Clinical consequences of the EI/MCS "diagnosis": two paths

There are two distinct paths down which patients "diagnosed" with environmental illness/multiple chemical sensitivities (EI/MCS) can travel. Along the first path, beliefs about low-level, multiple chemical sensitivities as the cause of physical and psychological symptoms are instilled and reinforced by a host of factors including toxicogenic speculation, iatrogenic influence mediated by unsubstantiated diagnostic and treatment practices, patient support/advocacy networks, and social contagion. Intrapsychic factors also reinforce this path through the motivational mechanism of factitious malingering, or unconscious primary and secondary gain, mediated through psychological defenses, particularly projection of cause of illness onto the physical environment. The second path involves restructuring distorted beliefs about chemical sensitivities. Explanations of the placebo effect, the physiology of the stress response, and the symptoms of anxiety and panic facilitate the direction of EI/MCS patients onto this path. A decision model is presented to discriminate among toxicogenic and psychogenic explanations of the EI/MCS phenomenon, based on appraisal of reaction and physiologic and cognitive responses during provocation chamber challenges under double-blind, placebo-controlled conditions. These studies have been helpful therapeutically for some patients in selecting the path that leads to wellness. This paper suggests how various therapeutic techniques can be employed with difficult patients. Often, supportive psychotherapy establishes a therapeutic alliance which facilitates cognitive therapy to restructure distorted beliefs. In the process of finding alternative explanations to chemical sensitivities, the etiology of symptoms is related to stressful life events, including childhood experiences which may have disrupted normal personality development and coping capacity. Furthermore, biological and physiological sequelae stemming from early, chronic trauma have been identified which could explain many of the multisystem complaints. The incidence of childhood abuse reported by EI/MCS patients is strikingly high, and it is recollection of trauma that many EI/MCS patients avoid by displacing the psychologic and physiologic adults sequelae onto the physical environment. The reenactment of these experiences may be necessary in the therapy of some affected individuals. Despite the significant therapeutic effort expanded, some patients who are imprisoned by a closed belief system about the harmful effects of chemical sensitivities are resigned to travel down the path which ultimately leads to despair and depression, social isolation, and even death.