A Review of Schizophrenia Research

Rush believed that bad "humors" caused mental disease. The "humors" were the bodily fluids, including the blood, the bile, etc. There is some truth to this, although the theory was discarded when Virchow came along. Virchow thought that diseases were caused by cellular pathology. Both theories may be correct. The cellular pathology could be caused by toxic factors, as it is in alcoholism and drug abuse.

Orlovskaya and co-workers discovered a factor in the blood of schizophrenics which had various effects on rabbits. Serum from schizophrenics was injected into rabbits. The blood glucose of the rabbits went up, presumably due to the toxic protein factor. The unknown factor appears to be causing a kind of diabetic state which may not be the same as the usual diabetes. It appears to inhibit glycolysis. A strict vegan diet is recommended because amino acids are flooding the cells. This is why the glucose metabolism is slowed. The brain is burning amino acids instead of glucose.

Gliosis

"Stevens (1982), in keeping with observations going back as far as Alzheimer (Nieto and Escobar, 1972; Fisman, 1975), found fibrillary gliosis (reactive astrocytosis) in ~70% of her cases of schizophrenia. The gliosis was usually located in periventricular and subependymal regions of the diencephalon or in adjacent basal forebrain structures." Harrison (Brain, Vol. 122, No. 4, 593-624, April 1999)

Harrison is from the University Department of Psychiatry, Warneford Hospital, Oxford, UK. This quote is interesting because these areas are high in dopamine. Dopamine is also seen in the frontal lobes, where pathology has also been reported in schizophrenia. If a toxin was being created from dopamine, this might explain the gliosis. Gliosis is seen in toxic conditions.

Alois Alzheimer

A brilliant German group had a brain bank which they used for neuropathology purposes. In this group, led by Kraepelin, was Alois Alzheimer. Alzheimer is now famous because Alzheimer's disease was named after him.

Although Alzheimer spent most of his research time on "dementia praecox", those results have been ignored by many. Alzheimer reported gliosis and other positive findings in dementia praecox, now called "schizophrenia". These findings were rejected by David, a British neuropathologist, in a scathing review. However, it appears that David was wrong.

One of the symptoms of Alzheimer's disease is memory loss. Dementia can result. There is a degeneration of brain cells. This is what Alzheimer discovered.

Wundt

Wundt was born in 1832 and died in 1920. Wundt had a similar approach to that of Alzheimer, and he was also from Germany.

Diabetes of the Brain

There are different kinds of diabetes, the most familiar being diabetes mellitus. In this form there is sugar in the urine due to a shortage of the hormone insulin. The brain is largely normal except when the blood sugar gets too high. This is a terrible disease because the body burns fat instead of carbohydrates. This results in toxins called "ketones". The toxins can lead to blindness and even death.

A Hungarian neuropathologist named Ladislas Meduna (1896-1964) moved to Loyola University in Chicago. Meduna discovered an "anti-insulin" factor in the blood of schizophrenics. This factor, sometimes called "hyperglycemic", was confirmed by Canadian workers and later by the Russian scientist Orlovskaya.

Meduna was educated in Budapest. Despite the fact that his work on carbohydrate metabolism was confirmed all over the world, including Norway and Israel, the work was lightly dismissed by Kety, an influential professor at Harvard. Kety was probably wrong.

Southard

Southard was a neuropathologist who was born in 1876 and died in 1920. Southard reported fat deposits in the brain in "dementia praecox", which is now called "schizophrenia". Similar findings were reported by Henry Cotton, Alois Alzheimer, and others. These fat deposits suggest that the brain is not burning fat, but rather is creating fat. Thus schizophrenia is different from diabetes mellitus.

Conclusions

Some academic references are included in the list of references. However, my own articels, available full text for free on the Internet, are easier to read. I explain things on a simpler level.

Schizophrenia is a metabolic disorder of the brain. There is lipogenesis (creation of fat) in the brain. Glycolysis is slow. My view is that metabolic treatment, including a special diet, is needed. This diet would be very low in amino acids.

References

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