Let Them Eat Risperidone

Sorry for the title, but I had to come up with a title that I hadn't used before in my hundreds of articles on mental health.

Hoffer

I decided to give Hoffer's address to those readers in Canada. Hoffer has retired from being a psychiatrist, but he is still a source of useful information.

A. Hoffer, M.D., Ph.D.
#3A - 2727 Quadra Street
Victoria, B.C. V8T 4E5

Hoffer & Osmond designed the HOD (Hoffer-Osmond Diagnostic) test used by orthomolecular practitioners (1, 2, 3).

Kynurenine Theory

This theory has been proposed for both schizophrenia and bipolar disorder (4).

Traditional Treatments

Unfortunately Risperidone has side effects that can be adverse to your heart. It also puts you at risk for weight gain and diabetes (5). It can raise your cholesterol, unfortunately. You may have to go on the vegan diet, which has no cholesterol.

Older drugs also have bad side effects (6).

Substance Abuse

Substance abuse is a curse on mankind (8).

Neurodevelopmental or Neurodegenerative Disorders?

There has long been a debate in schizophrenia research as to whether schizophrenia is neurodevelopmental or neurodegenerative. Ref. 10 appears to answer this question in favor of the neurodegenerative theory.

Orthomolecular Treatments

Refs. 11 & 12 explain some of the orthomolecular treatments and theory. I picked these because they are available free full text on the Internet. Also they are simple enough so that the average lay reader can understand them.

Depression

Unfortunately depression can sometimes be caused by drugs (13).

Amino Acids

Amino acids appear to be very important in psychiatry (14). For one thing they are precursors of important neurotransmitters. However, there is more to the story than that. In Ref. 15 the abbreviation "PMC" means Pubmed Central. Both Ref. 14 and 15 are in Pubmed Central, meaning that they are available free full text.

Ref. 15 appears to support the glutamate theory for schizophrenia.

"The elevated GLX, if reflecting elevated glutamate, could result from excess neuronal glutamate release or glial dysfunction in glutamate re-uptake. The decreased MI in participants with schizophrenia suggests decreased glial content or dysfunctional glia, which might result from glutamate-mediated toxicity."

Linda Chang, M.D.,¹ Joseph Friedman, M.D.,² Thomas Ernst, Ph.D.,¹ Kai Zhong, Ph.D.,³ Nicholas D. Tsopelas, M.D.,⁴ and Kenneth Davis, M.D.²¹ Department of Medicine, John A. Burns School of Medicine, Honolulu, HI 96813 ² Department of Psychiatry, Mount Sinai Medical Center, New York, NY ³ Department of Diagnostic Radiology, Diagnostic Physics, University of Magdeburg, Magdeburg, Germany ⁴ Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic, Pittsburgh, PA

The quote is from Ref. 15. GLX is glutamate plus glutamine.

There are variations in the glutamate theory. One version is that glutamate is too low. This data does not support that theory. Another variation is that glutamate is too high. This variation is supported.

The glutamate theory goes back to Dohan of Philadelphia, who thought that celiac disease was an important clue to schizophrenia. In celiac disease there are psychiatric symtoms due to an excess of glutamine. A low glutamine diet is used.

Ref. 20 reported high glutamine in never-treated schizophrenics. This makes Dohan's theory look good.

Conclusions

There is a great deal of evidence for amino acid involvement in psychiatry. This should not be amazing because much of the brain is made out of amino acids. On top of that, some amino acids are neurotransmitters and others are precusors of neurotransmitters. However, I have taken glutamate and found no effect. My own theories involve tryptophan (21-24). I have written hundreds of articles on the tryptophan theory, but I have only referenced 4. To view the other articles simply go to Associated Content and search for my articles. Search for Craig Olson.

References

1. Hoffer A, Kelm H & Osmond H (Eds.): Clinical and Other Uses of the Hoffer-Osmond Diagnostic Test. Krieger Publ. Co., Huntington, N.Y., 1975.

2. Hoffer A & Osmond H: A Card Sorting Test Helpful in Making Psychiatric Diagnosis. Journal of Neuropsychiatry 2, 306- 330, 1961a.

3. Hoffer A, Kelm H & Osmond H: The Hoffer-Osmond Diagnostic test. RE Krieger Pub Co. Huntington, New York, 1975.Test kit available from Behavior Science Press, 3710 Resource Dr., Tuscaloosa, AL 35401-7059. A software program is available from Soft Tac Enterprises, 1181 Union Rd., Victoria, Canada V8P 2J2, (604) 384-0342.

4. Two complex genotypes relevant to the kynurenine pathway and melanotropin function show association with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder.

Miller CL, Murakami P, Ruczinski I, Ross RG, Sinkus M, Sullivan B, Leonard S.

Schizophr Res. 2009 Jun 5. [Epub ahead of print]

5. Rapidly Worsening Hypertriglyceridemia During Treatment with Risperidone.

Kohen I, Manu P.

Am J Ther. 2009 May 19. [Epub ahead of print]

6. Tardive dyskinesia and DRD3, HTR2A and HTR2C gene polymorphisms in Russian psychiatric inpatients from Siberia.

Al Hadithy AF, Ivanova SA, Pechlivanoglou P, Semke A, Fedorenko O, Kornetova E, Ryadovaya L, Brouwers JR, Wilffert B, Bruggeman R, Loonen AJ.

Prog Neuropsychopharmacol Biol Psychiatry. 2009 Apr 30;33(3):475-81. Epub 2009 Jan 24.

7. Etiology and Risk Factors for Developing Orthostatic Hypotension.

Mosnaim AD, Abiola R, Wolf ME, Perlmuter LC.

Am J Ther. 2009 May 15. [Epub ahead of print]

8. Caffeine-induced psychosis.

Hedges DW, Woon FL, Hoopes SP.

CNS Spectr. 2009 Mar;14(3):127-9.

9. [Metabolic side effects of second generation antipsychotic agents in antipsychotic-naïve patients: preliminary study]

Diurni M, Baranzini F, Costantini C, Poloni N, Vender S, Callegari C.

Recenti Prog Med. 2009 Feb;100(2):103. Italian.

10. Progressive gray matter reduction of the superior temporal gyrus during transition to psychosis.

Takahashi T, Wood SJ, Yung AR, Soulsby B, McGorry PD, Suzuki M, Kawasaki Y, Phillips LJ, Velakoulis D, Pantelis C.

Arch Gen Psychiatry. 2009 Apr;66(4):366-76.

11. http://www.healthy.net/scr/Article.asp?Id=692

12. http://www.healthy.net/scr/bio.asp?Id=60

13. Goodwin FK, Bunney WE Jr. Depressions following reserpine: a reevaluation. Semin Psychiatry 1971;3:435-48.

14. A new method for rapidly and simultaneously decreasing serotonin and catecholamine synthesis in humans
Marco Leyton, Valerie Kwai Pun, Chawki Benkelfat, and Simon N. Young
J Psychiatry Neurosci. 2003 November; 28(6): 464-467.

15. Brain metabolite abnormalities in the white matter of elderly schizophrenic subjects: implication for glial dysfunction Linda Chang, Joseph Friedman, Thomas Ernst, Kai Zhong, Nicholas D. Tsopelas, and Kenneth Davis Biol Psychiatry. Author manuscript; available in PMC 2008 December 15.

16. Davis K, Stewart D, Friedman J, Buchsbaum M, Harvey P, Hof P, et al. White matter changes in schizophrenia: evidence for myelin-related dysfunction. Archives of General Psychiatry. 2003;60:443-456.

17. Javitt DC. Glutamate and Schizophrenia: Phencyclidine, N-Methyl-d-Aspartate Receptors, and Dopamine-Glutamate Interactions. International Review Neurobiology. 2007;78:69-108.

18. Stone JM, Morrison P, Pilowsky LS. Glutamate and dopamine dysregulation in schizophrenia - a synthesis and selective review. Journal of Psychopharmacology. 2007.

19. Coyle JT. Glutamate and schizophrenia: beyond the dopamine hypothesis. Cellular Molecular Neurobiology. 2006;26:365-384.

20. Theberge J, Bartha R, Drost D, Menon R, Malla A, Takhar J, et al. Glutamate and glutamine measured with 4.0 T proton MRS in never-treated patients with schizophrenia and healthy volunteers. American Journal of Psychiatry. 2002;159:1944-1946.

21. www.associatedcontent.com/article/1854191/chemical_tests_for_mental_illness.html
22. www.associatedcontent.com/article/1839047/medical_breakthroughs_in_psychiatry.html
23. www.associatedcontent.com/article/1835535/the_latest_research_in_psychiatry.html
24. www.associatedcontent.com/article/1832155/tryptophan_in_medicine.html