Mental Health & Amino Acids

"... we've been deceived." Dr. Timothy Scott (from the book America Fooled)

"Folks everywhere-the shrewd, the simple, the powerful and the weak-have been taken in by hoaxes and scams since the beginning of recorded time."

- Carl Sifakis

Author, Hoaxes and Scams

Introduction

Information on orthomolecular medicine can be obtained at the following address:

ORTHOMOLECULAR VITAMIN INFORMATION CENTRE Inc.
Suite 3A - 2727 Quadra Street, Victoria, British Columbia, Canada V8T 4E5
Telephone 250-386-8756 Fax 250-386-5828

Drugs

"The unreleased studies found not only was there no mental health benefit, but each of the four studies found suicide related events rose for children on Paxil compared with a placebo." Scott (psychology professor) from the book America Fooled (2006)

One of the terrible side effects of atypical antipsychotics is the metabolic syndrome (3). Weight gain and possible diabetes can be seen (4-6). The weight gain is not hopeless, however. It is treatable by diet. Unfortunately weight gain can put you at risk for a number of diseases including hypertension and cancer. Your cholesterol may go up. This puts you at risk for cardiovascular diseases.

Often when the patient realizes the side effects, the patient will refuse the medicine (8). This is called "non-compliance". These patients may live longer.

A Blood Test for Schizophrenia?

Ref. 1 claims that a blood test for schizophrenia is in the works. The test is being deveoloped by Ming Tsuang, at the University of California in San Diego, and his team. The test involves RNA.

Ref. 2 also claims a possible test for schizophrenia, but the test is different. This Israeli test is on the white blood cells and is being developed by Professor Sara Fuchs of the immunology department of the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot and by graduate student Tal Ilani. Both Ref. 1 and Ref. 2 are written on the layman's level. Usually I give academic references, but some of my readers have complained that my articles are too hard to digest. Therefore in the future I plan to give a mix of academic references and references that the average person can understand.

Ref. 9 reports high levels of homocysteine in the serum of Chinese schizophrenics. This is interesting because the same amino acid has been implicated in alcoholism.

"Elevated plasma levels of the amino acid homocysteine have been associated with schizophrenia, particularly in young male patients. Among other factors, low folate and vitamin B12 levels have been implicated in the increase in homocysteine."

Haidemenos A, Kontis D, Gazi A, Kallai E, Allin M, Lucia B.

8th Psychiatric Department, Psychiatric Hospital of Attica, 374 Kavalas ave, 12462 Athens, Greece. dralex@otenet.gr

The quote is from Ref. 10. This finding was confirmed by the Greek group (10).

"We screened plasma total homocysteine levels of 193 schizophrenic patients vs. 762 controls for plasma homocysteine levels. The effect of schizophrenia was marked ..."

Levine J, Sela BA, Osher Y, Belmaker RH.

Ben Gurion University, Beersheva, Israel.

The above quote is from Ref. 11. This Israeli group also found elevated homocysteine in bipolar patients.

Nutrition

Ref. 20 claims that there are nutritional deficiency factors in schizophrenia. Ref. 21 has a similar point of view. Ref. 21 seems to suggest a problem with methylation. This appears to make sense because excessive methylation could create homocysteine from methionine. Ref. 22 also proposes a nutritional factor.

Conclusions

There is very consistent evidence for elevated serum homocysteine in schizophrenia. On top of that, it also appears to elevated in a number of related diseases including alcoholism, PTSD, Alzheimer's disease, bipolar disorder, etc. It is also elevated in cardiovascular problems. This appears to support the transmethylation theory for mental disease, invented in 1952 by Osmond & Smythies, who were then in the UK. Osmond is now deceased, unfortunately, but Smythies may still be alive, although quite old.

This theory influenced Hoffer to propose the use of a methyl acceptor as a treatment for schizophrenia. More information is provided in Refs. 23-26, which are available free full text at Associated Content. These references are not as technical as the others.

References

1. Murphy, Marina. "Blood test for schizophrenia on the cards.(This week)(Brief Article)." New Scientist 185.2485 (Feb 5, 2005): 14(1). Health Reference Center Academic. Gale.

2. Siegel-Itzkovich, Judy. "Scientists discover possible test for schizophrenia." British Medical Journal 322.7280 (Jan 27, 2001): 192. Health Reference Center Academic. Gale.

3. Usher K, Foster K, Park T. The metabolic syndrome and schizophrenia: the latest evidence and nursing guidelines for management. Journal of Psychiatric and Mental Health Nursing, 2006; 13, 730-734.

4. Henderson DC. Clozapine: Diabetes mellitus, weight gain, and lipid abnormalities. J Clin Psychiatry 2001; 62 Suppl 23: 39-44.

5. Lindenmayer JP, Nathan AM, Smith RC. Hyperglycemia associated with the use of atypical antipsychotic. J Clin Psychiatry 2001; 62 Suppl 23: 30-8.

6. Menza M, Vreeland B, Minsky S, Gara M, Radler DR, Sakowitz M. Managing atypical antipsychotic-associated weight gain: 12-month data on a multimodal weight control program. J Clin Psychiatry 2004; 65:471-7.

7. Littrell K, Hilligoss N, Kirshner C, Petty R, Johnson C. The effects of an educational intervention on antipsychotic-induced weight gain. J Nurs Scholarsh 2003; 35:237-41.

8. Weiden P, Mackell J, McDonnell D. Obesity as a risk factor for antipsychotic noncompliance. Schizophre Res 2004; 66:51-7.

9. Homocysteine level in schizophrenia patients.

Ma YY, Shek CC, Wong MC, Yip KC, Ng RM, Nguyen DG, Poon TK.

Aust N Z J Psychiatry. 2009 Aug;43(8):760-5.

10. Prog Neuropsychopharmacol Biol Psychiatry. 2007 Aug 15;31(6):1289-96. Epub 2007 Jun 2. Plasma homocysteine, folate and B12 in chronic schizophrenia.Haidemenos A, Kontis D, Gazi A, Kallai E, Allin M, Lucia B.

11. Prog Neuropsychopharmacol Biol Psychiatry. 2005 Sep;29(7):1181-91.

High homocysteine serum levels in young male schizophrenia and bipolar patients and in an animal model.Levine J, Sela BA, Osher Y, Belmaker RH.

12. Bipolar Disord. 2004 Feb;6(1):82-6. Elevated homocysteine levels in euthymic bipolar disorder patients showing functional deterioration.Osher Y, Sela BA, Levine J, Belmaker RH.

13. J Psychiatr Res. 2004 Jul-Aug;38(4):413-6. Homocysteine levels in newly admitted schizophrenic patients.Applebaum J, Shimon H, Sela BA, Belmaker RH, Levine J.

14. Oxidative/nitrative modifications of plasma proteins and thiols from patients with schizophrenia.

Dietrich-Muszalska A, Olas B, Głowacki R, Bald E.

Neuropsychobiology. 2009;59(1):1-7. Epub 2009 Feb 17.

15. Association of plasma homocysteine and methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase C677T gene variant with schizophrenia: A Chinese Han population-based case-control study.

Feng LG, Song ZW, Xin F, Hu J.

Psychiatry Res. 2009 Aug 15;168(3):205-8. Epub 2009 Jun 28.

16. Plasma homocysteine levels in young male patients in the exacerbation and remission phase of schizophrenia.

Petronijević ND, Radonjić NV, Ivković MD, Marinković D, Piperski VD, Duricić BM, Paunović VR.

Prog Neuropsychopharmacol Biol Psychiatry. 2008 Dec 12;32(8):1921-6. Epub 2008 Sep 15.

17. Altered red cell membrane compositions related to functional vitamin B(12) deficiency manifested by elevated urine methylmalonic acid concentrations in patients with schizophrenia.

Ozcan O, Ipçioğlu OM, Gültepe M, Başoğglu C.

Ann Clin Biochem. 2008 Jan;45(Pt 1):44-9.

18. Elevated serum homocysteine levels in male patients with PTSD.

Levine J, Timinsky I, Vishne T, Dwolatzky T, Roitman S, Kaplan Z, Kotler M, Sela BA, Spivak B.

Depress Anxiety. 2008;25(11):E154-7.

19. Associations of blood homocysteine concentrations in Arab schizophrenic patients.

Akanji AO, Ohaeri JU, Al-Shammri SA, Fatania HR.

Clin Biochem. 2007 Sep;40(13-14):1026-31. Epub 2007 Jun 8.

20. Prenatal nutritional deficiency and risk of adult schizophrenia.

Brown AS, Susser ES.

Schizophr Bull. 2008 Nov;34(6):1054-63. Epub 2008 Aug 4.

21. The role of one-carbon metabolism in schizophrenia and depression.

Frankenburg FR.

Harv Rev Psychiatry. 2007 Jul-Aug;15(4):146-60. Review.

22. High-dose vitamin B6 decreases homocysteine serum levels in patients with schizophrenia and schizoaffective disorders: a preliminary study.

Miodownik C, Lerner V, Vishne T, Sela BA, Levine J.

Clin Neuropharmacol. 2007 Jan-Feb;30(1):13-7.

23. http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/237845/the_link_between_food_allergies_and.html
24. www.associatedcontent.com/article/1932938/disease_biomarkers_in_psychiatry.html

25. www.associatedcontent.com/article/1926322/advocacy_for_mental_health_clients.html
26. www.associatedcontent.com/article/1922710/new_approaches_to_mental_health.html