media was in a frenzy over the situation in Le Roy, the number of patients tracked by Dent jumped from 12 to 20.

Dent doctors diagnosed their patients with conversion disorder, a psychogenic illness that is brought on and exacerbated by stress.

Mechtler has stated previously that of the original 11 girls seen by Dent, all had significant stress factors in their lives.

Meanwhile, the patients who have continued with Dent, according to Mechter, have shown continued improvement.

"Some have no symptoms at all," Mechtler said.

John Stone

I still don't buy it that this is a true 'psychogenic' problem. For this particular case to have that etiology, these girls would have had to have had some prior suspicion of an environmental issue that could cause an organic disorder like Tourettes. Contrary to the "spin", there are generative factors required for this to actually be psycogenic that don't exist, or aren't being released. Unless those things are discovered/disseminated, the explanation given is insufficiently causative, and leads me to believe that something is not quite as "above board" as it ought to be.
Because of this, the declining interest in this story is quite desirable to someone or another, and that isn't going to be beneficial to these children, the residents of LeRoy, and those of the surrounding environs...
Keep looking. The answers are out there, and need to be discovered.

Feb 17, 2012, 6:11pm Permalink
Craig Henry

"For this particular case to have that etiology, these girls would have had to have had some prior suspicion of an environmental issue that could cause an organic disorder like Tourettes."

Not so. The most common dynamics behind conversion disorders are emotional/psychological conflicts related to traumatic events, whether or not these are consciously recognized, the sort of things folks don't want disclosed for public scrutiny. Consider what was reported in a recent Newsweek article:

--Heather Parker doesn’t get all the talk about stress. “Lydia didn’t even have a test in school the next day,” she says. In fact, things had been looking up ever since 2009, when Parker had finally gotten up the nerve to kick out the kids’ father, who has done time for assaulting his daughter. That was a bad stretch, she acknowledges, but not as bad as what happened to another girl, whose mother had discovered that her boyfriend was secretly filming her daughter undressing in her bedroom.--

The answers are indeed out there, but aren't going to be found by PANDAS crusaders, the anti-vaccination crowd, or folks looking for an environmental culprit. Consider how all of these distractions, as well as the media hype, may actually be hindering real treatment and healing.

Feb 19, 2012, 11:11pm Permalink
Carol Sidofsky

If a Vietnam veteran had gone to DENT, with symptoms of Agent Orange poisoning (an herbicide used during the Vietnam war), would DENT have said their symptoms were all in their heads--a conversion disorder?

Actually, before the truth came out, about Agent Orange poisoning our soldiers, that's what was told to the soldiers..."no problem...your symptoms are all in your head".

Maybe DENT is using the placebo effect, themselves, while accusing Dr. Trifiletti of doing that (where Dr. T. is using antibiotics and anti-inflammatories, and having success with the girls he's treating).

I wonder if maybe DENT is unconsciously using a psychological coping mechanism (to ease their own stress) called "projection", where they blame others for doing what in fact they are doing.

I agree with what John wrote above: "Keep looking. The answers are out there, and need to be discovered."

Feb 20, 2012, 5:49am Permalink
Carol Sidofsky

On Feb. 22, 2012, Dr. Rosario Trifiletti, New Jersey pediatric neurologist, treating some of the Le Roy teens, asked for this Press Release to be forwarded to the media:

LE ROY, NY TEENS: UPDATE FROM DR. TRIFILETTI

Ramsey, NJ — February 22, 2012 — Rosario Trifiletti, MD issued the following statement today regarding the teens he is treating in Le Roy, NY. National attention was drawn to the plight of the teens when they were suddenly afflicted with uncontrollable bodily movements sometimes described as tics.

“I continue to work with a PANDAS-like diagnosis. The lab work is now complete on all nine of the patients I examined on January 29, 2012 and has shown evidence of infection by either Streptococcus Pyogenes (the common strep throat bacterium, found in five of nine patients) or Mycoplasma Pneumonia (a bacteria-like agent that is a common cause of a mild pneumonia-like illness, found in eight of nine patients).

Two patients also meet CDC diagnostic criteria for Lyme disease. They are being treated appropriately according to the infectious agents found and are responding to treatment. In my opinion, these objective findings, which would be exceedingly unlikely to occur by chance alone, support my diagnosis of a PANDAS-like illness.

I must remain open to another possibility such as mass psychogenic illness, which can never be supported or refuted by objective findings. However, given the clinical and laboratory data, I find a PANDAS-like illness a very likely medical diagnosis in these children.

I hope to see the teenagers again soon, but given that I am doing house calls from some two hundred miles away, it requires extraordinary planning. In the meantime, I remain in close contact with their parents."

"To reach Dr. Trifiletti contact:

Telephone: 201-962-7284
Email: trifmd@gmail.com
Website: http://www.site.neurokidsr.us

For additional Information about PANDAS [Pediatric Auto-immune Neuro-psychiatric Disorder Associated with Streptococcal bacteria]:

http://www.pandasfoundation.org

http://www.savingsammy.net

http://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/publications/pandas/pandas-frequently-as…

http://ocfoundation.org/PANDAS

http://www.askdrsears.com/topics/childhood-illnesses/ocd

http://www.pandasnetwork.org "

Feb 23, 2012, 2:39am Permalink
Judith Kinsley Bolsei

Still amazes me that anyone gives credence to the man who blames this on stress caused by 911. People in LeRoy want it to go away rather than finding out what the real issue is. How sad for these girls that property values and inconvenience are more important than the truth.

Feb 23, 2012, 7:50am Permalink

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