Orthomolecular Psychiatry

Orthomolecular Psychiatry

Orthomolecular psychiatric therapy is the treatment of mental disease by the provision of the optimum molecular environment for the mind, especially the optimum concentrations of substances normally present in the human body 

Varying the concentrations of substances normally present in the human body may control mental disease.

Linus Pauling, Ph.D.

Main Points:

The proper functioning of the mind is known to require the presence in the brain of molecules of many different substances. 

For example, mental disease, usually associated with physical disease, results from a low concentration in the brain of any one of the following vitamins: thiamine (B1), nicotinic acid or nicotinamide (B3), pyridoxine (B6), cyanocobalamin (B12), biotin (H), ascorbic acid (C), and folic acid. 

There is evidence that mental function and behavior are also affected by changes in the concentration in the brain of any of a number of other substances that are normally present, such as L(+)-glutamic acid, uric acid, and gamma-aminobutyric acid (6).

Summary

The functioning of the brain is affected by the molecular concentrations of many substances that are normally present in the brain. 

The optimum concentrations of these substances for a person may differ greatly from the concentrations provided by his normal diet and genetic machinery. 

Biochemical and genetic arguments support the idea that orthomolecular therapy, the provision for the individual person of the optimum concentrations of important normal constituents of the brain, may be the preferred treatment for many mentally ill patients. 

Mental symptoms of avitaminosis sometimes are observed long before any physical symptoms appear. It is likely that the brain is more sensitive to changes in concentration of vital substances than are other organs and tissues.

Moreover, there is the possibility that for some persons the cerebrospinal concentration of a vital substance may be grossly low at the same time that the concentration in the blood and lymph is essentially normal. 

A physiological abnormality such as decreased permeability of the bloodbrain barrier for the vital substance or increased rate of metabolism of the substance in the brain may lead to a cerebral deficiency and to a mental disease.

Diseases of this sort may be called localized cerebral deficiency diseases. 

It is suggested that the genes responsible for abnormalities (deficiencies) in the concentration of vital substances in the brain may be responsible for increased penetrance of the postulated gene for schizophrenia, and that the so-called gene for schizophrenia may itself -be a gene that leads to a localized cerebral deficiency in one or more vital substances.

Full Article.....very dense

Varying the concentrations of substances normally present in the human body may control mental disease.

Linus Pauling, Ph.D.

The methods principally used now for treating patients with mental disease are psychotherapy (psychoanalysis and related efforts to provide insight and to decrease environmental stress), chemotherapy (mainly with the use of powerful synthetic drugs, such as chlorpromazine, or powerful natural products from plants, such as reserpine), and convulsive or shock therapy (electroconvulsive therapy, insulin coma therapy, pentylenetetrazol shock therapy). 

I have reached the conclusion, through arguments summarized in the following paragraphs, that another general method of treatment, which may be called orthomolecular therapy, may be found to be of great value, and may turn out to be the best method of treatment for many patients.

Orthomolecular psychiatric therapy is the treatment of mental disease by the provision of the optimum molecular environment for the mind, especially the optimum concentrations of substances normally present in the human body 

1). An example is the treatment of phenylketonuric children by use of a diet containing a smaller than normal amount of the amino acid phenylalanine. Phenylketonuria (2) results from a genetic defect that leads to a decreased amount or effectiveness of the enzyme catalyzing the oxidation of phenylalanine to tyrosine. 

The patients on a normal diet have in their tissues abnormally high concentrations of phenylalanine and some of its reaction products, which, possibly in conjunction with the decreased concentration of tyrosine, cause the mental and physical manifestations of the disease (mental deficiency, severe eczema, and others). 

A decrease in the amount of phenylalanine ingested results in an approximation to the normal or optimum concentrations and to the alleviation of the manifestations of the disease, both mental and physical.

The functioning of the brain is dependent on its composition and structure; that is, on the molecular environment of the mind. 

The presence in the brain of molecules of N,N-diethyl-D-lysergamide, mescaline, or some other schizophrenogenic substance is associated with profound psychic effects (3). Cherkin has recently pointed out (4) that in 1799 Humphry Davy described similar subjective reactions to the inhalation of nitrous oxide. The phenomenon of general anesthesia also illustrates the dependence of the mind (consciousness, ephemeral memory) on its molecular environment (5).

The proper functioning of the mind is known to require the presence in the brain of molecules of many different substances. 

For example, mental disease, usually associated with physical disease, results from a low concentration in the brain of any one of the following vitamins: thiamine (B1), nicotinic acid or nicotinamide (B3), pyridoxine (B6), cyanocobalamin (B12), biotin (H), ascorbic acid (C), and folic acid. 

There is evidence that mental function and behavior are also affected by changes in the concentration in the brain of any of a number of other substances that are normally present, such as L(+)-glutamic acid, uric acid, and gamma-aminobutyric acid (6). Read more