Tryptophan in Medicine

There are a number of diseases in which tryptophan metabolism is abnormal including pellagra, Hartnup's disease, acute intermittent porphyria, Wilson's disease, depression, and schizophrenia. There may be other also that have not yet been measured. All of these diseases have psychiatric symptoms. This is not a coincidence. Tryptophan is very important to the brain. Too much of it is toxic to the brain, as in porphyria, schizophrenia, and depression.

There is a terrible side effect of SSRI (selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor) drugs called the "serotonin syndrome". Tryptophan metabolism in the serotonin pathway is abnormal is this side effect, which can be fatal, unfortunately.

Tryptophan

Tryptophan is found in the diet. Serotonin is also in the diet, but it does not cross the blood-brain barrier. Wurtman & Fernstrom studied tryptophan because it is a precursor of serotonin (1). They thought, and correctly, that nutrition can affect the brain.

Interferon, which is used as a medicine, can affect tryptophan metabolism. According to Ref. 2, it causes adverse behavioral side effects. It increases tryptophan metabolism in the kynurenine pathway.

Cytokines

Cytokine is used as a cancer treatment. According to Ref. 4, it produces adverse psychiatric side effects. This is thought to be due to increased tryptophan metabolism in the kynurenine pathway.

Stress

Stress induces profound changes in brain chemistry (6). These changes are mostly to catecholamines. My own view is that stress is a risk factor for mental illness.

Tryptophan in Psychiatry

There are many theories of psychiatry. Some of these are false (9). Nutritional theories are reviewed in Ref. 11. Hypoglycemia is one of these theories (12). There are theories involving tryptophan (13). Some theories favor the use of tryptophan as a supplement. My own theory is that tryptophan is adverse because it is in excess in the brain.

Methionine

There are also theories involving methionine (15). My view is that methionine is adverse also.

Folic Acid Treatment

Although I am skeptical of this, there is a view that folic acid is a good treatment for mental disease (17, 18). If this were true, then the government could save massive amounts of money with this treatment, which is cheap and safe.

Sugar

There are also theories about sugar, which is interesting because sugar affects the brain metabolism of tryptophan. This was established by Wurtman & Fernstrom. My own view is that sugar is adverse because it has the effect of pumping more tryptophan into the brain. The brain is already overloaded with tryptophan is psychiatric disorders.

Unfortunately sugar can lead to obesity (23). Obesity is a risk factor for a number of diseases including high blood pressure, diabetes, cancer, etc.

Conclusions

Theories in psychiatry are almost a dime a dozen. There is a fish oil theory (24). I am skeptical of this theory. My own theories are explained in Refs. 27-31. My view is that tryptophan is flooding the brain in mental diseases, and a low tryptophan diet should be used. If this theory is valid, and I believe it is, then the government could save massive amounts of money with this treatment, which is cheaper and safer than psychiatric drugs.

References

1. Wurtman RJ, Fernstrom JD. Control of brain neurotransmitter synthesis by precursor availability and nutritional state. Biochem Pharmacol. 1976;25:1691-6.

2. Bonaccorso S, Marino V, Puzella A, et al. Increased depressive ratings in patients with hepatitis C receiving interferon-alpha-based immunotherapy are related to interferon-alpha-induced changes in the serotonergic system. J Clin Psychopharmacol. 2002;22:86-90.

3. Capuron L, Neurauter G, Musselman DL, et al. Interferon-alpha-induced changes in tryptophan metabolism: relationship to depression and paroxetine treatment. Biol Psychiat. 2003;54:906-14.

4. Meyers CA. Mood and cognitive disorders in cancer patients receiving cytokine therapy. Adv Exp Med Biol. 1999;461:75-81.

5. Saito K, Markey SP, Heyes MP. Chronic effects of y-interferon on quinolinic acid and indoleamine-2,3-dioxygenase in brain of C57BL6 mice. Brain Res. 1991;546:151-4.

6. Stone EA. Stress and catecholamines. In: Friedhoff AJ, editor. Catecholamines and behavior, neuropsychopharmacology. Vol. 2. New York: Plenum Press; 1975. pp. 31-72.

7. Dantzer R, Bluthé R-M, Castanon N, et al. Cytokine effects on behavior. In: Ader R, Felten D, Cohen N, editors. Psychoneuroimmunology. San Diego, CA: Academic Press; 2001. pp. 703-27.

8. de Beaurepaire R, Swiergiel AH, Dunn AJ. Neuroimmune mediators: are cytokines mediators of depression. In: Licinio J, Wong M-L, editors. Biology of depression. Vol. 2. Weinheim: Wiley; 2005. pp. 557-81.

9. www.associatedcontent.com/article/1810794/scientology_is_bogus.html

10. A new method for rapidly and simultaneously decreasing serotonin and catecholamine synthesis in humans Marco Leyton, Valerie Kwai Pun, Chawki Benkelfat, and Simon N. Young J Psychiatry Neurosci. 2003 November; 28(6): 464-467.

11. Clinical basics: Clinical nutrition: 3. The fuzzy boundary between nutrition and psychopharmacology Simon N. YoungCMAJ. 2002 January 22; 166(2): 205-209.

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13. Young SN. The clinical psychopharmacology of tryptophan. In: Wurtman RJ, Wurtman JJ, editors. Food constituents affecting normal and abnormal behaviors. vol 7 of Nutrition and the brain series. New York: Raven Press; 1986. p. 49-88.

14. Wurtman RJ, Hefti F, Melamed E. Precursor control of neurotransmitter synthesis. Pharmacol Rev 1981;32:315-35.

15. Rubin RA, Ordonez LA, Wurtman RJ. Physiological dependence of brain methionine and S-adenosylmethionine concentrations on serum amino acid pattern. J Neurochem 1974;23:227-31.

16. Cohen SM, Nichols A, Wyatt R, Pollin W. The administration of methionine to chronic schizophrenic patients: a review of ten studies. Biol Psychiatry 1974; 8: 209-25.

17. Young SN, Ghadirian AM. Folic acid and psychopathology. Prog Neuropsychopharmacol Biol Psychiatry 1989;13:841-63.

18. Godfrey PS, Toone BK, Carney MW, Flynn TG, Bottiglieri T, Laundy M, et al. Enhancement of recovery from psychiatric illness by methylfolate. Lancet 1990;336(8712):392-5.

19. Bottiglieri T, Hyland K. S-Adenosylmethionine levels in psychiatric and neurological disorders: a review. Acta Neurol Scand 1994;89:19-26.
20. Wolraich ML, Wilson DB, White JW. The effect of sugar on behavior or cognition in children: a meta-analysis. JAMA 1995;274:1617-21.

21. Wolraich ML, Lindgren SD, Stumbo PJ, Stegink LD, Appelbaum MI, Kiritsy MC. Effects of diets high in sucrose or aspartame on the behavior and cognitive performance of children. N Engl J Med 1994;330:301-7.

22. Spring BJ, Lieberman HR, Swope G, Garfield GS. Effects of carbohydrates on mood and behavior. Nutr Rev 1986;44:51-60.

23. Wurtman RJ, Wurtman JJ. Brain serotonin, carbohydrate-craving, obesity and depression. Obes Res 1995;3:S477-80.

24. Stoll AL, Severus WE, Freeman MP, Rueter S, Zboyan HA, Diamond E, et al. Omega 3 fatty acids in bipolar disorder: a preliminary double-blind, placebo-controlled trial. Arch Gen Psychiatry 1999;56(5):407-12.

25. Hamazaki T, Sawazaki S, Itomura M, Asaoka E, Nagao Y, Nishimura N, et al. The effect of docosahexaenoic acid on aggression in young adults. A placebo-controlled double-blind study. J Clin Invest 1996;97(4):1129-33.

26. Maidment ID. Are fish oils an effective therapy in mental illness: an analysis of the data. Acta Psychiatr Scand 2000;102:3-11.

27. www.associatedcontent.com/article/1728112/mental_illness_and_homelessness.html 28. www.associatedcontent.com/article/1698919/advances_in_biological_psychiatric.html 29. www.associatedcontent.com/article/1680090/cuban_research_on_schizophrenia.html
30. www.associatedcontent.com/article/1680380/the_virus_theory_for_schizophrenia.html
31. www.associatedcontent.com/article/1676885/new_ideas_in_psychiatry.html