New Ideas in Psychiatry

Sir William Osler

Introduction

Osler was a brilliant doctor but not a psychiatrist. However, he hit the nail on the head.

The Neuropathology of Mental Disease

In 1952 Scharenberg & Brown of Michigan reported "histopathology of catatonic states". they found neurons "in advanced state of degeneration". The nuclei were swollen. The axons "were hypertrophic and stood out boldly". "The astroglia of the gray matter was degenerated." There is little doubt that these findings were caused by a metabolic error, but the exact nature of this error is not clear, unfortunately.

Scharenberg & Brown

These brilliant workers reported a plethra of positive findings. They reported a cell "in advanced state of clasmatodendrosis". This type of finding is usually seen in Alzheimer's disease. "Clasmatodendrosis" means "cytoplasmic swelling and vacuolation with beading of dendrites". Axons were hypertrophic. This is technical jargon meaning that they were enlarged. "There were countless fragments of destroyed cells and their processes. There was ameboid disintegration of the glia.

Swollen Cells

"In some areas, giant hypertrophic forms prevailed." The oligodendroglia were swollen.

Metabolic Error

Russian workers have reported a "neurotropic factor" and an "antithymic factor". The antithymic factor kills mouse thymocytes. The neurotropic factor kills red blood cells by hemolysis. These two factors could be the same thing.

Knowledge Is Power

A scientific knowledge of the chemical errors that cause mental illness is the best start for coming up with an efficacious treatment. Schizophrenia is a type of brain dysfunction. The chemical environment of the brain is abnormal. Linus Pauling proposed restoring the correct biochemical environment to the brain.

Some Scientists Are Very Depressed over Schizophrenia Research

Schizophrenia is caused by a partial failure in brain carbohydrate metabolism. There is hypometabolism of glucose in various regions of the brain. But what causes this, and what do we do about it?

Lactose Intolerance as a Model

This author proposes the example of lactose intolerance an an analogy because lactose intolerance is treatable and well understood. An enzyme (lactase) is missing, which causes disastrous gastrointestinal problems. Avoiding dairy products eliminates the symptoms. However, this diet has to be followed for life, so the disease isn't cured. It is merely controled. It may be possible to create a diet to control schizophrenia. This may also be true of depression, Alzheimer's disease, ADHD, autism, and other similar psychiatric diseases. Perhaps even Huntington's chorea could be alleviated.

The Olson Diet

The Olson diet is low in fat and protein, but high in fiber. It seems that amino acids are flooding the neurons. Some of the excess amino acids are converted to fat, causing fat deposits in the brain.

Something Can be Done

I walked past the "church" of Scientology and saw a truck next to it. On the truck was the Scientology motto: "Something Can be Done about It". Although Scientology is bogus, the motto struck me as very good. The motto was probably written by L. Ron Hubbard, who was very critical of psychiatric abuses, shock treatment, and psychiatric drugs. The motto could also be applied to the psychiatric diseases themselves. Something can be done, but it isn't dianetics. I guess it is possible for a phoney religion to have a very good motto. Another oddity is that they use a cross in their symbol. Maybe the cross was used to make it look like a religion. Then again, maybe Hubbard believed in Jesus.

Mary Baker Eddy believed in Jesus, but she led people down the wrong path when she told them not to go to doctors and hospitals. Hubbard and Eddy both did more harm than good.

Vegan Diet

The vegan diet allows fruits, vegetables, and grains.

Some foods are mixtures. For example cake contains some dairy products unless it is parve.
Alcoholic foods are vegan but are not allowed on the Boston diet, which I invented. For one thing they are fermented and contain tyramine. For another thing the alcohol is bad for people.

Conclusions

The Michigan group reported cytoplasmic swelling and vacuolation. This could signify that the cell is overeating some macronutrients such as amino acids. "Countless fragments of the destroyed cells" were seen. There were "large globular cells with a central nucleus, which was surrounded by a necrotic ring". Since the Nissl bodies form a ring around the nuceus, one wonders as to whether the "necrotic ring" represented destroyed Nissl bodies. The Nissl bodies house amino acids, which are used to form proteins. Patient 2 had an "agitated state". He was "excited" and "combative". There was "proliferation and hypertrophy of the glia throughout the brain". This is consistent with a toxic factor, which was later reported by various Russian and American scientists. Again there was clasmatodendrosis. The oligodendroglia were greatly swollen. The neurons "contained large amounts of lipoids". Case 3 was 27 years old when he was admitted to the hospital. Changes in the brain were similar to those in case 2.
The Michigan group confirmed earlier findings by Alzheimer. One theory was that Alzheimer's findings were due to post mortem changes. However, the Michigan group refuted this theory by using biopsy material. Ameboid degeneration appears in severe disorders of metabolism such as uremia, diabetes mellitus, and in chronic toxic conditions. "This seems to suggest a profound disturbance of metabolism in catatonic states."

Perry et al reporteda schizophrenic with high levels of serum asparagine. In 1987 Hoffer treated the patient successfully with diet and vitamins. This suggests that the psychosis was related to elevated asparagine levels. This is an example of a metabolic error causing a treatable form of schizophrenia. It may be that schizophrenia is a cluster of different diseases, perhaps all involving amino acid excesses.