Mitochondrial Dysfunction Causes Mental Illness

"Mitochondria are intracellular organelles crucial in the production of cellular energy."

Jou SH, Chiu NY, Liu CS.

Department of Psychiatry, Changhua Christian Hospital, Changhua, Taiwan.

This quote is from Ref. 1. I have found a wide variety of reports supporting the theory that mitochondrial dysfunction causes various psychiatric disorders (2, 3, 4, 5). Ref. 2 is from Japan.

"Multiple lines of evidence, such as impaired energy metabolism in the brain detected by magnetic resonance spectroscopy, a possible role of maternal inheritance, co-morbidity with mitochondrial diseases, the effects of mood stabilisers on mitochondria, increased mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) deletion in the brain, and association with mtDNA mutations/polymorphisms or nuclear-encoded mitochondrial genes, suggest that mitochondrial dysfunction is an important component of bipolar disorder."

Kato T.

Laboratory for Molecular Dynamics of Mental Disorders, RIKEN Brain Science Institute, Wako-shi, Saitama, Japan. kato@brain.riken.go.jp

The above quote is from Ref. 2.

Russian Research

"The data suggest progressive disturbances of astrocyte function due to the deficit of mitochondria in schizophrenia."

Kolomeets NS, Uranova N.

Laboratory of Clinical Neuropathology, Mental Health Research Center, Moscow, Russia.

"There is a lot of evidence of astrocytic dysfunction in schizophrenia." Both quotes are from Ref. 6.

Public Library of Science Article

This article (8) is available free full text at Pubmed Central, which is a free database provided by the US National Library of Medicine. These PLoS articles are extremely useful because they can be extensively quoted as long as one gives the citation. This is because they are open-access articles.

"Mitochondria provide most of the energy for brain cells by the process of oxidative phosphorylation. Mitochondrial abnormalities and deficiencies in oxidative phosphorylation have been reported in individuals with schizophrenia (SZ), bipolar disorder (BD), and major depressive disorder (MDD) in transcriptomic, proteomic, and metabolomic studies."

Rollins B, Martin MV, Sequeira PA, Moon EA, Morgan LZ, Watson SJ, Schatzberg A, Akil H, Myers RM, Jones EG, Wallace DC, Bunney WE, Vawter MP.

Department of Psychiatry & Human Behavior, University of California Irvine, Irvine, California, United States of America.

The quote is from Ref. 8.

Psychiatric Drugs

Unfortunately some psychiatric drugs have been shown to be toxic (9).

Mitochondrial Diseases

Mitochondrial diseases are infamous for having psychiatric symptoms (10, 11, 12).

Conclusions

Refs. 13-16 discuss the reasons why there is mitochondrial dysfunction and what to do about it. These articles are available free full text at Associated Content. Amino acids are the key to these problems.

References

1. Mitochondrial dysfunction and psychiatric disorders.

Jou SH, Chiu NY, Liu CS.

Chang Gung Med J. 2009 Jul-Aug;32(4):370-9.

2. CNS Drugs. 2007;21(1):1-11. Mitochondrial dysfunction as the molecular basis of bipolar disorder: therapeutic implications. Kato T.

3. Drug News Perspect. 2006 Dec;19(10):597-602. The role of mitochondrial dysfunction in bipolar disorder. Kato T.

4. Nihon Shinkei Seishin Yakurigaku Zasshi. 2005 Apr;25(2):61-72.

[Mitochondrial dysfunction in bipolar disorder]

Kato T.

5. Bipolar Disord. 2000 Sep;2(3 Pt 1):180-90. Comment in:

Bipolar Disord. 2000 Sep;2(3 Pt 1):145-7.

Mitochondrial dysfunction in bipolar disorder. Kato T, Kato N.

6. Ultrastructural abnormalities of astrocytes in the hippocampus in schizophrenia and duration of illness: A postmortem morphometric study.

Kolomeets NS, Uranova N.

World J Biol Psychiatry. 2009 Apr 9:1-11. [Epub ahead of print]

7. Mitochondrial variants in schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and major depressive disorder.

Rollins B, Martin MV, Sequeira PA, Moon EA, Morgan LZ, Watson SJ, Schatzberg A, Akil H, Myers RM, Jones EG, Wallace DC, Bunney WE, Vawter MP.

PLoS One. 2009;4(3):e4913. Epub 2009 Mar 17.

8. Mitochondrial variants in schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and major depressive disorder.

Rollins B, Martin MV, Sequeira PA, Moon EA, Morgan LZ, Watson SJ, Schatzberg A, Akil H, Myers RM, Jones EG, Wallace DC, Bunney WE, Vawter MP.

PLoS One. 2009;4(3):e4913. Epub 2009 Mar 17.

9. Green tea modulates reserpine toxicity in animal models.

Al-Bloushi S, Safer AM, Afzal M, Mousa SA.

J Toxicol Sci. 2009 Feb;34(1):77-87.

10. Shoffner JM, Wallace D. Oxidative phosphorylation diseases. In: Scriver CR, Beaudet AL, Sly WS, Valle D, editors. The Metabolic and Molecular Bases of Inherited Disease, 7^th edition, vol. I. New York: McGraw-Hill; 1995. pp. 1535-1609.

11. Horton TM, Graham BH, Corral-Debrinski M, Shoffner JM, Kaufman AE, et al. Marked increase in mitochondrial DNA deletion levels in the cerebral cortex of Huntington's disease patients. Neurology. 1995;45:1879-1883.

12. Fan H, Civalier C, Booker JK, Gulley ML, Prior TW, et al. Detection of common disease-causing mutations in mitochondrial DNA (mitochondrial encephalomyopathy, lactic acidosis with stroke-like episodes MTTL1 3243 A>G and myoclonic epilepsy associated with ragged-red fibers MTTK 8344A>G) by real-time polymerase chain reaction. J Mol Diagn. 2006;8:277-281.

13. http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/204738/a_look_at_world_psychiatry_toxic_neurons.html

14. http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/1292397/in_defense_of_the_medical_model_for.html

15. http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/2062441/healthcare_reform_how_it_could_save.html

16. www.associatedcontent.com/article/2092969/the_biochemical_approach_to_mental.html