An Ottawa doctor who treated a suicidal teenager with vitamins can only work with patients who have other doctors taking care of them, Ontario’s College of Physicians and Surgeons has ruled.
The 19-year-old woman died by suicide in spring 2011, after just a few months in Dr. Jennifer Margaret Armstrong’s care.
The woman first went to Armstrong in December 2010, according to a college disciplinary finding released Monday. She had a history of suicide attempts and hospitalizations, but her mother said she’d improved with the help of a doctor experienced in environmental medicine.
That isn’t an officially recognized specialty in Canada, but the mother hoped Armstrong’s work at the Ottawa Environmental Health Clinic, in a little building on Carling Avenue near Andrew Haydon Park, would help her daughter.
Armstrong never did a standard mental-health assessment on her new patient, the disciplinary finding says.
“There were no conventional treatments offered or documented for her psychiatric symptoms,” the disciplinary finding says. “(The) patient was not treated for her psychiatric symptoms by another physician according to the chart. Dr. Armstrong did not refer this patient to another physician for the psychiatric symptoms or her seizures. The patient did not have a family physician. Instead, Dr. Armstrong concentrated on giving vitamins, minerals and amino acids, which are not the standard of care. Her focus regarding this patient was on chemical sensitivities and metal toxicities.”
Armstrong admitted to not having upheld a proper standard of medical care for the young woman, the disciplinary finding says.
There were no conventional treatments offered or documented for her psychiatric symptoms
The website for Armstrong’s clinic talks about helping people who’ve been made sick by constant exposure to low doses of chemicals and energies in their environments, from mould to heavy metals to electromagnetic radiation. Treatments include vitamin infusions, allergy tests and “detoxification.”
Many of those treatments aren’t covered by public health insurance, and the site says patients can expect to pay between $500 and $2,000 out of pocket for the first month of Armstrong’s care. A vitamin infusion alone can cost up to $200.
The voice mail at the clinic says patients who wear scents or smell of smoke won’t be treated. It also says the clinic isn’t taking new patients and its waiting list is closed.
Armstrong gets to keep her medical licence, but current patients, according to the disciplinary finding against Armstrong, have until the end of January to find other doctors or Armstrong has to stop treating them. Those other doctors will have to get regular updates on what Armstrong does with each patient, including new therapies she plans or changes to treatment she’s already doing. There’s no time limit on the condition.
Related
Armstrong’s registration with the college says she graduated from the University of Toronto’s medical school in 1977. The Citizen has interviewed her in the past on environmental sensitivities (she suffers from them herself, she said) and the toxic effects of moulds. In 2011, a story said her clinic had a three-year waiting list.
Environmental medicine has a difficult history. Its devotees point out that numerous substances have done damage to human health for a long time before they’ve been widely recognized as dangerous — pesticides, lead and cigarette smoke, for instance — and argue that if we paid more attention to such factors, we’d be healthier.
Critics, including many doctors, say sometimes there’s no evidence that something is dangerous because it actually isn’t dangerous, and trying to find environmental sources for particular afflictions can mean ignoring real problems.
Source:: National Post
