The Giants of Science: Psychiatry

Craig Olson
Craig Olson, Yahoo! Contributor Network
Jul 8, 2009 "Share your voice on Yahoo! websites. Start Here."
Introduction

There have been a lot of brilliant contributors to psychiatry, so not all will be mentioned here. There have also been erratic contributors who did a lot of work, but whose theories were wrong. There are murky waters in psychiatry. For example, E. Fuller Torrey did a lot of work, but his virus theory is false.

Hoffer (Canada)

Dr. Abram Hoffer is still alive, but he has retired from being a psychiatrist. At first Hoffer was partners with Dr. Humphrey Osmond, a distinguished UK psychiatrist who moved to Canada. Latter Osmond moved to the US where he died. Hoffer then became partners with Dr. Andrew Saul, another orthomolecular enthusiast. Ref. 1-7 are a small sample of Hoffers many publications.

Mesa (Cuba)

Although not as famous as Hoffer, Nissl, Kraepelin, and Alzheimer, Mesa has made iomportant contributions.He developed a biological test for schizophrenia. This test involves a microscopic examination of the blood platelets. In schizophrenia the platelets are "gaint" with vacuoles and glycogen deposits.

Orlovskaya (Russia)

I am saving Nissl for a possible future Giants of Science article on neuropathology. Orlovskaya is a neuropathologist who specializes in psychiatry. Her achievements probably should have gotten her a Nobel prize, but that hasn't happened yet. She has reported many positive findings in schizophrenia. Her research spans 4 decades. Unfortunately her name is sometimes spelled Orlovskaia, which can lead to confusion. Her first name is Diana.

Sometimes she teams up with Natalya Uranova, another brilliant Russian expert on the electron microscope and schizophrenia. In Refs. 9 & 10 they both worked together. Ref. 10 is the first Russian report I have seen which mentions mood disorders. In Russia most patients are classified as various types of schizophrenia.

"The frequency of small lymphocytes in schizophrenic patients was lower and that of large lymphocytes, LAL and LB was higher than in controls (all p= < 0.01). The volume density (Vv) of mitochondria in LAL in individuals with schizophrenia was lower than in controls (p

Published by Craig Olson

I have worked at many different jobs including as a scientist, a mental health worker, a physical health worker, etc. I am an advocate for better health care and an advocate for the disabled.  View profile

Nissl invariably found widespread cellular disease in "dementia praecox". Another interesting fact is that Alzheimer's boss, Dr. Emil Kraepelin, named Alzheimer's disease in a psychiatry textbook that he wrote.

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