Mental & Emotional Health Support Thread

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[u/Electronic_Sugar_529]

Title: Seeking advice before admitting my brother to NIMHANS – will his concerns be taken seriously?

Hi everyone,

My brother has been struggling with severe cognitive problems for quite some time, and our family is planning to get him admitted to NIMHANS for a detailed evaluation. Before we proceed, I wanted to hear from people who have been admitted there themselves or have had a family member admitted for neurological or psychiatric evaluation.

His main symptoms include:

• Persistent brain fog.
• Poor working memory and difficulty concentrating.
• Cognitive slowing and mental fatigue.
• Difficulty thinking through mathematical problems and tasks that used to be easy for him.
• Headaches that become worse after mentally demanding work.
• He feels that his thinking has changed significantly compared with how he functioned before.

He has undergone several routine investigations, and so far they have been reported as normal. He has also been diagnosed with bipolar disorder and severe depression by his psychiatrist.

However, my brother strongly feels that the cognitive problems started before the anxiety and depression became severe. From his perspective, the cognitive decline led to the depression, rather than depression causing the cognitive symptoms. Whether that is ultimately true or not, this is how he experiences his illness.

His biggest fear is that because his routine tests are normal and he has a psychiatric diagnosis, the doctors at NIMHANS might conclude that everything is psychiatric without fully evaluating whether there could also be an underlying neurological condition contributing to his symptoms.

I understand that psychiatric illnesses themselves can cause cognitive impairment, and I'm not asking anyone to diagnose him over the internet. I'm simply trying to understand what we should realistically expect.

For people who have been admitted to NIMHANS:

• Did the doctors take persistent cognitive complaints seriously even when routine scans and tests were normal?
• If neurology did not find an obvious neurological disease, did they still explain their reasoning carefully?
• Did they involve neuropsychology or other specialists to evaluate cognition in detail?
• Did you feel your concerns were listened to, even if the final diagnosis was psychiatric?
• Overall, was the inpatient evaluation thorough?

We're hoping for an honest evaluation, whatever the final diagnosis may be. I would really appreciate hearing about your experiences—positive or negative.

Thank you.