An Introduction to Neuropathology

In the past I have written many articles on this subject while giving only a few references. The reason I did that was that many references were in German, Russian, French, Spanish, etc. I decided to give more references this time so that readers can verify much of what I am saying. There are many skeptics.

Averback (1981)

Averback studied schizophrenia, Alzheimer's disease, and Huntington's chorea. He found neurodegeneration in all three diseases. He published two reports on schizophrenia, finding pathology in the septal area and the nucleus ansae peduncularis. He found massive bloating and death of neurons in all three diseases. My theory is that the cells were overeating some macronutrient(s). This would also explain the lipofuscin deposits and the fat deposits because the flooding of the cell with certain nutrients (such as amino acids) would cause an increased metabolic rate. He found destruction of the Nissl substance. Since the Nissl substance houses amino acids, they are likely to be the culprits.

David (1957)

This review, although exhaustive for the time, had an incredible negative bias. David tried to claim that Nissl bodies were artifacts. He has repeatedly been proven wrong ever since. He also tried to claim that there was no atrophy in schizophrenic brains. He has been proven wrong repeatedly by numerous CT scans and MRI scans.

Nieto & Escobar (1972)

These brilliant Mexican scientists reported subcortical gliosis in schizophrenia. Gliosis is seen in toxic diseases. This suggests a toxic factor as causing schizophrenia. It also locates the disease to subcortical areas. Previously the disease was thought to be in the frontal lobes. The failure of frontal lobotomy threw some cold water on the previous theory. However, it is unclear how doing damage to the brain would correct the chemical imbalances that cause the disease. Pauling (1968) wanted to correct the chemical imbalances, which is a far better approach.

The work of Nieto & Escobar was confirmed by Stevens of the US in 1982.

Fisman (1975) reported gliosis in the brain stem in schizophrenia.

Conclusions

The repeated findings of gliosis, confirming Alzheimer (1897), support a neurodegenerative theory for schizophrenia. Other neurodegenerative diseases include Alzheimer's disease and Huntington's chorea. Gliosis disproves the neurodevelopmental theory.

If amino acids are flooding the cells, and this appears to be the case, a diet very low in amino acids is suggested. Many reports (including Southard) have found fat deposits in the brain cells. This goes back to Alzheimer (1897, 1913), Cotton, Freeman, Vogt & Vogt, etc. The Vogts wrote a series of reports, but most were in German. I only found one in English. A 1952 report was in French. They found anatomical abnormalities in all cases of schizophrenia.

I listed extra references as a bibliography for those who wish to research the subject.

References

1. Arnold SE, Hyman BT, Van Hoesen GW, Damasio AR. Some cytoarchitectural abnormalities of the entorhinal cortex in schizophrenia. Arch Gen Psychiatry 1991a; 48: 625-32.

2. Arnold SE, Franz BR, Trojanowski JQ, Moberg PJ, Gur RE. Glial fibrillary acidic protein-immunoreactive astrocytosis in elderly patients with schizophrenia and dementia. Acta Neuropathol (Berl) 1996; 91: 269-77.

3. Averback P. Lesions of the nucleus ansae peduncularis in neuropsychiatric disease. Arch Neurol 1981; 38: 230-5.

4. Bertolino A, Nawroz S, Mattay VS, Barnett AS, Duyn JH, Moonen CT, et al. Regionally specific pattern of neurochemical pathology in schizophrenia as assessed by multislice proton magnetic resonance spectroscopic imaging. Am J Psychiatry 1996; 153: 1554-63.

5. Blennow K, Davidsson P, Gottfries C-G, Ekman R, Heilig M. Synaptic degeneration in thalamus in schizophrenia [letter]. Lancet 1996; 348: 692-3.

6. Briess D, Cotter D, Doshi R, Everall I. Mammillary body abnormalities in schizophrenia [letter]. Lancet 1998; 352: 789-90.

7. Casanova MF, Stevens JR, Kleinman JE. Astrocytosis in the molecular layer of the dentate gyrus: a study in Alzheimer's disease and schizophrenia. Psychiatry Res 1990; 35: 149-66.

8. Corsellis JAN. Psychoses of obscure pathology. In: Blackwood W, Corsellis JAN, editors. Greenfield's neuropathology. 3rd ed. London: Edward Arnold; 1976. p. 903-15.

9. Crichton-Browne J. On the weight of the brain and its component parts in the insane. Brain 1879; 2: 42-67.

10. David GB. The pathological anatomy of the schizophrenias. In: Richter D, editor. Schizophrenia: somatic aspects. London: Pergamon Press; 1957. p. 93-130.

11. Falkai P, Bogerts B. Cell loss in the hippocampus of schizophrenics. Eur Arch Psychiatry Neurol Sci 1986; 236: 154-61.

12. Fisman M. The brain stem in psychosis. Br J Psychiatry 1975; 126: 414-22.

13. Haug JO. Pneumoencephalographic evidence of brain atrophy in acute and chronic schizophrenic patients. Acta Psychiatr Scand 1982; 66: 374-83.

14. Miyakawa T, Sumiyoshi S, Deshimaru M, Suzuki T, Tomonari H. Electron microscopic study on schizophrenia. Mechanism of pathological changes. Acta Neuropathol (Berl) 1972; 20: 67-77.

15. Nieto D, Escobar A. Major psychoses. In: Minckler J, editor. Pathology of the nervous system. New York: McGraw-Hill; 1972. p. 2655-65.

16. Plum F. Prospects for research on schizophrenia. 3. Neurophysiology. Neuropathological findings. Neurosci Res Program Bull 1972; 10: 384-8.

17. Roberts GW. Schizophrenia: a neuropathological perspective. [Review]. Br J Psychiatry 1991; 158: 8-17.

18. Roberts GW, Royston MC, Weinberger DR. Schizophrenia. In: Graham DI, Lantos PL, editors. Greenfield's neuropathology. 6th ed. London: Edward Arnold; 1997. p. 897-929.

19. Soustek Z. Ultrastructure of cortical synapses in the brain of schizophrenics. Zentralbl Allg Pathol 1989; 135: 25-32.

20. Southard EE. On the topographical distribution of cortex lesions and anomalies in dementia praecox, with some account of their functional significance. Am J Insan 1915; 71: 603-71.

21. Stevens JR. Neuropathology of schizophrenia. Arch Gen Psychiatry 1982; 39: 1131-9.

22. Tatetsu S. A contribution to the morphological background of schizophrenia: with special reference to the findings in the telencephalon. Acta Neuropathol (Berl) 1964; 3: 558-71.

23. Uranova NA, Casanova MF, DeVaughn NM, Orlovskaya DD, Denisov DV. Ultrastructural alterations of synaptic contacts and astrocytes in postmortem caudate nucleus of schizophrenic patients [letter]. Schizophr Res 1996; 22: 81-3.

24. Zipursky RB, Lambe EK, Kapur S, Mikulis DJ. Cerebral gray matter volume deficits in first episode psychosis. Arch Gen Psychiatry 1998; 55: 540-6.