Advances in Orthomolecular Psychiatry Theory

Orthomolecular medicine is used for known physical diseases as well as mental diseases (1).

"Nicotinic acid (niacin), when its use was introduced, cured hundreds of thousands of pellagra patients of their psychoses, as well as of the physical manifestations of their disease." Linus Pauling (1968)

Taraxein

Taraxein is a toxic factor in the blood of schizophrenics.

"It has been suggested by B. Melander and S. Martens, Dis. Nerv. Syst. 19, 478 (1959); Acta Psychiat. Neurol. Scand. 34, 344 (1959). and by A. Hoffer and H. Osmond, Int. J. Neuropsychiat. 2, 1 (1966), that the effects of taraxein [R. G. Heath. S. Martens, B. E. Leach, M. Cohen, C. A. Feigley, Amer. J. Psychiat. 114, 917 (1958)] may result from changing the permeability of the blood-brain barrier." Pauling (1968)

These two quotes from Pauling are from a famous paper in the journal Science. The paper was called "Orthomolecular Psychiatry".

"Biochemical and genetic arguments support the idea that orthomolecular therapy, the provision for the individual person of the optimum concentrations of important normal constituents of the brain, may be the preferred treatment for many mentally ill patients. Mental symptoms of avitaminosis sometimes are observed long before any physical symptoms appear." Pauling (1968)

All three quotes are from Ref. 4.

From Molecular to Orthomolecular

When Pauling first started studying diseases, he found that sickle cell anemia was a "molecular" disease (16). In 1968 he invented the term "orthomolecular". Pauling was very well read in the scientific literature and noticed a flurry of articles on vitamins (3, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 11, 12). He started to take an interest in vitamins. He was interested in Roger Williams (15), who had already favored the use of nutrition to fight diseases.

Pauling then started writing papers himself on vitamins (4, 10). But was he correct? He caused a storm of controversy because the standard approach in mental health was to use drugs. However, there were a lot of problems with drugs and with shock treatment. These treatments were very expensive and had bad side effects (24, 25). There has even been a scandal against Harvard Medical School for conflict-of-interest regarding psychiatric drug research (21).

Amino Acids

More recent work has implicated amino acids in mental diseases (18, 19, 20, 23). It seems that amino acids are flooding the brain cells. This could be caused by taraxein.

Brain glucose metabolism has been found to be slow (22).

Atypical Antipsychotics

These drugs are the latest fashion in psychiatry, but the side effects are dangerous (26, 27).

Toxic Psychiatry?

Dr. Peter Breggin has written a book called "Toxic Psychiatry" as well as other similar books. He feels that psychiatric drugs are neurotoxins". He is also critical of shock treatment. However, his views are much different than those of the late Linus Pauling. His views are more similar to those of Tom Cruise! Cruise and Breggin both reject chemical imbalances. They are both wrong on this point. Scientology is quackery. It is a phoney religious cult. However, things are not always black & white. They are against drug abuse. They favor a clean body (drug free) and a clean mind. I agree that drug abuse is terrible.

Conclusions

More research needs to be done. My own theory is that there is indeed an error in the blood brain barrier caused by taraxein. The reason why the brain glucose metabolism is slow is that the brain is being flooded with amino acids. This causes the brain to burn amino acids for fuel instead of glucose. The brain depends heavily on glucose for its energy.

My suggested treatment is a diet very low in amino acids. Certain amino acids may be worse offenders than others. This makes things complicated. I suspect tryptophan as being the worst villain.

References

1. Vitamin C and Cancer: Discovery, Recovery, Controversy
by Abram Hoffer, MD, PhD, with Linus Pauling (1999: Quarry Press, Kingston, Ontario).

2. D. W. Woolley, The Biochemical Bases of Psychoses (Wiley. New York, 1962).

3. A. Hoffer and H. Osmond, The Chemical Basis of Clinical Psychiatry, (Thomas, Springfield, Ill., 1960).

4. Pauling, L.: Orthomolecular psychiatry. Science 160: 265-271, 1968.

5. Kubala, A.L., Katz, M.M.: Nutritional factors in psychological test behavior. J Genet Psychol 96:343-352, 1960.

6. Sydenstricker, V.P., Cleckley, H.M.: The effect of nicotinic acid in stupor, lethargy and various other psychiatric disorders. Am I Psychiatry 98:83-92,1941.

7. Cleckley, H.M., Sydenstricker, V,P., Geeslin, LE-: Nicotinic acid in treatment of atypical psychotic states associated with malnutrition. JAMA 112:2107-2110, 1939.

8. VanderKamp, H: A: biochemical abnormality in schizophrenia involving ascorbic acid- Int J Neuropsychiatry 2:204206, 1966

9. Herjanic, M., Moss-Herjanic, B.L. Ascorbic acid test in psychiatric patients. J Schizophrenia 1: 257-260, 1967.

10. Pauling, L., Robinson, A.B_ Oxley S.S., et al: Results of a loading test of ascorbic acid, niacinamide, and pyridoxine in schizophrenic subjects and controls, in Orthomolecular Psychiatry: Treatment of Schizophrenia. Edited by Hawkins, D., Pauling, L San Francisco, W.H. Freeman and Co., 1973, pp 18-34.

11. Orsenberg, LE., Lilljeqvist, A.C., Hsia, Y.E.: Methylmalonic aciduria: metabolic block localization and vitamin B12 dependency. Science 162: 805-807, 1968.

12. Lindblad, B., Olin, P., Svanberg, B., et al: Methylmalonic acidemia. Acta Paediatr Scand.57: 417-424, 1968.

13. Walker, F.A., Agarwal, A.B., Singh, R.; Methylmalonic aciduria: response to oral B12 therapy. I Pediatr 75:344, 1969.

14. Rosenberg, LE,, Lilljeqvist, A.C., Hsia, Y.E., et al: Vitamin B12 dependent methylmalonicaciduria: defective B12 metabolism in cultured fibroblasts. Biochem Biophys Res Commun 37:607-614,1969.

15. Williams, R.J.: Biochemical Individuality. New York, John Wiley & Sons, 1957.

16. Pauling, L., Itano, ILA., Singer, S.J., et al: Sickle cell anemia a molecular disease. Science I 10: 543-548, 1949.

17. Herjanic, M.: Ascorbic acid and schizophrenia, in Orthomolecular Psychiatry; Treatment of Schizophrenia. Edited by Hawkins, D., Pauling, L San Francisco, W.H. Freeman and Co., 1973, pp. 303-315.

18. www.associatedcontent.com/article/2062441/healthcare_reform_how_it_could_save.html

19. www.associatedcontent.com/article/2053991/mental_healthcare_politics_and_research.html

20. www.associatedcontent.com/article/2034097/the_latest_research_in_psychiatry.html

21. Lenzer, Jeanne. "Review is set up after doctors fail to disclose industry funding.(Charles Grassley)." British Medical Journal 336.7657 (June 14, 2008): 1327(1). Health Reference Center Academic. Gale. Newton Free Library. 24 Aug. 2009

22. Metabolic Profiling of CSF: Evidence That Early Intervention May Impact on Disease Progression and Outcome in Schizophrenia, Elaine Holmes, Tsz M Tsang, Jeffrey T.-J Huang, F. Markus Leweke, Dagmar Koethe, Christoph W Gerth, Brit M Nolden, Sonja Gross, Daniela Schreiber, Jeremy K Nicholson, and Sabine BahnPLoS Med. 2006 August; 3(8): e327. Published online 2006 August 22. doi: 10.1371/journal.pmed.0030327.

23. Hashimoto K, Engberg G, Shimizu E, Nordin C, Lindstrom L, et al. Elevated glutamine/glutamate ratio in cerebrospinal fluid of first episode and drug naive schizophrenic patients. BMC Psychiatry. 2005;5:1-6.

24. [Diabetes and second-generation (atypical) antipsychotics.] Chabroux S, Haffen E, Penfornis A.
Ann Endocrinol (Paris). 2009 Aug 21. [Epub ahead of print] French.

25. Asenapine. Weber J, McCormack PL. CNS Drugs. 2009;23(9):781-92. doi: 10.2165/1120086-000000000-00000.

26. Assessment of a point-of-care metabolic risk screening program in outpatients receiving antipsychotic agents. Schneiderhan ME, Batscha CL, Rosen C. Pharmacotherapy. 2009 Aug;29(8):975-87.

27. Waist circumference is the best anthropometric predictor for insulin resistance in nondiabetic patients with schizophrenia treated with clozapine but not olanzapine. Henderson DC, Fan X, Sharma B, Copeland PM, Borba CP, Freudenreich O, Cather C, Evins AE, Goff DC. J Psychiatr Pract. 2009 Jul;15(4):251-61.