Mental Health & Wellness

"Man will occasionally stumble over the truth, but usually manages to pick himself up, walk over or around it, and carry on." Winston S. Churchill
"... 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 schizxophrenia, 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. The Chinese finding was confirmed by the Greek group (10). Ref. 11 confirmed Ref. 10 & Ref. 9. The finding of high homocysteine confirms the old theory of excessive methylation in mental diseases. Also there are psychiatric symptoms in the inherited disease homocysteinuria. In this disease methionine is in excess also.

Tryptophan

Tryptophan has been implicated in depression (12). Decreased plasma tryptophan concentration could mean a transport error in which tryptophan is flooding the cells.
Interferon is a drug used for cancer and certain viruses. This drug causes depression as a side effect (13). The drug induces changes in tryptophan metabolism, which is increased.

Conclusions

The various forms of mental illness are associated with changes in amino acid metabolism. Since amino acids are found in the diet, this would appear to support orthomolecular psychiatry. Refs. 14 & 15 add further support to this hypothesis. Ref. 16 reported that hydocortisone, an adrenal cortex hormone associated with stress, induces increased tryptophan metabolism in the kynurenine pathway.

More research needs to be done. At this point in time signs point towards tryptophan as being abnormal in mental diseases. More information is in my previous articles at Gather.com and at AssociatedContent.com. Simply go to these websites and search for Craig Olson.

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. Anderson IM, Parry-Billings M, Newsholme EA, Poortmans JR, Cowen PJ. Decreased plasma tryptophan concentration in major depression: relationship to melancholia and weight loss. J Affect Disord. 1990;20:185-91.

13. Capuron L, Neurauter G, Musselman DL, Lawson DH, Nemeroff CB, Fuchs D, et al. Interferon-alpha-induced changes in tryptophan metabolism. relationship to depression and paroxetine treatment. Biol Psychiatry. 2003;54:906-14.

14. Capuron L, Ravaud A, Neveu PJ, Miller AH, Maes M, Dantzer R. Association between decreased serum tryptophan concentrations and depressive symptoms in cancer patients undergoing cytokine therapy. Mol Psychiatry. 2002;7:468-73.

15. Curzon G, Bridges PK. Tryptophan metabolism in depression. J Neurol Neurosurg Psychiatry. 1970;33:698-704.

16. Altman K, Greengard O. Correlation of kynurenine excretion with liver tryptophan pyrrolase levels in disease and after hydrocortisone induction. J Clin Invest. 1966 Oct;45(10):1527-1534.