Advances in Mental Health Research

Introduction

May is Mental Health Awareness Month.

"A systematic, quantitative meta-analysis of all published studies involving 380 patients and 358 control subjects revealed elevated serum S100B in schizophrenia without any effect of antipsychotic treatment. Results suggest that increases of serum S100B are related to active secretion of S100B by astrocytes in combination with blood-brain barrier dysfunction in schizophrenia." Schroeter et al (2009)

The above quote is from Ref. 2. This appears to fit in with my theory of amino acids flooding the brain in schizophrenia. My theory is extensively explained in the Associated Content references (5-9).

Nutrition

References 10-19 discuss nutritional theories of schizophrenia. Most of these are about Dohan's gluten theory. Dohan thought, and probably correctly, that celiac disease provides an important clue to schizophrenia. One amino acid, glutamine, goes haywire in this disease due to an intestinal problem. The body absorbs it too quickley.

People with celiac disease develop both psychiatric symptoms and gastrointestinal symptoms. It is treated by a low glutamine diet.

Ref. 10 recommends a low-carbohydrate diet.

Genetics

There has been no shortage of positive genetics findings (20-22). The problem is that there has been so many positive findings that the picture is bewildering. Positive findings have been reported for both schizophrenia and bipolar disorder.

Stress

Stress play an important role in mental disease (23, 24).

Metabolic Changes

Ref. 25 has blamed schizophrenia on "metabolic changes". This view is most likely correct.

Depression

Depression is also thought to be caused by metabolic errors in the brain (29). There are nutritional theories for depression (30, 31). It is hard to find articles like 30 and 31 in Pubmed and Pubmed Central. I had to find them in the Gale Science database, which appears to be more open to new ideas than the National Library of Medicine, which is a government agency that runs Pubmed and Pubmed Central. Hopefully this resistance to nutrition will go away under the Obama Administration. The drug companies do not make money off of nutrition, and they have had tremendous influence with the government in the past, unfortunately.

Conclusions

The Science Resource Center is a database that I have used for much of my research. This outstanding database is available at the libraries that I use. They sometimes give the full text for free for some documents. Pubmed often has abstracts, but sometimes they don't even have that. Sometimes they only have the citation.

Phytomedicine (plant medicine) is on the Gale database, but is rarely seen on government databases.

References

1. "Glial cell activation in a subgroup of patients with schizophrenia indicated by increased S100B serum concentrations and elevated myo-inositol.(Author abstract)." Progress in Neuropsychopharmacology & Biological Psychiatry 31.2 (March 30, 2007): 361(4). Health Reference Center Academic. Gale. Newton Free Library. 11 May 2009
http://find.galegroup.com/itx/start.do?prodId=HRCA.

2. Schroeter, Matthias L., Hashim Abdul-Khaliq, Michael Krebs, Albert Diefenbacher, and Ingolf E. Blasig. "Neuron-specific enolase is unaltered whereas S100B is elevated in serum of patients with schizophrenia -- Original research and meta-analysis.(Report)." Psychiatry Research 167.1-2 (May 15, 2009): 66(7). Health Reference Center Academic. Gale. Newton Free Library. 11 May 2009
http://find.galegroup.com/itx/start.do?prodId=HRCA.

3. Miller, Christine L., Ida C. Llenos, Jeannette R. Dulay, and Serge Weis. "Upregulation of the initiating step of the kynurenine pathway in postmortem anterior cingulate cortex from individuals with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder.(Report)." Brain Research 1073-1074 (Feb 16, 2006): 25(13). Health Reference Center Academic. Gale. Newton Free Library. 11 May 2009
http://find.galegroup.com/itx/start.do?prodId=HRCA.

4. "Drugs on the web; the Psychonaut 2002 EU project.(Report)." Progress in Neuropsychopharmacology & Biological Psychiatry 30.4 (June 2006): 640(7). Health Reference Center Academic. Gale. Newton Free Library. 11 May 2009
http://find.galegroup.com/itx/start.do?prodId=HRCA.

5. www.associatedcontent.com/article/1698919/advances_in_biological_psychiatric.html

6. www.associatedcontent.com/article/1680090/cuban_research_on_schizophrenia.html

7. www.associatedcontent.com/article/1680380/the_virus_theory_for_schizophrenia.html

8. www.associatedcontent.com/article/1676885/new_ideas_in_psychiatry.html

9. www.associatedcontent.com/article/1649109/mitochondrial_dysfunction_in_mental.html

10. "Schizophrenia, gluten, and low-carbohydrate, ketogenic diets: a case report and review of the literature.(Research)(Report)." Nutrition & Metabolism, Feb 26, 2009 v6 i10 p10. Science Resource Center. Gale. 13 May 2009 http://galenet.galegroup.com/servlet/SciRC?ste=1&docNum=A195034279

11. Dohan FC: Cereals and schizophrenia data and hypothesis.Acta Psych Scand 1966, 42(2): 125-152.

12. Dohan FC, Harper EH, Clark MH, Rodrigue RB, Zigas V: Is schizophrenia rare if grain is rare?.Biol Psychiatry 1984, 19(3): 385-399.

13. Kalaydjian AE, Eaton W, Cascella N, Fasano A: The gluten connection: the association between schizophrenia and celiac disease.Acta Psychiatr Scand 2006, 113: 82-90.

14. Vlissides DN, Venulet A, Jenner FA: A double-blind gluten-free/gluten-load controlled trial in a secure ward population.Br J Psych 1986, 148: 447-452.

15. Pacheco A, Easterling WS, Pryer MW: A pilot study of the ketogenic diet in schizophrenia.Am J Psychiatry 1965, 121: 1110-1111.

16. Hoffer LJ: Vitamin therapy in schizophrenia.Isr J Psychiatry Relat Sci 2008, 45(1): 3-10.

17. Procter A: Enhancement of recovery from psychiatric illness by methylfolate.Br J Psychiatry 1991, 159: 271-272.

18. Wittenborn JR, Weber ES, Brown M: Niacin in the long-term treatment of schizophrenia.Arch Gen Psychiatry 1974, 31: 547-552.

19. Henderson DC, Borba CP, Daley TB, Boxill R, Nguyen DD, Culhane MA, Louie P, Cather C, Evins AE, Freudenreich O, Taber SM, Goff DC: Dietary intake profile of patients with schizophrenia.Ann Clin Psychiatry 2006, 18(2): 99-105.

20. "Large recurrent microdeletions associated with schizophrenia.(LETTERS)(Report)." Nature, Sept 11, 2008 v455 i7210 p232(7). Science Resource Center. Gale. 14 May 2009 http://galenet.galegroup.com/servlet/SciRC?ste=1&docNum=A188899782.

21. "Rare chromosomal deletions and duplications increase risk of schizophrenia.(LETTERS)(Report)." Nature, Sept 11, 2008 v455 i7210 p237(5). Science Resource Center. Gale. 14 May 2009 http://galenet.galegroup.com/servlet/SciRC?ste=1&docNum=A188899785.

22. "Identification of loci associated with schizophrenia by genome-wide association and follow-up.(BRIEF COMMUNICATIONS)(Clinical report)." Nature Genetics, Sept 2008 v40 i9 p1053(3). Science Resource Center. Gale. 14 May 2009 http://galenet.galegroup.com/servlet/SciRC?ste=1&docNum=A192498165

23. THE LIGHT: How Stress Poisons the Central Nervous System and Causes ADHD, Parkinson's Disease, Schizophrenia, Autoimmune Response and More by Ruth Whalen. www.lulu.com: Lulu Enterprises, 2007. 196 pages. Paperback. ISBN: 9781430329916.

24. "The Light: How Stress Poisons the Central Nervous System and Causes ADHD, Parkinson's Disease, Schizophrenia, Autoimmune Response and More.(Book review)." Perspectives on Science and Christian Faith, Sept 2008 v60 i3 p187(2). Science Resource Center. Gale. 14 May 2009 http://galenet.galegroup.com/servlet/SciRC?ste=1&docNum=A184800742.

25. "Metabolic changes in schizophrenia and human brain evolution.(Research)." Genome Biology (Online Edition), August 5, 2008 v9 iR124 pR124. Science Resource Center. Gale. 14 May 2009 http://galenet.galegroup.com/servlet/SciRC?ste=1&docNum=A182761925.

26. Higgs BW, Elashoff M, Richman S, Barci B: An online database for brain disease research.BMC Genomics 2006, 7: 70.

27. Yacubian J, de Castro CC, Ometto M, Barbosa E, de Camargo CP, Tavares H, Cerri GG, Gattaz WF: 31P-spectroscopy of frontal lobe in schizophrenia: alterations in phospholipid and high-energy phosphate metabolism.Schizophr Res 2002, 58: 117-122.

28. Puri BK: Proton and 31-phosphorus neurospectroscopy in the study of membrane phospholipids and fatty acid intervention in schizophrenia, depression, chronic fatigue syndrome (myalgic encephalomyelitis) and dyslexia.Int Rev Psychiatry 2006, 18: 145-147.

29. "The molecular neurobiology of depression.(INSIGHT REVIEW)(Clinical report)." Nature, Oct 16, 2008 v455 i7215 p894(9). Science Resource Center. Gale. 14 May 2009 http://galenet.galegroup.com/servlet/SciRC?ste=1&docNum=A188847766.

30. "Association between folate intake and the risk of depressive episodes.(Nutrition & Health)." Nutrition Research Newsletter, August 2008 v27 i8 p3(2). Science Resource Center. Gale. 14 May 2009 http://galenet.galegroup.com/servlet/SciRC?ste=1&docNum=A185330873.

31. "Increased omega-3 fatty acid consumption lowers depression in the elderly.(Diet & Geriatrics)." Nutrition Research Newsletter, June 2008 v27 i6 p15(2). Science Resource Center. Gale. 14 May 2009 http://galenet.galegroup.com/servlet/SciRC?ste=1&docNum=A180861187.