International Research on Mental Health

Early work by Cajal, Golgi, and Wundt concentrated on trying to understand the normal brain. The first great German psychiatrist was Wilhelm Griesinger, who was also a neuropathologist. He found various abnormalities in the brains of the "insane" including hydrocephalus (enlarged ventricles). In 1858 R. Virchow wrote the book "Die Cellular Pathologie", published in Berlin. This brilliant book recommended that diseases be studied on the cellular level. This was a major advance in the 19th century.

Detroit Work

In the 20th century brilliant work was done in Detroit by a group headed by Frohman & Gottlieb. They found a toxic plasma factor that they felt caused schizophrenia. They found that the intact cell membrane was the site of action of the plasma factor. Further study showed that tryptophan accumulated more rapidly in the cell in the presence of plasma from schizophrenics.

They found that their factor had a high lipid content. It was a protein. It caused increased lactate in an assay. This work was done at the same time that Linus Pauling was inventing "orthomolecular" psychiatry (the Sixties). Also Dr. Julius Axelrod was studying catecholamines for a possible toxin that might cause schizophrenia. It is quite possible that the toxic catecholamine might be the active ingredient of the Detroit factor.

Russian Work Confirms Detroit Work

Moscow researchers confirmed the Detroit work. Romasenko (1967) demonstrated a toxic blood factor in schizophrenia by injecting rats with serum. Snezhnevsky & Vartanian (1971) reported an "erthrolytic action of schizophrenic serum". Mukhin & Faktor reported the "stimulating effect of schizophrenic patients' plasma on the cellular incorporation of tryptophan". Unfortunately I have been unable to find images of either the Detroit workers or the Moscow workers.

Tryptophan and Alanine

According to the Lafayette Clinic in Detroit, both tryptophan and alanine enter the cells at high rates in schizophrenia, but tryptophan is the worst offender. Tryptophan is found in the following foods:

Bananas, beans, brewer's yeast, brown rice bran, caseinate, cottage cheese, dairy products, dates, eggs, fish, lactalbumin, legumes, meat, milk, nuts, peanuts, protein (hydrolysis), seafood, seeds, soy, turkey, whey, whole grains.

Alanine is high in the following foods:

Beans, brewer's yeast, brown rice bran, caseinate, corn, dairy products, eggs, fish, gelatin, lactalbumin, legumes, meat, nuts, seafood, seeds, soy, whey, whole grains.

In my opinion a diet very low in these amino acids should be used as a treatment. The foods mentioned above should be avoided on this diet. Part of my inspiration came from Linus Pauling, who thought that nutrition could be used to attack mental disease. Pauling felt that mental illness was a metabolic disturbance localized to the brain, making it difficult to detect in the blood and urine. I believe that he was correct. He wanted to provide the correct molecular environment for the brain, which he felt was the organ of the mind. My view is that the brain is not just one organ, but several.

In fact the metabolic error could even be localized largely to one portion of the brain! Neuropathology studies suggest this.

Conclusions

But what about drugs? None of the current psychiatric drugs were designed based on this theory. The Detroit workers worked on a drug which they called "TVL". That drug was supposed to destroy the "S-protein", which is what they called their toxic factor in schizophrenia. However, both Frohman & Gottlieb were old when they worked on this. I think that they either died or retired before the drug was ever approved. They did try it on animals, and it enhanced MAO. It was not a MAO inhibitor, but rather a MAO enhancer.

References

1. http://www.gather.com/viewArticle.jsp?articleId=281474977245461

2. www.associatedcontent.com/article/565083/mental_health_a_new_approach.html

3. www.associatedcontent.com/article/563169/controversies_in_psychiatry.html