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   <title>DoctorYourself.com - Vitamin Therapy for Psychosis</title>

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<td><b><font face="Arial,Helvetica"><font size=+1>Psychosis Cured with
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<td VALIGN=TOP WIDTH="132"><font color="#FF0000">Psychosis: No Drugs</font>
<br><a href="index.html">Home</a></td>

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<td VALIGN=TOP><b><font face="Arial,Helvetica">Megavitamin Therapy for
Psychosis</font></b>
<br><b><font face="Arial,Helvetica">by Abram Hoffer, M.D., Ph.D., F.R.C.P.S.
(Can.)</font></b>
<p><font face="Arial,Helvetica">Schizophrenia remains one of the most serious
chronic diseases, attacking 1 to 2% of the population. Forty years ago
patients suffering from schizophrenia occupied half of all the mental hospital
beds and one-quarter of all hospital beds. Today, most of the mental hospitals
have shut down but they have not disappeared. By refusing to accept patients,
and by discharging them before they are ready for independent living, they
converted the community into the new mental hospitals. About half of the
homeless people on our streets are schizophrenics, many of whom have been
treated in mental hospitals or psychiatric wards, placed on tranquilizers,
and then discharged to fend for themselves.</font>
<p><font face="Arial,Helvetica">The main difference is that formerly they
were treated in inadequate hospitals, which provided shelter, food, nursing
care and some medical care. Patients were protected from society and society
was protected from the more violent aggressive psychotic patients. These
patients had little personal freedom. Today, the modern mental hospital,
which is the streets with their rundown hotels, nursing homes, foster homes
and so on, provides tranquilizers for some, pays no attention to food,
provides little shelter and provides no protection for patients and for
society. But they do have much more freedom to be sick, to roam, to refuse
medication, to prey upon others, to be preyed upon by others.</font>
<p><font face="Arial,Helvetica">The end results are the same. Patients
do not recover. The recovery rate today is certainly under 15% which is
one-third of the recovery rate achieved in 1850 in England and in the USA
in the Dorothea Lynde Dix hospital in the eastern part of the country.
In my opinion, the street schizophrenics today are no better off than they
were in 1950. They suffered tremendously then from psychiatric ignorance
from this socially rejected disease, and they suffer today from psychiatric
refusal to examine a much better treatment called orthomolecular therapy.</font>
<p><font face="Arial,Helvetica">Modern drugs, primarily tranquilizers,
are very helpful in ameliorating the symptoms of the disease, but by themselves
they can not and do not lead to recovery. Psychiatric chemotherapy is equivalent
to chemotherapy practiced by oncologists for most forms of cancer, they
do little good and cause a lot of harm. Psychiatric chemotherapy leaves
the unfortunate patients with a dismal choice: (1) to remain naturally
psychotic without the benefit of these drugs in reducing suffering or,
(2) suffering the iatrogenic organic disease, the tranquilizer psychosis.</font>
<p><font face="Arial,Helvetica">Tranquilizers, no matter how helpful, create
a major dilemma for patients and their psychiatrists. Given to patients,
they help reduce the frequency and intensity of the symptoms, but given
to normal people they make them sick. Under the communist regime in Russia,
dissidents were locked up in mental hospitals and given tranquilizers.
They were using their peculiar definition of mental illness, i.e. a person
who disagreed with the system. These people were made psychotic by the
tranquilizers. When patients are given the same drugs they begin to get
better, their symptoms are alleviated to some degree, they are more comfortable
and their families being to feel hopeful again that they will recover.
But as they become better or more normal, they begin to respond to these
drugs as if they were normal, i.e. they become sick.</font>
<p><font face="Arial,Helvetica">The tranquilizer psychosis created by these
drugs includes psychiatric and physical symptoms. The psychiatric symptoms
are apathy, disinterest, poor concentration and memory problems so they
can not study and learn, personality deterioration, and inability to function
without supervision. On the physical side they develop tardive dyskinesia,
other types of neurological conditions, impotence, obesity, and skin problems.
Patients are no more fond of these latter symptoms than they are of their
natural schizophrenia, and many prefer to be psychotic rather than suffer
the ravages of this iatrogenic disease.</font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">Orthomolecular therapy provides patients
with a third choice, to become normal and stay well.&nbsp;</font>
<p><b><font face="Arial,Helvetica">The importance of clinical diagnosis</font></b>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">Early during my career as Director of
Psychiatric Research I became aware of the need to diagnose schizophrenia
accurately and reasonably quickly. Our research psychologists had spent
at least $50,000 (in 1955 pre inflation dollars) and after examining the
psychological and clinical literature had concluded that there was no accurate
test for this disease. They also concluded that this was due to the fact
that psychiatrists would not agree on a definition and stick to it. The
clinical expression of the disease was so variable that it was extremely
difficult to sort it out from other conditions. This has been true of medicine
in general. The great disease, syphilis, had a similar wide spread set
of symptoms and signs and until the serological tests were developed there
was the same degree of uncertainty. The situation has not changed over
the past forty years. We still do not have any good generally used tests.
The MMPI, in my opinion, is clinically of little value for the clinical
psychiatrist even though it is used widely by psychologists. And the criteria
laid down in the American Psychiatric Diagnostic Manuals seem to be ignored.</font>
<p><font face="Arial,Helvetica">I had decided to use the criteria, described
so eloquently, by John Conolly, the superintendent of a mental hospital
in England. He wrote the book Indications of Insanity. His definition was
clear and elegant and is the best working definition of this condition.
It was, he wrote, a disease of perception combined with an inability to
tell whether these perceptual changes were real or not. I have used this
definition since and I have found it most valuable. But unfortunately American
psychiatry did not know about this definition and was raised on the definition
described by E. Bleuler. Dr Bleuler's definition depended upon the presence
or absence of thought disorder with very little emphasis given to perceptual
changes. This still remains a basis for diagnosing except that a whole
host of other factors have become operative, probably because it is so
difficult to define accurately when thought disorder is present.</font>
<p><font face="Arial,Helvetica">I also became aware many years ago that
the diagnosis, like changes in clothing fashions, changed with the prevailing
attitude toward this condition. Thus, in the early 1950's psychiatrists
under the sway of psychoanalysis would not diagnose it unless there was
evidence of latent homosexuality. I remember that at one clinical conference
the psychiatrist presenting the case had diagnosed the patient schizophrenic
and then added that he was homosexual. During the discussion I asked him
whether in fact his patient had ever actually been homosexual. He replied
that he had not, but he added he must be a latent homosexual since Freud
had declared that this was the basis for paranoid schizophrenia.</font>
<p><font face="Arial,Helvetica">When we were conducting the double blind
experiments to test vitamin B-3 for treating schizophrenics I discovered
that for a while we were no longer admitting any schizophrenic patients
to the Munro Wing, the psychiatric ward of the General Hospital in Regina,
Saskatchewan. However as the study ran for several years this dearth of
patients that I could enter into the study was replaced by a shower of
patients. I soon realized that there was enough resistance among the clinical
staff to allowing their patients to be included in the study that they
initially preferred to diagnose them depression or anxiety or psychopathy
. But since these patients did not recover and relapsed after discharge,
on readmission they were forced to make the correct diagnosis.</font>
<p><font face="Arial,Helvetica">Another factor was the knowledge that schizophrenics
did not respond to psychotherapy. Knowing this, psychiatrists, if they
wanted to give psychotherapy and believed it had a chance would not diagnose
their patients. I recall one patient, whom I interviewed after the resident
had been treating her with psychotherapy for several months. As I was talking
to her she kept on looking over my shoulder into the corner of the room
at the ceiling. I asked her what was she looking at. She replied that her
sister, who lived in Edmonton, was in the corner of the room at the ceiling
level and she was looking at her. A few days after I informed the resident
that she was hallucinating he changed the diagnosis and sent her to the
closest mental hospital. Today psychiatrists know that psychotherapy alone
is of little value. But they also know that drugs, although very helpful,
do not really make schizophrenic patients normal. If, therefore, they have
a patient that they really want to treat they will diagnose them as bipolar
(manic-depressive), or depressed which most of them are, and can then use
lithium or anti depressants. If they don't want to treat them, if they
are especially difficult, or troublesome, or have a dislikable personality
they will diagnose them as personality disorders. In any event the result
is that patients who are schizophrenic, and who would respond to some treatment
are ignored and banished to the modern mental hospital of our large cities,
the city streets.&nbsp;</font>
<p><font face="Arial,Helvetica">This case represents one such case.</font>
<p><font face="Arial,Helvetica">Elizabeth came to see me December 18, 1995.
Her family practitioner wrote in his letter referring her to me "She is
a 28 year old with a long history of psychiatric illness with varied diagnosis
including anorexia nervosa, borderline personality disorder, multiple personality
disorder and these associated with suicide attempts and multiple hospitalizations".
She had also been diagnosed depression.</font>
<p><font face="Arial,Helvetica">About mid 1992 she began to suffer severe
headaches, about two to three times per month, unrelated to her periods,
often preceded by nausea and vomiting. She was given the usual variety
of headache medication without any response, including fiorinal, demerol,
gravol, tylenol, Imitrex by injection. Her general practitioner had reported
to the neurologist that she was working as a nurse's aid, was a good worker,
and hated missing work.</font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">Early in 1993 a consultant reported that
she had had an eating disorder which was not responding to treatment. For
over three weeks she had fasted and had not drunk any fluids. She felt
faint, had palpitations and was very tired. She had been a member of an
Eating Disorder support group. When she was sixteen she would starve herself
for up to 6 weeks. When she gained some weight she would resume her fasting.
She had also used laxatives. Later she began to use medication such as
ionamine to control her appetite. She would binge and vomit 3-4 times per
week. Sometimes two times each day. She had been a very good student making
A's and B's, a good athlete, was happy with school and with her family.
There was no improvement in the hospital.</font>
<p><font face="Arial,Helvetica">She was admitted again. In the meantime
she had spent four months at a private facility for anorexics. She was
committed with severe depression, auditory hallucinations and suicidal
ideation. This admission she admitted she had been a victim of child sexual
abuse, by her step father. She continued to hear voices but the psychiatrist
in charge interpreted these as a projection of her own thoughts. He began
to indulge in psychoanalytic speculations about the causes of her voices
which he denied were hallucinations. For the first time the term personality
disorder began to appear in her record. This is in striking contrast with
the opinion of her general practitioner who had seen her as basically a
normal, achieving person. She was diagnosed depression and placed on anti
depressants.</font>
<p><font face="Arial,Helvetica">April 7 to 20, 1995, she was assessed by
psychologists, She reported hearing derogatory voices inside her head which
had become louder in the past few years. She also heard voices from outside
calling her and saw faces in several different places e.g. in flowers,
in food and in a window. She reported she had been in four motor vehicle
accidents from December to January 1994 due to blackouts when driving.
It was suggested that she suffered from dissociative reactions but no diagnosis
was made.</font>
<p><font face="Arial,Helvetica">During my first interview, she complained
she had been depressed and agitated for four years. She was less depressed
while on Prozac but was still having problems with her eating disorder.
A mental state examination revealed a large variety of perceptual symptoms
including hearing voices, seeing visions. There were voices of several
men. There was also a change in taste perception. She could not tell the
difference from the hallucinations and real phenomena. She was also very
paranoid and suspicious of her family and friends. I disregarded all the
previous diagnoses which totally ignored her main symptoms and diagnosed
her schizophrenia. The mean score for schizophrenia is around 65. Few patients
with other diagnoses score over 30 and all normal people score less than
20. On the HOD test she scored extremely high, as follows Total 152, Perceptual
36, paranoid 9, depression 16 and short form 14. The odds she was schizophrenic
were over 90%. I started her on niacin 500 mg tid, ascorbic acid 1 G tid,
pyridoxine 250 mg od and zinc citrate 50 mg od. Orthomolecular therapy
includes the combined use of diet, nutrients in optimum amounts and drugs
as needed.</font>
<p><font face="Arial,Helvetica">Three months later she was free of voices.
A month later I heard from the referring physician to express his pleasure
at seeing how well she now was. He added "She is almost unrecognizably
improved". June 11, 1996 she and I estimated she was 80% better. She stated
that she felt normal for the first time in five years. In July she continued
her improvement. She had visited her mother with her three children and
had enjoyed the visit. When she had been depressed and paranoid her psychiatrist
had stated that she had a poor relationship with her parents. This was
apparently not the case. Her HOD scores were now normal. She was still
on niacin 4.5 G od, Prozac 20 mg od and the rest of the vitamin regimen.</font>
<p><font face="Arial,Helvetica">From the time I had first seen her there
was one more visit to the Emergency Department of the Hospital. In 1992
she was seen in the Emergency 6 times. In 1993 she was seen 12 times with
one after an overdose of drugs. In 1994 she was seen 16 times after 9 overdose
attempts and spent 95 days in hospital. In 1995 she was seen 16 times with
2 overdoses. (Fifty visits to Emergency Services over a four year period
with 12 suicide attempts and a total of 101 days admitted to hospital.)
She started orthomolecular treatment on December 18, 1995. So far (November
1, 1996) she has been seen once in the emergency services.</font>
<p><i><font face="Arial,Helvetica">Conclusion&nbsp;</font></i>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">Assuming that each day in hospital costs
$1000 and that each visit to the Emergency cost $100, the total cost of
hospital care, not counting payment to physicians for services rendered,
was $106,000, over a four year period. After these numerous admissions
to hospital, after extensive treatment, she had not shown any improvement.
But after she was properly diagnosed which led to the correct orthomolecular
treatment, she was almost normal in a few months. From a person declared
inadequate (personality disorder), who had suffered severe depression and
migraine headaches she became the normal person she had been before she
became ill, free of Migraine, free of depression. She is once more able
to look after her children. She will probably remain well as long as she
remains on the regimen.</font>
<p><font face="Arial,Helvetica">Scientifically, when a phenomenon (this
patient’s history of illness and repeated admissions) suddenly changes
direction after a new variable has been added, one must assume that the
change in direction arose from the application of the new variable. Consider
the course of her illness as an object moving in a straight line. Several
pressures are applied but the object remains on course. However when the
course is abruptly altered after the application of a new force then one
can conclude there has been a true effect of the new force on the course
of the illness i.e. that orthomolecular treatment caused her marked improvement.</font>
<p><b><font face="Arial,Helvetica">Literature Cited</font></b>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">Conolly, J. <i>An Inquiry Concerning the
Indications of Insanity</i> (1830), Dawsons of Pall Mall, London, 1964</font>
<p><font face="Arial,Helvetica">Hoffer A, Kelm H &amp; Osmond H: <i>The
Hoffer-Osmond Diagnostic Test</i>. RE Krieger Pub Co. Huntington, New York,
1975.</font>
<p><font face="Arial,Helvetica">Hoffer A: <i>Orthomolecular Medicine for
Physicians</i>. Keats Pub., New Canaan, CT, 1989.</font>
<p><font face="Arial,Helvetica">Hoffer A &amp; Osmond H: <i>How To Live
With Schizophrenia.</i> University Books, New York, NY, 1966. Also published
by Johnson, London, 1966. Written by Fannie Kahan. New and Revised Ed.
Citadel Press, New York, NY, 1992.</font>
<p><font face="Arial,Helvetica">Hoffer A: Chronic schizophrenic patients
treated ten years or more. <i>J. Orthomolecular Medicine,</i> 9:7-37,1994.</font>
<p><i><font face="Arial,Helvetica">Hoffer-Osmond Diagnostic Test (HOD)
for Orthomolecular Therapy&nbsp;</font></i>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">This is a simple test we developed for
assisting in the diagnosis of the schizophrenias. It is based upon the
perceptual theory of schizophrenia. It consists of 145 cards, each containing
a question, to which the patient replies by placing the cards in a true
of false category. The true questions are scored. Schizophrenics score
high, usually over 50, while all other persons tested score low, usually
under 30. The magnitude of the score indicates the probability one has
schizophrenia. This test has been found to be very useful in rapidly reaching
a diagnosis and in accelerating the proper treatment. It is also available
for computer scoring and analysis.</font>
<p><font face="Arial,Helvetica">Hoffer A, Kelm H &amp; Osmond H: <i>The
Hoffer-Osmond Diagnostic Test</i>. RE Krieger Pub. Co., Huntington, NY,
1975.</font>
<p><font face="Arial,Helvetica">The HOD Test Kit is available (in English
only) from Behavior Science Press, Institute For Social and Educational
Research, 3710 Resource Drive, Tuscaloosa AL 35401-7059, USA.</font>
<p><b><font face="Arial,Helvetica">A Chronic Schizophrenic Woman Comes
Back to Life</font></b>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">Chronic patients respond more slowly to
treatment. It may take up to ten years before the maximum benefit is seen.
Following a recent survey of a small sample from about 500 chronic patients
under my care, I concluded that the major recovery occurred about 5 to
7 years after treatment was initiated (Hoffer,1994) If, therefore, treatment
is discontinued too soon the optimum therapeutic effect will not be seen.
One of my complaints about psychiatric hospitals is that, on the rare occasion
when my patients are admitted, they promptly stop my whole program, place
them on other medication, take away their vitamins and when they are discharged
and return to me, I have to start them all over again. A few determined
patients have had their families smuggle the vitamins to them and a few
patients have surreptitiously taken them on their own. One of the patients
hid them in his boots so that he could take them when alone. This interrupts
the treatment of these patients and retards their recovery. This case history,
anecdote, illustrates the slow pace of recovery and the happy final outcome.</font>
<p><font face="Arial,Helvetica">Lena came to see me in October 1988 with
her father. When they walked into my office my first impression was that
she was either severely retarded or a chronic deteriorated schizophrenic.
I obtained the first history from her father, as she was not able to tell
me anything. She sat looking to one side the whole time. Her father complained
that she suffered unusual blotchy skin, and her hands became very sweaty
when she became excited. Her parents were surprised when in grade 6 they
were told that she was not able to learn. From then on she went to special
classes. About one month before she came to see me she had fallen asleep
in her chair and had spent the night there. Her parents awakened her. She
accused them of trying to drown her and ran away. The police picked her
up, called her parents and she went home with them. The mental state examination
revealed only that she was paranoid believing people were saying nasty
things about her. I concluded that she was an adult learning-disordered
person which had been present from childhood.&nbsp;</font>
<p><font face="Arial,Helvetica">I started her on niacinamide 1 gram after
each meal, the same amount of vitamin C, pyridoxine 250 mg each day and
zinc gluconate 50 mg each day. Six months later her skin was normal, she
was less depressed, had more confidence in herself and found it easier
to communicate. She was no longer paranoid. But during July 1988 she had
to be admitted to hospital. This time she complained about hearing the
voices of her father or mother when they were not present. I rediagnosed
her chronic schizophrenic.&nbsp;</font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">She was started on small doses of thioridazine
and in a few days discharged. She was admitted again in March 1990 after
her mother had advised her to stop the tranquilizer. She was admitted for
the last time March 1990 for 7 days. She was discharged on the same vitamin
program with thioridazine 300 mg daily, This is the average dose for this
tranquilizer. She no longer heard the voices of her parents. By the end
of 1990 I was able to reduce the drug to 100 mg daily. By the end of 1991
she was getting along well and working part time. She had been free of
the voices. April 1992 the drug was decreased to 75 mg. She was cheerful,
on the same job, getting along well with her fellow workers.</font>
<p><font face="Arial,Helvetica">January 1993 she was on 25 mg of the drug
plus the same vitamins. She was less sleepy, cheerful and much more communicative.
I kept on reducing the drug but in the end of 1994 had to increase it back
to 50 mg. Early in 1996 the drug was down to 25 mg. She came to see me
July 1996 very excited. She was free of all symptoms. She brought along
her math test results and had made 100 percent. She proudly showed me the
certificate she had received for her scholastic performance. She was a
better reader than the other patients in her class and was not afraid to
read in front on them. She told me that she was very happy because for
the first time in many years her parents who had not been getting along
had reconciled and they were enjoying each other's company again.</font>
<p><font face="Arial,Helvetica">The woman I had seen 8 years earlier no
longer existed. She had been transformed from a sick looking woman who
had the appearance of a retarded person as used to be portrayed in old
text books of psychiatry to a young woman who dressed well, and spoke freely
to me. When I first saw her, and for several years, she would always talk
in response to my questions but would look off to the side. She enjoyed
coming to the office, and especially enjoyed saying hello to my secretary
and getting a hug from her. I wrote to the referring physician "It is always
a delight to see how much improvement Lena is showing as I continue to
see her. Today she was feeling really good, was very cheerful and she was
especially delighted because her parents, who apparently had not been talking
to each other for years are getting along very much better. I think she
is doing great."</font>
<p><font face="Arial,Helvetica">My criteria for recovery are very simple
(1) There must be no symptoms and signs, (2) The patient must be getting
on well with family (3) The patient must be getting on well with community
and (4) The patient must be employed i.e. paying income tax. Lena has achieved
all four but does not earn enough to pay tax. She has been sick so long
that the handicap of those lost years has not yet been resolved. But she
is learning more skills in a fine program designed to rehabilitate patients.
Without the vitamins she would have remained the same dowdy, retarded appearing
women with no hope of ever getting any better.</font>
<p><font face="Arial,Helvetica">Lena is one out of several thousand I have
seen. Why are chronic patients elsewhere denied the opportunity to get
well?</font>
<p><font face="Arial,Helvetica">One of the advantages of the orthomolecular
regimen is that patients are more compliant since they do not suffer major
side effects and when they have to take drugs the dose is so small that
for this reason side effects are minimized or avoided.</font>
<p><font face="Arial,Helvetica">Side effects may have been a main factor
in Manley Eng's criminal career and will force him to remain in prison
for 11 years. Mr. Eng was found guilty of arson and was found to be schizophrenic.
He refused to take medication because it left him feeling lethargic and
stupefied, (Wested, 1996.) I have seen numerous patients who could not
remain on the medication because of severe side effects.</font>
<p><font face="Arial,Helvetica">This anecdote illustrates the following
points&nbsp;</font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">1) Chronic patients must be treated patiently
and continuously with adequate support.&nbsp;</font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">2) A combination of medication and nutrient
therapy combines the advantages of the rapid effect of the drugs and the
slow curative effect of the nutrients. This permits a gradual reduction
of medication until the dose is so low the drug no longer creates its own
psychosis - the tranquilizer psychosis.&nbsp;</font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">3) Schizophrenia in children may take
the form of a learning disorder so that normally intelligent persons appear
to be retarded. Lifting the psychosis by means of orthomolecular therapy
will remove the apparent learning difficulty.</font>
<p><i><font face="Arial,Helvetica">Literature Cited&nbsp;</font></i>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">Hoffer A: Chronic schizophrenic patients
treated ten years or more. <i>J. Orthomolecular Medicine</i>, 9:7-37, 1994.</font>
<p><font face="Arial,Helvetica">Wested, K. "Unrepentant arsonist gets stiffer
sentence." <i>Times Colonist</i>, Victoria June 25, 1996.</font>
<p><b><font face="Arial,Helvetica">Twenty Years On Orthomolecular Therapy</font></b>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">November 11, 1996&nbsp;</font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">On December 8, 1976 Mr. CR, age 25, arrived
in my office. He complained that he was much better than he had been but
that there were days when he was nervous and depressed. Six years earlier
he had become very depressed. He was treated with electroconvulsive therapy
receiving about 11 treatments. His memory had been bad before the treatment
and was worse afterwards so that he could not remember what he had been
like. But most of his depression had been lifted. He married a few years
later. His wife told me that his episodes of depression had been getting
worse. During these he would become quiet, and obsessive. He was still
taking Haldol regularly. He added that he had, in the past, believed people
were staring at him, had suffered visual hallucinations and had heard voices
but had not experienced these perceptual changes after his treatment. He
had been started on large doses of the B vitamins, with zinc gluconate
and brewers yeast. I added niacin 500 mg three times each day after meals
and advised him to remain on his Haldol 2 mg daily. One month later he
was normal.</font>
<p><font face="Arial,Helvetica">April of 1977 he had suffered an infected
finger requiring 7 days in hospital and two operations. He had also broken
a bone in his heal. He had not been taking his Haldol and he began to hear
himself think. (This is a classic schizophrenic symptom). One month later,
back on Haldol 2 mg, he was well. By the end of the year the Haldol was
decreased to 1 mg daily. In March 1978 I increased his niacin to 1000 mg
three times daily. July he was normal but still needed tiny amounts of
Haldol. I increased his niacin to 1500 mg three times daily. By February
1983 he was normal and no longer needed any medication. In January 1983
he became depressed again and had to resume his Haldol which he maintained
for a couple of years. I also added 25 mg of amitrytiline and 2 mg of perphenazine
to his program. May 1989 he was normal. He was a very busy contractor building
houses and had moved to an acreage. October 1960 he came to see me. He
was worried that he was not facing stress adequately. But he had observed
that whenever he ate sugar he became worse. He still needed to take small
amounts of the combination of the anti depressant and the tranquilizer.
He was normal, very busy as a contractor and looking after his family and
his aged parents. He had built a house for them on his property so that
he and his wife could look after them properly. He meets my criteria for
recovery in spite of the fact that now and then he needs some help with
medication. In this he does not differ from patients with other chronic
diseases. Patients on megavitamin therapy usually require much lower doses
of tranquilizers and thus can avoid most of the side effects associated
with the usual dosages that are in use today.</font>
<p><font face="Arial,Helvetica">Had he not been placed on vitamins by the
first psychiatrist who treated him and which I continued and modified there
is little doubt he would be receiving welfare, on a variety of major drugs
and not a major contributor to Canadian and BC government coffers. A small
investment in vitamins converted him from a chronic schizophrenic consumer
of everything to a major contributor to society.</font>
<p><b><font face="Arial,Helvetica">Patients Not Schizophrenic Also Respond
to Orthomolecular Therapy</font></b>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">Orthomolecular Medicine is not limited
to the treatment of schizophrenia. Schizophrenia was the first disease
that was treated, beginning with our six double blind controlled experiments
that we started in Saskatchewan in 1951. But this treatment has expanded
into the rest of psychiatry and medicine. I will demonstrate this by describing
the last four patients I saw last week after the coffee break, none of
them were schizophrenic, all of them recovered within four months of starting
this treatment.</font>
<p><font face="Arial,Helvetica">Lorraine, born in 1961, suffered from restless
leg syndrome present for two years. Neurological examination showed no
reason for this. She suffered from weak legs, unsteadiness and if she walked
a lot extreme fatigue. Mainly she suffered from an uncontrolled urge to
move her legs when awake. This made it very difficult for her to fall asleep
and she suffered from sleep deprivation. She was given several diagnoses
including chronic fatigue syndrome. On her own she began to take small
amounts of a few vitamins and believed this had been helpful. I advised
her to take niacinamide 500 mg after meals, vitamin C 1000 mg after meals,
folic acid 15 mg daily, vitamin B-12 l mg sublingually daily, lysine 1000
mg after each meal, vitamin E 400 iu daily and zinc citrate 50 mg daily.
November 18, 1996 she was normal. An anti depressant, Paxil, she had been
taking two years had not helped and she had to discontinue it because of
side effects.</font>
<p><font face="Arial,Helvetica">Lee, born in 1963, was very anxious and
tense. For years he had controlled this by using alcohol. He would binge
every three to four months for one day. He suffered blackouts and often
committed irrational acts that he did not remember later. I started him
in niacin 500 mg after each, meal twice as much ascorbic acid and folic
acid 5 mg twice each day. I have been using niacin for alcoholics for the
past 30 years. This treatment was first widely publicized by my good and
close friend Bill W. Co founder of Alcoholics Anonymous. He circulated
a treatise called The Vitamin B-3 Therapy to physician members of AA. I
had advised Bill to take niacin 3 grams daily to control his severe tension,
fatigue and insomnia. Within two weeks he was well. When I saw Lee for
the second time in mid November he was almost normal and no longer needed
to be seen.</font>
<p><font face="Arial,Helvetica">Frank, born in 1962, had three complaints
when he saw me September 30, 1996. He was very anxious and fearful, was
unable to stick to any particular line of activity and could not cope with
stress. During his teens he had experimented with LSD, with pot, mushrooms,
cocaine and alcohol. At age 17 he began to consult various therapists and
take many self help courses, spending about $30,000. I found that depression
and anxiety were the main features. I started him on niacin 500 mg after
each meal, on twice as much ascorbic acid, and on folic acid 5 mg once
daily. By mid November he was nearly well. He was able to concentrate better,
was better focussed, his mind was clearer and his mood was better and level.
I then doubled his niacin amd folic acid for maintenance. He no longer
needed to be seen.</font>
<p><font face="Arial,Helvetica">Marion, age 32, consulted me October 2
because she suffered from chronic fatigue and was unable to cope with recurrent
infections. She had been diagnosed bipolar psychosis (manic depressive)
and had been on and off lithium for 13 years. When on lithium her mood
cycled very rapidly. In mid July she was diagnosed depression and started
on an antidepressant which was very helpful. But when I saw her she told
me about the voices she had heard in the past, about her paranoia, poor
memory and difficulty with concentration. I started her on a dairy free
diet with ascorbic acid 1 gram after each meal, pyridoxine 250 mg daily,
zinc citrate 50 mg daily, selenium 200 mcg daily and a B complex 50's once
daily. By November 18 she was well. She had started to improve about ten
days after starting on the program. She was not able to tolerate the selenium.</font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">These patients had been referred after
they had been examined by their general practitioners who had not found
any physical basis for their complaints. I did not give them any dynamic
psychotherapy but did give them the kind that should be used by every physician.
After presenting their history they were told what my diagnosis was, how
I would treat it and about how long it would take to get well. Each nutrient
was described and the reason for the diet.</font>
<p><font face="Arial,Helvetica">Seeing four non schizophrenic patients
in one afternoon who had gotten well or nearly well after two visits reminded
me that orthomolecular therapy should be made available to all psychiatric
patients.</font>
<p><font face="Arial,Helvetica">March 4,1997.Last week I discovered that
I had saved British Columbia and Saskatchewan piles of money by practicing
orthomolecular medicine. I concluded this after hearing from four patients
I had treated in the past.</font>
<p><font face="Arial,Helvetica">1) During July, 1996, I saw a young woman,
born in 1968 who had suffered a post partum depression for which she was
treated in hospital on two occasions. She was treated with risperidal,
one of the three most modern tranquilizers. She heard voices when she was
pregnant, still heard her own thoughts and was delusional believing that
her four year old son was an Antichrist. She was also preoccupied with
the death of her brother who had been killed in a car accident. He had
been my patient in 1972 and had recovered from his schizophrenia. She was
also very depressed and fatigued. I advised her to eliminate sugar from
her diet, to take niacin 1 Gram after each meal, vitamin C 1 Gram after
each meal, folic acid 5 mg after each meal, pyridoxine 250 mg daily, zinc
citrate 50 mg daily and a B complex 50's once daily. She remained on the
risperdal 6 mg daily. In March I doubled her niacin dose and in July increased
it again to 3 Grams after each meal. The following November her local psychiatrist
decreased the drug to 4 mg. February 26,1997 she called. She was well but
was worried about her son who was typically hyperactive with a short attention
span. I advised her to put him on a sugar and dairy products free diet
and to add a simple B complex preparation for children. She had observed
that a Coke would drive him wild.</font>
<p><font face="Arial,Helvetica">Had she remained on the drug only the odds
are over 90% she would have remained permanently ill and would cost British
Columbia $2 million over the next forty years.</font>
<p><font face="Arial,Helvetica">2) The same morning I received a call from
Saskatchewan from a woman born in 1924. I had seen her in Saskatoon many
years ago. She had been suffering from severe Meniere's disease which had
not responded to any medication nor diet. On her own she had started taking
small amounts of niacin and for the first time began to get better. She
came to Victoria in December 1987 with her husband and consulted me about
her orthomolecular program. Both were normal. I suggested she remain on
the niacin 1 gram three times daily, the same amount of vitamin C, some
vitamin E and B complex 50's. In 1993 she reported that she was normal
but she was worried about her husbands arthritis. He was two years older.
He
too was started on a vitamin program. February this year she called again
and told me how pleased and delighted she was at their good state of health.
Both were symptom free, They were both leading a wonderful life, she said.
That last call saved Saskatchewan the cost of two consultations but even
more saved the cost of recurrent consultations at home with their family
doctors and specialists if they had not started on the megavitamin regimen.</font>
<p><font face="Arial,Helvetica">3) An elderly man called from Victoria
where he had been visiting his family. He had wanted to see me but his
wife died suddenly and he could not. He reminded me that I had treated
his daughter between 1970 and 1972 for schizophrenia with the vitamin program.
She had recovered, got better each year. Her two children were attending
University. He was delighted with her recovery. Her recovery saved Saskatchewan
$2 million. She has been well and productive for 25 years and there is
every indication she will not relapse. On tranquilizers alone she would
still be ill, a burden to herself, to her family and to her society.</font>
<p><font face="Arial,Helvetica">4) A former patient I had treated in Saskatoon
25 years ago wrote about his mother-in-law and her identical twin sister,
He gave me a progress report on his own recovery every year end. The twins
were born in 1910. They married brothers when they were 25. His mother-in-law
was financially better of and her lifetime diet was more nutritious. In
1966, following a series of difficulties and frequent moves the sister
began to show signs of psychiatric illness. She fabricated stories for
example. Four years later she left her husband and worked. By this time
her diet had deteriorated even more and she basically lived on tea and
toast. Eventually she had to be admitted to a nursing home and was diagnosed
Alzheimer's disease. She died in 1981.</font>
<p><font face="Arial,Helvetica">As soon as this sister was diagnosed my
informant became worried about his mother-in-law because of the hereditary
factor and started her on a good multivitamin multimineral program, including
the B vitamins and vitamin C and E. She remained well on this program.
Today her son-in-law describes her as an alert eighty-six-year-old person.</font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">...If these women had been fraternal i.e.
not identical twins, this comparison experiment would not mean much. However
because they had the same genetic makeup and because it is recognized that
Alzheimer's disease has a powerful genetic component the results are very
persuasive, In animal comparison experiments one identical twin pair is
equivalent to 40 pairs of non identical twins. This is why there is so
much excitement about the identical twin monkeys just born in the United
States. They grew from two cells taken from an eight-cell embryo and have
the same genetic make up. I doubt there is another identical twin pair
with a similar history, one on a good orthomolecular program, the other
on a poor program. It suggests to me that if everyone were to start on
a good nutritional program supplemented with optimum doses of vitamins
and minerals before age fifty and were to remain on it the incidence of
Alzheimer's disease would drop precipitously. By keeping his mother-in-law
well my informant has saved Saskatchewan a lot of money,&nbsp;</font>
<p><font face="Arial,Helvetica">Today, March 11, 1997, a ninety-four-year
old woman came to see me. I had been seeing her since 1992 because of her
anxiety over breast cancer. This time she had been experiencing a lot of
difficulty from congestive heart failure which was improving. She had been
driven to my office by a patient of mine who had been a chronic paranoid
schizophrenic. And this is the point of this anecdote. She told me how
kind he was to her, that he took her for walks, drove her around and was
very supportive and helpful. He represents a patient who had been very
sick, had been fired from his job as a nurse twelve times, and even after
his recovery could not get a job because the hospitals judged him only
on the way he had been, and refused to accept my opinion that he had recovered
and was able to work. He is a normal man who has been on permanent pension,
even when he did not have to be, because of the popular view that no schizophrenic
can ever recover. Of course this is true if tranquilizers alone are used.
I saw him first in 1983 when he brought with him a list of 52 problems.
By then he had been ill for several years and had been in hospital two
years before for three months. He told me about his visual hallucinations.
Once he awakened at night and found two men in his room who were trying
to awaken him, and they were both ice cold. He heard his own thoughts and
felt unreal. He was extremely paranoid, felt people wanted him to kill
himself, there was a lot of blocking and his memory and concentration were
very poor. No wonder he was so depressed. I assumed he was potentially
violent although he had not been violent but he had written threatening
letters. I started him on treatment. By 1984 he had recovered. He wanted
to go back to work at the hospital but the hospital would not take him
after another psychiatrist had maintained that he was still not fit to
work. His behaviour had been so paranoid they refused even to consider
him. Since then he has been well. He is kind, considerate, helpful to his
neighbors. He travels each year with individual members of his family with
whom he has a good relationship. He does a lot of volunteer work. Still
it is sad that the services of this good man have been rejected simply
because he had been so sick in the past. My 93 years old patient is very
grateful and appreciates his help. I doubt she knows anything about his
previous history. He meets my criteria for recovery i.e. he is free of
symptoms and gets on well with his family and with the community and he
would be paying income tax if his past had not been used to prevent him
from ever working again.</font>
<p><font face="Arial,Helvetica"><i>The 26th Annual International Conference.
Nutritional Medicine Today (April 18,19,20. Royal York Hotel, Toronto)&nbsp;</i>
was a very successful conference with over 150 participants including 100
physicians. We discussed the treatment of depression and schizophrenia
the first half-day session. Dr. Sherry Rogers gave us a remarkable outline
of the causes and the treatment of depression. She is a specialist in environmental
medicine in private practice in Syracuse, N.Y. Her books are excellent
and she is a very skillful informative lecturer.</font>
<p><font face="Arial,Helvetica">Then Dr. J. Smythies outlined the modern
view of the relation of the aminochromes to normal and schizophrenic brains.
The original transmethylation hypothesis developed by Dr. H. Osmond and
Dr. J. Smythies in 1952 led to the adrenochrome hypothesis of Hoffer, Osmond
and Smythies. Dr. Smythies was Chairman. Department of Neurosciences, University
of Alabama, for many years. He is retired but is a Senior Research Fellow
at the Institute of Neurology in London and is in the Brain and Perception
Laboratory, Department of Psychology, U.C.S.D., La Jolla, CA, and very
active in continuing his writing for medical and psychiatric journals.
I was delighted to see John again after about a ten years hiatus. In his
lecture he outlined the massive evidence that these aminochromes (adrenochrome
is one a number of similar compounds) are intimately involved in the functioning
of the brain. Some of this is discussed in his report "On the Function
of Meuromelanin" <i>Proceedings of the Royal Society (London)</i> B, 363,
491-496,1966. Also in the J<i>ournal of the Royal Society of Medicine</i>,
"The Role of ascorbate in brain: therapeutic implications". May 1996, Volume
89, Page 241.</font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">I wound up this first session with my
report on "The Optimum Treatment for the Schizophrenias". I told the meeting
of a discussion I had with a couple and their daughter the night before
at the reception. The couple were friendly and relaxed and the girl was
cheerful and interested. Father reminded me that he had written to me a
half-year earlier about his daughter and I had referred her to a Toronto
Orthomolecular Psychiatrist. She had not responded to any treatment for
the ten years of her chronic schizophrenia including huge doses of tranquilizers.
On one occasion her parents complained that 70 milligrams of stelazine
was of no help and was causing severe side effects. The psychiatrist told
them to increase it to 80 mg. They dismissed him. She was started on the
vitamin program and by the time I saw her she was normal. While she was
very ill they had arranged for her to be seen by the schizophrenic clinic
of one of the local psychiatric hospitals, the best in Toronto. By the
time she met with this clinic she had already shown marked improvement.
During the intake conference the attending staff were very busy taking
notes and showing great interest in her history. Toward the end of the
session father told the group that his daughter had started on a vitamin
program and was very much better. There was a sudden hush, the notebooks
snapped shut, interest dissipated and a chill descended on the meeting.
The chief of the clinic remarked that they should stop the vitamin program
in order to test whether they were effective. She did not give the same
advice for the tranquilizers which she knew was the only recommended treatment.
Apparently the worst sin in orthodox medicine is to see a recovery for
the wrong reason. The schizophrenia clinic knew that vitamins could not
ever help anyone. The patient was not invited to participate in the clinic
program, nor of course, would her parents have allowed her to do since
she was already well on the way to recovery and on a much lower dose of
tranquilizer. I am puzzled by the callous advice given so freely to stop
the program that had gotten her well after ten years of illness. Obviously
this psychiatrist is overly impressed with double blind therapeutic trials
during a time when this particular way of studying response is sinking
into the dust bin of history because it is inappropriate for testing multiple
programs.</font>
<p><font face="Arial,Helvetica">Dr. David Horrobin Is President of the
Schizophrenia Association of Great Britain, Founder and Research Director
of Efamol Professor at Wolverhampton University and the University of Dundee
and one of the foremost experts on the essential fatty acids. In his discussion
he referred to a new finding which will markedly simplify the recognition
that schizophrenia is present. This ought to introduce some diagnostic
clarity and prevent many of these unfortunate patients from being labeled
incorrectly as bipolar or borderline personality disorders. He has developed
a simple skin test. An adhesive strip containing four different concentrations
of niacin is placed on the skin and left there five minutes. The strip
is removed. Normally the niacin in the patch will cause some reddening;
a mild flush or dilatation at the point of contact. Non schizophrenic people
are much more sensitive to this effect while schizophrenic patients are
not. About 70% of the schizophrenic patients will not flush at levels which
will flush normal people. This test may soon be available commercially.
His report created great interest at a previous meeting in the USA where
he presented this finding.</font>
<p><font face="Arial,Helvetica">For more information:</font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">The Canadian Schizophrenia Foundation,
16 Florence Avenue, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M2N 1E9 Fax 416 733 2117,
Telephone 416 733 2352&nbsp;</font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">E Mail: <a href="mailto:center@orthomed.org">center@orthomed.org</a></font>
<p><b><font face="Arial,Helvetica">Schizophrenia and Crime in Victoria</font></b>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">July 5,1997. Recently a twenty two-year-old
man killed his mother. He was schizophrenic and found unfit to stand trial.
Until he is fit he will remain in a mental institution. His father demands
an inquiry and a coroner's inquest will be held. A few days earlier a patient
walked out of the local psychiatric hospital, got on a bus, and when his
transfer was challenged hit the driver. He was eventually subdued and taken
into custody by the police. These are a few of the anti social acts committed
by schizophrenic patients. The Times Colonist, Victoria July 4, 1997 reported
that in March Aaron was charged with mischief and he was held in jail.
He was assessed in jail by a psychiatrist who concluded that although he
had no violent thoughts and no prior history of violence he should be in
hospital. However the hospital was full. Rather than have Aaron in jail
his mother agreed to take him home on bail on condition he take his medication
and attend at the outpatient forensic clinic. His father commented "No
family in this province is equipped to provide home care for someone as
sick as my son. Leaving him in the care of family is like sending someone
who needs heart surgery back to his parents house for treatment". Aaron
had stopped taking his medication two weeks before. But he continued seeing
a psychiatrist and probation officer once a week and they noticed nothing
wrong, according to his father. Neighbors had been calling the police for
weeks before the killing because of his bizarre behaviour.</font>
<p><font face="Arial,Helvetica">Rick Cooper of the B.C. Schizophrenia Society
said there are few supports for these sick people, that there is no one
responsible for ensuring that they take their medication regularly, that
there is almost no treatment provided for patients not in hospital. The
chief of police reported that crime by mental patients had increased from
about 200 each year to around 250 in 1996.</font>
<p><font face="Arial,Helvetica"><i>The Times Colonist</i>, July 5, 1997
carried more information. The paper quoted the father " During the past
few weeks I have heard dozens and dozens of real-life stories from strangers
and friends alike about other families of schizophrenics who were at their
wit's end, abandoned by a health system that had little to offer unless
a crime had been committed".</font>
<p><font face="Arial,Helvetica">In their communications with the public
the mental health associations and the professional people involved in
the care and treatment of schizophrenics have maintained that these patients
are as law abiding as the general population. There are two aspects to
the crime problem; these are the quantity and the quality of the crime.
It is true that schizophrenic patients are not more prone to commit crime
than are the average population but it is also true that schizophrenics
are much more apt to commit strange, bizarre and totally illogical crimes
than are the rest of the population. That is because they commit their
crimes in response to their hallucinations and their thought disorder.
Thus, many years ago a man was committed to hospital in Regina because
he was chasing a young girl on the main street. When I examined him he
told me he had seen a vast illumination in the heavens as we was walking
west in the late afternoon and that from this illumination he heard a voice
say "You have syphilis and to be cured you must have intercourse with a
virgin". He had both a visual and an auditory hallucination and he thought
the voice was the voice of God and must be obeyed. He recovered on megavitamin
therapy and remained well thereafter.</font>
<p><font face="Arial,Helvetica">Another case was the Hoffman, case in northern
Saskatchewan, Kahan (1975). A schizophrenic young man was in the Saskatchewan
Hospital, North Battleford on medication. In hospital he described his
hallucinations to his psychiatrist. He heard and saw both the Devil and
his guardian angel. They were fighting with each other. The angel wanted
him to be good and the Devil tempted him with the world's riches if only
he would kneel before him. His psychiatrist ignored these symptoms. He
was discharged and given a months supply of medication. A few weeks after
he ran out of the drug the Devil came to him at night, following a splitting
headache. He described him as a 6-foot 2-inch huge man with the face of
a pig who ordered him to get into his car, to drive exactly 60 minutes
and wherever he then was to kill. He stopped at the Hoffman farmhouse,
and shot and killed every member of the family except a baby who was crawling
on the floor. By then, he told me, he was too tired of killing. He was
found not guilty by reason of insanity and was committed to a mental hospital.</font>
<p><font face="Arial,Helvetica">The criticism hurled at the community mental
care supports and facilities are always directed against those matters
which appear to be most important such as not enough beds, not taking ones
medication, not enough community supports. They can all be described as
factors which can be healed by throwing more money into the system. With
more money there would be more psychiatrists, more beds, more community
support nurses, more follow-up workers, better shelters and so on. While
these are all needed one of the most important aspects of the problem is
totally ignored. That is the need for more effective treatment. The situation
can be blamed squarely on the psychiatrists who insist that the only treatment
of value is the use of drugs. But these drugs, while controlling symptoms,
do not lead to recovery. On the contrary, it is impossible to be well while
on tranquilizer medicine. The side effects are so troublesome that too
many patients refuse to stay on the medication unless they are forced to
in hospital or by injection. If we are going to have any impact on the
intensity and quality of the crimes we must improve the quality of treatment.
Psychiatrists must be made more accountable for the results they are getting.
Psychiatric Institutions must be made forced to release annual reports
showing what proportion of their schizophrenic patients have recovered
and why they are not doing any better. They must be forced to examine seriously
at orthomolecular psychiatry which yields results very much better.</font>
<p><font face="Arial,Helvetica">Around 1968 a young man took his rifle,
went to his parent’s bedroom and fired the gun at the pillow between their
heads. No one was hurt. He ran from the room and out into the mid winter
snow and cold (forty below) in his bare feet. I found him to be schizophrenic.
I described the situation to the judge who released him to my care at City
Hospital in Saskatoon. I treated him with megavitamin therapy. He recovered
and when I last heard from him, he was happily married living somewhere
in Northern Canada. A second example was a graduate student in physics
at the University. He was shooting at cars driving down the road. He was
referred to me. I found him schizophrenic. He had a history of illogical,
silly and dangerous acts. For example on one occasion he hid in the stacks
of the public library in Washington D.C. and when everyone had gone home
he enjoyed himself by pushing all the stacks over. I started him on vitamin
therapy. Three months later he was in a cold sweat with anxiety. He told
he had just realized that he might have killed someone. He continued treatment,
was released by the court on condition he return to the US. Last I heard
he was a professor in physics in one of the mid-west Universities in the
US.</font>
<p><font face="Arial,Helvetica">I do not claim that every patient will
be treated as successfully as this. But I do claim that many more will
and that we have to improve the quality and quantity of treatment for all
patients so that the proportion of the crimes committed by them will vanish.
Every person charged with a crime which contains the elements of the bizarre,
the difficult to understand, the illogical acts, should be examined to
find out what the determinants of that behaviour were so that appropriate
treatment can be started and combined with punishment in most cases. Punishment
alone is of little value. Treatment without punishment is better but best
of all would be good treatment program combined with minimum punishment.&nbsp;</font>
<p><font face="Arial,Helvetica">Kahan, F.H. Schizophrenia, Mass Murder
and the Law. <i>J. Orthomolecular Psychiatry</i>, 2,1256-146, 1975.</font>
<p><font face="Arial,Helvetica">Today (July 5, 1998) <i>Sixty Minutes</i>
described the tragic story of a New York family who adopted a son from
a respected, not-for-profit adoption agency. He was intelligent, fit, interested
in sports and loved by his family as he in turn loved them. In his mid
teens he began to skip classes, later became clearly paranoid and eventually
was admitted many times to New York hospitals for treatment of his schizophrenia.
After several years the family and especially the adopted son tried to
obtain information about his parents, especially his mother but the institute
would, at first, not release anything and later under pressure informed
the son that his mother had episodes of depression. It was common policy
for adoption agencies everywhere not to release information about the parents
of the children they placed. In many areas this is now mandatory. The family
sued the institute and after seven years it has still not been settled.
But the court ordered the institute to release their file. The file reported
that his mother had been a chronic schizophrenic patient, that she had
been lobotomized, and had spent time in hospitals. They also found that
the father had been classed as mentally ill. In the mean time their son
continued to suffer, continued to have treatment and eventually died at
age 29, from a drug reaction. The name of the drug was not given. I would
guess it was clozapine because it is used for refractory patients and it
does kill a very few patients.</font>
<p><font face="Arial,Helvetica">The <i>Sixty Minutes</i> report concentrated
on the tragedy and the loss of the son to his family as a result of the
failure of the institute to provide the essential information. However
one must ask What difference would it have made? Suppose the institute
had given them the information that his mother was schizophrenic, that
10% of children of one schizophrenic parent will become schizophrenic,
that if both parents are ill half the children will become ill. The parents
might have decided that since there was a 90% chance the child would not
become schizophrenic that they could live with these odds. But in either
case, knowing the odds, or not knowing anything about the mother the outcome
would have been exactly the same for with orthodox, xenobiotic treatment
there is no way by which they could have prevented the illness or treat
it properly. This is the real tragedy of this very sad anecdote. But it
could have been different. The parents should have been advised of the
mother’s illness. They should have provided information that if there was
any significant change in behaviour or learning ability of their child
they should promptly seek help from an orthomolecular psychiatrist who
could start the correct treatment and that this is the only way this tragedy
could have been avoided. In New York City, The Fryer Research Center, at
30E 55th St, 10016, 212 808 4940, has been treating schizophrenic and other
patients with success for at least the past 25 years. This center might
have helped this desperate family seeking help for their son.</font>
<p><font face="Arial,Helvetica">The following anecdote illustrates an entirely
different outcome. In 1960 Bill W., the co-founder of Alcoholics Anonymous,
asked me to see a girl, seven years old. Anabel was adopted by her grandfather
and his second wife. Anabel's mother was a chronic schizophrenic patient,
in a chronic back ward of one of the mental hospitals. I knew Anabels mother
having treated her at University Hospital in Saskatoon for a couple of
months. She was well after discharge but could not find anyone in Washington
D.C. who would continue the program. She eventually relapsed and went back
to hospital. Anabel's adopting parents were very worried because she had
been diagnosed retarded, and it was very difficult to deal with her behaviour.
She was being prepared to go to a special school in New York City for the
retarded. Knowing the odds she might be showing the earliest manifestations
of her mothers illness I advised them to start her on niacinamide, 1 gram
three times each day after meals. For two years there was no change and
then she began to get well. She graduated from university on the Dean's
Honor list. Later she married, raised a family. She became a piano teacher.
I was in contact with her a few months ago. She is still well. Had Anabel
not been treated with this B-3 vitamin I have no doubt she and her family
might have suffered the same fate that enveloped the family of the young
man who was killed by a drug. By the way each year, in the United States
and Canada, over 110,000 patients die from the proper use of drugs in hospitals.
I think it would be logical for the family also to sue the hospitals who
did not treat their son with the most modern and most effective treatment.
Antipsychotic drugs, used alone, do not allow schizophrenic patients to
become normal.</font>
<p><b><font face="Arial,Helvetica">Starting a Schizophrenic Patient on
Orthomolecular Treatment.</font></b>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">Today, July 6, 1998, I interviewed K.J.,
just turned 20, with his mother. They were both very concerned about the
side effects he suffered from Olanzapine. He was taking 20 milligrams daily.
K.J. was well until one night in January, 1998, he suffered a horrible
nightmare, ran out of his room because he believed the devils were chasing
him. The next day he remained terrified and quiet. Over the next few days
his behaviour was bizarre and he was admitted to the local psychiatric
hospital for about 2 weeks. He was treated with fluanxol but serious side
effects after discharge forced him back into hospital for one month. This
time he was given Olanzapine. With this medication he was quiet and was
able to get along in the community in a special home. For the previous
ten days before he saw me he was with his mother. He was given his diagnosis
but no further explanation was offered.</font>
<p><font face="Arial,Helvetica">With his mother's assistance I completed
a mental examination. He had perceptual changes including visions of the
Devil. He did not hear voices but did hear himself think. He was paranoid
although it was not as bad now as it had been. He had believed he would
be poisoned, that the Devil was after him and he believed people were staring
at him. He had been very depressed, and still was very tired, sleeping
16 hours each day. He also gained 50 pounds while on Olanzapine and was
beginning to look very pudgy. I advised him to follow a dairy free and
low sugar diet. To this he was to add niacinamide 1 gram after each meal,
the same amount of vitamin C and one B-Complex 50's tablet each day. This
was added to the Olanzapine. During the interview I outlined for him my
version of what I think schizophrenia is, why I was advising him to take
these nutrients and why I wanted him on this diet. His mother told me that
as a child he had been very allergic to milk. In the hospital he drank
three glasses of milk each day and continued to do so at home. Also in
hospital he learned how to become a heavy smoker. The psychiatric ward
had the only smoker’s room in the whole hospital.</font>
<p><font face="Arial,Helvetica">He will be seen again in about three months.
He can not come more frequently since he lives too far away from Victoria.
His treatment will be monitored by his local psychiatrist and by his family
doctor. Every time I see him I will add a progress note to this report.
This running report will illustrate the process of orthomolecular treatment.
October 7, 1998. His mother called to cancel his appointment. She reported
that he was going to school and did not want to miss classes and that they
would call again for another appointment. This indicates to me that he
is already substantially better since he is now able to concentrate on
his studies and felt this was more important than visiting me many miles
from his home.</font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">July 14, 1998 I interviewed a 24 year
old woman, N.S. For the past two years she suffered from intense fear and
panic in the presence of people. She could barely cope having to interact
with one, but with more than one the anxiety was intense, often leading
to panic. For this reason she had been too fearful to even consult a psychiatrist.
Her family doctor had prescribed the anti depressant, Zoloft, 25 mg daily,
a month earlier and this has been helpful in decreasing the level of anxiety.
She was forced to leave her mother who she described as insanely jealous,
difficult and hostile and lived with her father for two years. Since then
she was on her own and when I saw her was unemployed and living on pension.
Her mother’s behaviour was typical of schizophrenic behaviour. My patient
suffered from the two sets of symptoms characteristic of this disease.
She had perceptual changes such as feeling unreal, hearing her own thoughts,
and believing people were staring at her. She was paranoid with some insight
but believed people were talking about her, in a derogatory way. She was
also depressed, very anxious and fatigued. I diagnosed her as suffering
from schizophrenia and when I discussed this with her she agreed and said
she had thought the same thing earlier and wondered whether she had gotten
it from her mother.&nbsp;</font>
<p><font face="Arial,Helvetica"><b>I asked her to eliminate sugar from
her diet, to add niacin, 500 milligrams after each meal, and eventually
to increase it to 1 gram three times daily. To this I added vitamin C 500
milligrams after meals, folic acid 5 mg after meals, pyridoxine 250 mg
each day and finally zinc citrate 50 milligrams each day.</b> I reassured
her that if she followed this program her chances were very good that she
would be much better within 6 to 9 months. Her intense anxiety and panic
arose from her intense paranoid ideas. She came again with her father February
15, 2000. Her father told us that he had seen tremendous improvement in
two years, much more than she herself felt had occurred. She knew she was
getting better steadily but she was still concerned about anxiety which
was not as bad as before and she was worried that she found it difficult
to interact with more than one person at a time. She also had more insight
and became aware that during childhood she had major problems controlling
her thinking. She wanted reassurance that she would eventually become normal.
I assured her that I thought this would occur over the next year or two
during which time she would continue to improve. She spoke about her family
and how she felt inferior and strange because she could not think as quickly
as they could and that she felt comfortable only with her close friend.
This is a phase that patients with schizophrenia often have to go through.
They are much better and realize how ill they have been. Support and counseling
are very helpful during this phase as is understanding from family and
friends.</font>
<p><font face="Arial,Helvetica">She came back October 5, 1998. She was
significantly better, felt less unreal, was less paranoid, had more insight
and was beginning to regain social skills that her disease had removed
from her. Her artistic skills were coming back. She had gone off her antidepressant
and vitamins for a week and during that week suffered a relapse with severe
fatigue and more difficult paranoid ideas. In the past when, on occasion,
she smoked pot she would become catatonic. This time when she smoked pot
once this did not happen. I estimate that she is about 25% better. She
was pleased as was I. I did not change the program.</font>
<p><font face="Arial,Helvetica">February 1, 1999 she told me that two weeks
ago she became aware that she was beginning to recover. Her thinking had
become more organized, her mood was level, she had more energy. She had
developed severe side effects to the anti depressant she had had to take
before. She discontinued the medication and continued to improve, She suffered
much less pain and had fewer perceptual abnormalities. She still had a
major problem. She was too jealous but she recognized this was a problem.
This is called being paranoid with insight. She was troubled by this and
I reassured her that this too would gradually disappear. I increased the
niacin to 1.5 grams after each of three meals. She was concerned about
her partner and had arranged that he too would be referred.</font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">She came again in October, 1999. Her schizophrenia
was much better with a major decrease in all the symptoms but she was still
too depressed and did not sleep well. I added 25 milligrams of amitriptyline
combined with 2 milligrams of perphenazine. These are very low doses but
I have found them to be very effective for many patients who need very
little medication. For many of my patients they are better than the hot
shot new tranquilizers now available at exorbitant costs. She was still
taking the vitamins and was on niacin 2 grams three times daily (6,000
mg total) in spite of her family doctor who advised her that this would
cause liver damage. This is an idea, a myth, so well engrained in the medical
profession that it is a major factor in preventing them from giving their
patients adequate doses. She had been through three very stressful months
because her partner was not well and his behaviour kept her under constant
stress and uncertainty. But in spite of this major stress she continued
to improve.</font>
<p><font face="Arial,Helvetica">February 24, 1999 I saw her partner. His
main complaint was that he could not think clearly, that he suffered from
irrational ideas, that his short term memory was non existent and that
he had zero concentration. As a result he had to be supervised by NS even
to minor matters such as reminding him to eat. She had advised him to start
on vitamins and he took niacin 1 gram each day for the month before I saw
him. In that month he improved significantly, found his brain was coming
under his control. I increased his niacin to 1 grams three times daily
and asked him to continue the program NS had advised him to follow.</font>
<p><font face="Arial,Helvetica">When seen last in November there was no
doubt NS was better, was better able to function. <b>I increased her niacin
again to 2.5 grams, three times daily (7,500 mg total) </b>and added one
gram of salmon oil, for its omega three content, three times daily.&nbsp;</font>
<p><b><font face="Arial,Helvetica">Murder in Washington, D.C.</font></b>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">July 31, 1998 Russell Eugene Weston Jr.
forced his way in and killed two Capital policemen. This tragedy raised
the usual questions about this event. Why did he do it? Was he mentally
sick? Did his background have anything to do with it? Was it due to the
availability of guns? Could it have been prevented? And so on. In this
case it is clear that he was schizophrenic, that he had been treated in
a mental hospital, that he must have been given medication (tranquilizers)
at one phase of his illness and that those who knew him appear not to have
been surprised. One psychiatrist stated that he was not taking his medication.
This was probably true. But no one asked the most important question of
all; Why was he not treated successfully. There is no doubt that he shot
the policemen because he was suffering from a paranoid delusional state
and that this may have been in response to hallucinations. He may have
thought that he must bring down the government, either to save his own
life or to save society. He may have been given a mission by his voices.
There is no end to the type of bizarre ideas he acted out. We will never
know unless his psychiatrists actually ask him why he did what he did and
whether or not he did suffer hallucinations. But if he had been treated
successfully he would have lost his delusional state and he would not have
shot the policemen. If he had received orthomolecular treatment, he probably
would not have shot these two men. Not only are the results of treatment
so much better, it is also easier for patients to remain on the program
because the severe side effects, which patients object to, are avoided.
In future, as these schizophrenic criminal acts continue to plague society,
the family, the press, the society, the criminal investigative team should
always ask this very important question. Was the criminal ever given psychiatric
treatment and what was the response and why was the best available therapy
not used. It is time psychiatry took some responsibility for these major,
tragic, criminal events.</font>
<p><font face="Arial,Helvetica">Psychiatrists report that patients with
schizophrenia are as law abiding as the general population. This is true.
The same percentage of each group will commit antisocial acts. But there
is a major difference. The schizophrenic criminal is most apt to act out
bizarre delusions or fantasies and, therefore, when s/he does commit a
crime it will be more bizarre and much more difficult to understand. It
is, in fact, easily comprehensible if the criminal will tell what the hallucinations
and delusions were.</font>
<p><font face="Arial,Helvetica">According to an Associated Press report,
Democrats and Republicans in Congress asked the National Alliance for the
Mentally Ill to draft suggestions on improving mental-health care. I doubt
NAMI will ask the right question. NAMI appears to be content with the psychiatric
treatment offered by psychiatrists and they devote their attention to other
matters such as a having facilities available. In any treatment program
the following measures are important (1) the medical treatment -- this
includes good nutrition and psychiatric care, (2) the site of the treatment,
the shelter i.e. hospital, home, the streets (3) the ancillary care i.e.
from nurses, social workers, psychologists and so on. I found many years
ago that of these, the most important was the medical treatment. In other
words, orthomolecular treatment, even in a very low quality hospital or
home is better for the patient than standard tranquilizer treatment in
the best possible psychiatric ward. About 30 years ago, I found that the
response to my treatment of a large number of schizophrenic treatment-failures
from all over North America was the same when they were housed in a nursing
home for $20 per day, compared to my results with similar patients treated
in a University Hospital, for $80 per day. From over 100 chronic patients
who came to Saskatoon to the nursing home, half returned to their homes
in USA and the rest of Canada much improved. They were in the nursing home
less than three months. They had previously failed to respond to many admissions
to the mental hospitals from their own region including the Menninger Institute,
then considered one of the best.</font>
<p><font face="Arial,Helvetica">October 8, 1998. Three years ago Max arrived
in my office from the mainland. He was 18 years old. He complained that
he could not concentrate, had very poor recall and was very tired. He became
depressed two years earlier and had to drop out of grade 11. After that
he began to neglect himself, lost interest in his peers. The anti depressant
Paxil did not help, nor did Manerix. At the end of 1994 he was in hospital.
After discharge he deteriorated further. He drank excessively, began to
hallucinate voices and visions and on one occasion was found confused and
disrobing on the street. He was admitted for two months. This time he was
placed on resperidone, 6 milligrams daily, the modern tranquilizer and
surmontil one of the older anti depressants. His first diagnosis was bipolar
later changed to schizo-affective. His mental state was fairly typical
with hallucinations which be believed to be real, severe paranoid and grandiose
delusions and a lot of anxiety with depression. I started him on niacinamide
3 grams daily, ascorbic acid 3 grams daily, pyridoxine 250 milligrams per
day, zinc citrate 50 milligrams daily, selenium 200 micrograms daily and
vitamin B-complex 50's one each day. He remained on his medication as well.
In August of 1997 he was started on lithium carbonate, 900 milligrams each
day.</font>
<p><font face="Arial,Helvetica">I saw him in October 1998 for the twelfth
time, (in three years). In the meantime he or his family had called me
about six times. During this last visit he happily told me he had graduated
from Grade 12 with a ninety average and was planning further studies. He
was free of perceptual complaints, and his thinking was good although he
still found it difficult to concentrate. His mood was level but a bit too
flat. He was on niacin 2 grams per day as he could not tolerate any more.
His resperidone was down to 1 mg daily and he planned to decrease it to
0.5 mg.</font>
<p><font face="Arial,Helvetica">December 1999 he had improved even more.
He was taking post grade twelve courses and making a B average. He had
been able to deal with a moderate depression starting about two months
earlier and ending one month later. His resperidone was down to 0.25 mg
daily and Paxil 30 milligrams daily. I added salmon oil, 3 grams after
each meal, to help stabilize his mood even more. He was relaxed, alert,
communicative, free of symptoms; in fact he was normal.</font>
<p><font face="Arial,Helvetica">Assuming he remains as well, or even better,
his recovery will save the province of British Columbia 2 million dollars
over a forty year life span. But like most psychiatrists the province refuses
to take this work seriously. His family are very pleased.</font>
<p><font face="Arial,Helvetica">Edmond Yu, born Oct 2, 1961 was killed
by police bullets, February 20, 1997.This is another tragedy which could
have been avoided had Edmond been treated for his schizophrenia using Orthomolecular
Methods. The Toronto Star, October 3, 1998 under its Insight Section Headed
the story "Edmond Yu's mental illness killed his dreams. But it was the
way we treat the mentally ill that eventually killed him". But the writer,
Scott Simmie, was not being critical of the psychiatric treatment offered
this young patient. The tenor of the report is that society somehow failed
by not paying enough attention, by not providing enough support, by not
providing enough of the psychosocial supports that could have been provided.
Perhaps had the supports been better he might not have been killed but
it is certain he would not have gotten any better because the fault lies,
not in the community, but in the psychiatric community which depended solely
on the use of drugs, the modern standard treatment for this disease.</font>
<p><font face="Arial,Helvetica">Edward was a brilliant student, tops in
his classes , who in his second year in medical school became psychotic.
He became seculsive, irritable, paranoid and his behaviour became antisocial.
His family and friends made strenuous efforts to have him admitted to hospital
for treatment but it was difficult because of the illogical mental health
laws in Ontario. The authorities decided that he could not be admitted
even though he needed help because he was not dangerous to himself or to
others. It turned out that he was in fact dangerous, mostly to himself,
and to others and that he should have been treated adequately in hospital
long enough to stabilize his condition and started on the path to recovery.
Eventually he was in the Clarke Institute several times and given the usual
tranquilizers. But he would not take them because of the severe side effects
including tardive dyskinesia, weight gain and it was impossible for him
to study. He could never complete medicine while on tranquilizers. He is
described as non compliant, a very common problem when only drugs are used.
Eventually
he drifted downward and downward ending up in the new mental hospitals
of this age, the streets of downtown North America. In Toronto it is the
city surrounding the mental hospital on Queen street. He was shot by the
police in self defense when they tried to apprehend him.</font>
<p><font face="Arial,Helvetica">This is how he should have been treated.
When he first became ill and this should have been recognized by the professors
of medicine at the college, he should have been seen by a psychiatrist
who would have diagnosed him properly and started him on proper treatment
using nutrition, medication and supplements. At this stage he would have
been much more cooperative and would have stuck to the regimen. As he began
to improve he would not have needed so much drug and he would have been
spared the side effects which prevented him from staying on the medication.
If he had been too ill to cooperate as an out patient he should have been
admitted and then placed on the proper orthomolecular program and kept
in hospital until he had regained his insight. Then he would have been
followed as an outpatient. Had be been given the benefit of this treatment
the odds are great that he would have graduated and become a useful physician.
I know of 17 young men who became schizophrenic in their teens. They were
treated properly, became doctors and went on to have successful practices.
Several became professors at medical colleges and one became President
of a very large psychiatric organization. But Edward was denied his chance
to recover. The fault lies not only in the community but mainly in the
psychiatric profession, which stoutly refuses to look at anything but drugs
as if they were beholden to the drug companies who make these drugs. The
community must be blamed because it did not ask the right question and
demand the right answer. The right question is Why do you psychiatrists
not do a much better job of treating these patients.</font>
<p><font face="Arial,Helvetica">J.B., Born in 1970, came to see me with
his parents in August, 1998. He told me that five years earlier he suddenly
became catatonic and was admitted to hospital for one month. Since then
he was in hospital for twelve admissions, each lasting one to two months,
except for the last one when he was admitted to University Hospital for
3 months and then transferred to the closest mental hospital for 7 months.
Since then he has been living in a group home on medication.</font>
<p><font face="Arial,Helvetica">He had suffered from hearing voices were
most often derogatory about him but occasionally he found them helpful.
They were not troublesome at the time of my examination. He had thought
he was being poisoned in the past and had been very depressed. I started
him on niacin 1 gram, three times daily after meals, the same amount of
vitamin C, folic acid 5 milligrams after meals, zinc citrate 50 milligrams
daily and B Complex 100's, one daily.</font>
<p><font face="Arial,Helvetica">He and his parents came into my office
two months later. I knew immediately that he was better because all three
were smiling broadly. He told me he had more energy, felt better, and a
noted a return of a sense of well being. He had started taking courses
to complete his high school and in the few examinations made grades over
90%. I increased the niacin to 1.5 grams, after meals, added selenium 300
micrograms twice daily, Evening Primrose Oil 2 capsules daily and increased
the B complex to 100's, one daily. Patient and both parents were much more
optimistic and we discussed realistically what he would do after he recovered.
He considered the idea that he might become a doctor. For readers who think
this is a pipe dream, I know personally 17 men who became ill in their
teens, recovered and became physicians, some achieving very high professional
status. I will add to this report in three months.</font>
<p><font face="Arial,Helvetica">He came with his parents on February 24,
1999. He was more relaxed, the voices were less troublesome and he felt
better. His psychiatrist in his home town had decreased his clozapine.
His mother told me that this was the first time in five years that he had
been able to write examinations without decompensating with the stress.
His marks ranged in the high A's. He planned to review more of his high
school subjects in order to refresh his memory and then to get back to
University. He spoke about becoming a psychiatrist. I encouraged him to
think this way. We need as many orthomolecular psychiatrists as we can
get. All three were pleased with his response. He smiled frequently.</font>
<p><font face="Arial,Helvetica">My book "Vitamin B-3 and Schizophrenia"
is now available from Quarry Health Books. Quarry Press, P.O. Box 1061,
240 King Street, Kingston, Ontario, Canada, K7L 4Y5. E Mail <a href="mailto:info@quarrypress.com">info@quarrypress.com</a>
Its subtitle is "Discovery, Recovery, Controversy" This book contains much
of the original data from our double blind controlled experiments conducted
in Saskatchewan between 1952 and 1960. The material was too voluminous
to be published in medical journals. <i>How To Live With Schizophrenia</i>,
will be published in a new edition from the same publisher. "Dr Hoffer's
Guide to Natural Nutrition for Children" is through the proof state. Same
publisher. It is an answer to the Ritalin craze now sweeping North America.
If you value your own health and the health of your family you must read
these books.</font>
<p><font face="Arial,Helvetica">The 28th Annual International Conference
of the International Society of Orthomolecular Medicine (ISOM) on Nutritional
Medicine Today was held in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada at the Chateau Laurier
Hotel, April 16 to 18, 1999. People who profit from and enjoy these conferences
include physicians, other healing professional persons and intelligent
lay persons. Seventeen countries are represented in ISOM. "Superman" Actress
Margot Kidder was the keynote speaker. She narrates and appears in the
film "Masks of Madness: Science of Healing" It is produced by Sisyphus
Communications. In this excellent film physicians who treat patients with
schizophrenia and patients who were treated successfully appear and tell
their story. They pay income tax, one of my hallmark characteristics of
recovery. These patients, on drugs alone, would still be languishing in
their illness with no hope of recovery. This video is available for sale
from the Canadian Schizophrenia Foundation. For more information about
the film, contact CSF at <a href="mailto:centre@orthomed.org">centre@orthomed.org</a>.</font>
<p><font face="Arial,Helvetica">May 6, 1999. Yesterday, while I was shopping
with my wife, a man came up to me and greeted me as if he knew me. He told
me I had seen him many years earlier and he added he had not had a drink
in 16 years. He was well and neatly dressed and buying groceries as my
wife and I were. He was still taking three grams of niacin which he thought
was great and we discussed the best way to take it. This morning I looked
up his file. I first saw him in 1976 in the intensive care unit of the
psychiatric hospital. He had suffered from mood swings all of his life.
His diagnosis was chronic schizophrenia. He was admitted to a chronic mental
hospital in 1970 following abuse of amphetamines. After that he was admitted
to many hospitals. He suffered from hallucinations, voices and visions,
paranoid ideas, mood swings and was often hyperexcitable. He was very depressed.
He had been in several fights, I considered him either suicidal or homicidal.
He was admitted again in 1977 to another service and was not given any
vitamins. Of course he had also been diagnosed bipolar. He drank a lot
and used street drugs. After I saw him again I started him on niacin 1
gram after each meal, and ascorbic acid the same dose. I saw him last August
5, 1981. He had been abstinent for 17 days. His response to niacin and
ascorbic acid illustrates once more what can be achieved with chronic patients
if they continue to remain on these vitamins for many years.</font>
<p><font face="Arial,Helvetica">December 3rd, 1999 Susan Sachs, <i>New
York Times,</i> reported in the <i>Globe and Mail</i>, Toronto, the death
of Gidone Busch in Brooklyn, New York. A grand jury will begin hearing
evidence. The most important question will not be asked. Why was this young
man, at age 21 a promising medical student, not treated successfully so
that his psychotic actions led to his death. His history as described by
Miss Sachs is typically the history of an intelligent schizophrenic person.
His father, a retired dentist, described him "He had a mental illness;
no question about it" "But he was not a violent person. He was never violent".
He was committed to psychiatric hospital three times and there diagnosed
paranoid schizophrenia. Will the psychiatrists who treated him be invited
to talk about his illness, about the tranquilizers they gave him, about
his failure to get well and will they be asked why they did not give him
orthomolecular treatment which had a much greater chance of restoring him
to normal. I doubt it. Isn't it about time that psychiatry is asked these
difficult questions. When surgeons botch up their surgery they are soon
called to task by the pathologists. Should we not have the same system
for psychiatric failures. Should not psychiatrists use the best treatment,
not the most popular ones.</font>
<p><font face="Arial,Helvetica">Dr. Miriam Shuchman, <i>Globe and Mail</i>,
Toronto, August 24, 1999, in discussing medical mistakes referred to the
suggestion by Dr. Don Berwick and Dr. Lucian Leape published in the British
Medical Journal that medicine needs to learn from the aviation industry.
In the aviation industry the fatality rate has fallen significantly despite
increases in volume and complexity. Every major crash is followed by an
investigation to consider the causes and how to prevent similar accidents.
This I think is a great idea. Every time a schizophrenic patient kills
or is killed after treatment there should be a similar intense investigation
to consider the causes, and how it might have been prevented by better
treatment. About 50 years ago at a clinical meeting for residents and staff
I, then one of the professors of psychiatry, made the same suggestion.
We were discussing the fact that some patients returned to hospital very
soon after discharge. I suggested that we ought to examine every failure
to determine why whether it was the difficulty in treating that patient,
was it that the wrong treatment had been used, was it anyone of many psychosocial
factors. This I explained would allow us to learn much more about treatment
and might decrease the number of readmissions. The revolving door policy
in psychiatry was just beginning to flower. I was greeted by a sudden chill,
a cold silence, not a word of criticism nor support and the discussion
continued as if I had not been there.</font>
<p><font face="Arial,Helvetica">This is another anecdote describing two
female schizophrenic patients, one sick for a short time and the other
sick for many years. Mary, born in 1976 , became depressed five years ago
and responded well after 2.5 weeks in hospital to antidepressant medication.
She remained well until three months before I saw her. This time her depression
did not lift even with the same medication. She described it as much more
severe. But her clinical diagnosis was schizophrenia since she heard voices
which were very real with some insight that they were not real, she suffered
shadow illusions, heard herself think, had many nightmares, was unreal
and believed that people were staring at her. Often during the day she
was disoriented, often paranoid even about her husband, her memory and
concentration were very poor and she was very depressed and tired. Her
HOD scores were all very high, within the high schizophrenic range. They
were total score 105, perceptual score 21, paranoid score 8 and depression
score 16. The normal scores are under 30, under 3, under 3 and under 3
respectively. I started her on niacin 1 gram three times each day after
meals, the same amount of vitamin C, folic acid 5 milligrams after each
meal and zinc citrate 50 milligrams once each day. At that time she was
also taking luvox, an antidepressant 150 milligrams , pindolol 2.5 milligrams
three times daily, valium 10 milligrams daily and halcion for sleep 0.5
milligrams at bedtime. I saw her two months later and she was normal. She
had weaned herself off all the medication. Her scores were 10,2,1 and 1,
all normal. She was delighted with her recovery as was her husband. This
will be her lifetime program. The other patient, Alice, was born in 1944.
She suffered her first depression when she was seventeen and was committed
to a mental hospital for three months. She was again in hospital when she
as nineteen. I saw her for the first time in 1984 By that time she had
been in various hospitals at least eleven times, each admission ranging
from 1.5 to 4 months. She had spent 11% of her life in hospitals. Since
I first took her on she has been in hospital twice, in 1987 and in 1991
for 2 months each. She remained on the orthomolecular program faithfully
and is well. She is now making strenuous efforts to complete grade 12 and
later will take a secretarial course. She free of schizophrenic symptoms,
gets on well with her family and the community and would be paying income
tax if she had not been struck so severely by this chronic illness and
if she had been treated properly when she first became ill when she was
17 years old. She does community volunteer work while pursuing her studies.
She has been under my care for 15 years. Mary will not repeat Alice’s history
because she is being treated with orthomolecular methods.</font>
<p><font face="Arial,Helvetica">December 17th, 1999: A young woman brought
her psychotic mother. Her mother was guided by her daughter and walked
with her eyes closed. I though she was blind and retarded. She was neither.
She first became sick in 1960 following a stillbirth and a hysterectomy.
Since then she was been in a mental hospital more than half of the time,
continually since 1990. Her current diagnosis was bipolar psychosis but
not having access to her first admission records I do not know what she
was then diagnosed. She was on a two week leave from the hospital so that
her daughter could bring her to see me. She had several series of electroconvulsive
treatments in the past and was on five different modern drugs currently.
But in spite of at least 5 million dollars worth of treatment in the hospital
she was just as sick as she had ever been. The new drugs cost at least
twenty times as much. Eventually she opened her eyes and spoke briefly
to me admitting that she was always hearing voices who told her she was
a very bad person and that she had killed people, referring to the still
birth. Her daughter had read Miss Margot Kidders account of her recovery,
was inspired and became determined to help her mother. Had she been started
on niacin in 1960 she surely would have been well in a few years and her
life and that of her family entirely different. She was schizophrenic.
I do not accept that bipolar patients hear voices all the time and see
visions. This is characteristic of schizophrenia with mood swings. But
she could have been labeled schizo-affective and the treatment would have
been the same. She represents the best that modern psychiatry can do, and
it is not good enough. Unfortunately because she has been sick so long
and exposed to the sick atmosphere and attitudes of the chronic mental
hospital it will take a long time, perhaps up to ten years or longer. But
her daughter was determined she would help no matter how long it took.
The psychiatric care given to her by the Province of British Columbia so
far cost about three million dollars. She is worse today than she was so
many years ago because her life has been destroyed by the kind of care
given her, by the disease itself unchecked and by the medication she is
now on. The retail price of the five modern drugs she is on cost about
450 dollars each month. This should be contrasted with the story of my
patient Mary, not her real name, described in How To Live With Schizophrenia.
In 1953 after 14 years in a chronic mental hospital she was started on
niacin 3 grams each day and we took her into our home for about 2 years.
She recovered and has worked since. She retired several years ago on full
pension. She was one of the best workers on the cleaning staff of the Royal
University Hospital in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. The cost of treating her
after we took her into our home has been well under 1000 dollars for the
niacin and vitamin C. These two cases represent the real cost of sloth
and inertia in the psychiatric profession. When they recover they pay income
tax. When they are treated with or without drugs only they do not.</font>
<p><font face="Arial,Helvetica">Tranquilizers cause brain damage. The amount
of the damage depends on the total dose in grams. Thus if a patient takes
100 milligrams each day of one of the older drugs for 1000 days, the total
dose is 100,000 milligrams or 10 grams. One multiplies the daily average
dose by the number of days on that drug. On the internet, L. Stevens, a
lawyer, described the tranquilizer psychosis as follows. " These major
tranquilizers cause misery - not tranquility. They physically, neurologically
blot out most of a person’s ability to think and act, even at commonly
given doses. By disabling people, they can stop almost any thinking or
behaviour the therapist wants to stop. But this is simply disabling people,
not therapy. The drug temporarily disables or permanently destroys good
aspects of a person’s personality as much as the bad. Whether and to what
extent the disability imposed by the drug can be removed by discontinuing
the drug depends on how long the drug is given and at how great a dose.
The so-called major tranquilizers antipsychotic/neuroleptic drugs damage
the brain more clearly, severely and permanently than any others used in
psychiatry. Stevens referred to Professors Joyce G Small and Iver F Small,
Indiana University, who criticized psychiatrists for using psychoactive
drugs known to have neurotoxic effects. He also referred to Professor Conrad
M Swartz, Chicago Medical School, who reported that neuroleptics relieve
psychotic anxiety but blunted fine details of personality, including initiative,
emotional reactivity, enthusiasm, sexiness, alertness and insight. In addition
to side effects which may be permanent. Professor Jon Franklin in Brave
New Science of Molecular Psychology observed - This era coincided with
an increasing awareness that the neuroleptics not only did not cure schizophrenia
- they actually caused damage to the brain: In severe cases, brain damage
from neuroleptic drugs is evidenced by abnormal body movements called tardive
dyskinesia. However this is only the tip of the iceberg of neuroleptic
caused brain damage. Higher mental functions are more vulnerable and are
impaired before the elementary functions of the brain such as motor control.
Without doubt Stevens has captured the essence of the tranquilizer psychosis.
In a recent report Madsen and colleagues found a significant association
between the amount of tranquilizers taken over years in grams and cerebral
cortex atrophy, (The Lancet, 352, page 784,1998).&nbsp;</font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">We are preparing the ground for the next
major pandemic of illness with millions of chronic schizophrenic patients
becoming more and more brain damaged as they are forced to remain on their
drugs. And when it is fully upon us how are we going to deal with brain
damaged schizophrenic patients, taken from the mainstream of life which
passed them by. We will have a permanent core of helpless people with hardly
any hope they will ever recover. Are we looking forward to the greatest
mass action suit of all time?</font>
<p><font face="Arial,Helvetica">March 7th, 2000: I received the following
letter. It speaks for itself. " My name is ....You probably receive a lot
of letters like this. I wanted to write and thank you for all your research
and work in the area of schizophrenia and niacin. Your work really changed
my life. A year and a half ago when I was 26, I began hearing voices and
experiencing paranoia and panic attacks. I quit my job because of this
and quit school where I was working on a second degree in chemistry; because
I was losing control. I ended up in the hospital where I started treatment
with risperdal. I tried to commit suicide and ended up in the hospital
again. The only way I could pay my bills was by the generosity of people
from church. For a year I tried risperdal, zyprexa and others. The results
were minimal in controlling the symptoms. I also became like a zombie.
I could barely work and had trouble walking or doing physical exercise
. I gained 50 pounds. I couldn’t support myself and relied on the Center
for Human Services to provide the $80-a-pill medication. While starting
on a new medicine seroquel, I happened to find a reference to niacin for
mental illness in a diet book. I looked up the reference and your book
<i>How
To Live With Schizophrenia.</i> I decided to try the treatment although
honestly I didn't believe it would work because nothing else had. After
taking niacin in the doses you recommended for a month, against the advice
of my doctor, I found while the seroquel was reduced the niacin totally
eliminated the symptoms. I could listen to noise again without it overwhelming
me and quit having panic attacks. I could think clearly and read normally.
The voices are virtually gone. I went off the medication and am doing great,
as long as I take the niacin. I did this against the advice of my doctor
with his warning. Thank you for all you have done!! I have my life back!
I am finishing my degree and thinking of going into further education.
I don't understand why this information and treatment isn't made available
to others with mental illness and it makes me very angry. Destroyed lives
are being wasted. I sent for the medical research you did for my doctor
and for myself. If there is anything I can do I would love to. Thank you."</font>
<p><font face="Arial,Helvetica">Orthomolecular treatment for the schizophrenias
includes optimum doses of vitamin C. These range anywhere from 500 milligrams
three times daily to many grams taken after each meal. Patients on this
program may be fearful of continuing with their vitamin C following a news
report linking vitamin C with clogged arteries. I have already had many
calls from my patients after this first report was redigested and puked
out on the airwaves with dire warnings of the dangers involved. The Vitamin
C Foundation contacted the investigators who read this report at a meeting
and discovered that they had measured only one variable instead of the
usual three required to shows interference in arterial blood flow. They
measured the thickness of the carotid artery wall, but did not measure
plaque formation nor for the actual rate of flow through the vessels. The
last measurement is the most important one. However they suggested that
there was in fact hardening of the arteries and that people with heart
problems should avoid taking this vitamin. So here we have another nascent
factoid. The facts are that vitamin C decreases plaque formation according
to many clinical studies, that clinicians such as Dr Robert Cathcart have
not seen any evidence for this in over 30,000 patients. They also ignored
the knowledge that thickened arterial walls in the absence of plaque formation
indicate that the walls are becoming stronger and therefore less apt to
rupture. The original report by Dr James Dwyer, USC was submitted for publication
and was not yet reviewed by his peers. Perhaps these peers will persuade
the authors to change their conclusion, to simply report what they found
and not make these unwarranted recommendations to the public at large.
I have not seen any evidence for the Dwyer conclusion in the past 45 years
that I have given large doses of vitamin C to perhaps 10,000 patients and
at age 82, have been on large doses since 1960. My cardiovascular system
seems to be working pretty well. Scientists should avoid the hubris of
extrapolations of simple and inadequate laboratory data to the clinical
world at large.</font>
<p><font face="Arial,Helvetica">The Nutritional Medicine Today, 29th Annual
International Conference, Vancouver April 6-9, 2000 was great. Audio Tapes
are available from the Canadian Schizophrenia Foundation, 16 Florence Ave,
Toronto, ON, Canada,M2N 1E9 416 733 2117, Fax (416)&nbsp; 733 2352 E Mail
<a href="mailto:centre@orthomed.org">centre@orthomed.org</a>&nbsp;
See also <a href="http://www.orthomed.org">www.orthomed.org</a></font>
<p><font face="Arial,Helvetica">Orthomolecular treatment of cancer was
discussed by John Hoffer and Hugh Riordan. Vitamin C played a major role
in these discussions. David Horrobin reported the results of a double blind
controlled study, using 2 grams daily of eicosapentaenoic acid, which showed
that it was more effective than tranquilizers and much less toxic. This
important essential fatty acid should be incorporated into the treatment
of every patient with schizophrenia. Dr. Horrobin developed the niacin
skin test for diagnosing schizophrenia. Klaus-Georg Wenzel reported that
the orthomolecular method, following Carl Pfeiffer’s classification of
the schizophrenias worked well in Germany. He hopes he can complete a double
blind study that was interrupted by government interference. David Kennedy
reviewed the toxic impact of fluoride especially in children were it caused
learning disorders while in sharp contrast to this real and dangerous use
of fluoride, Patrick Bouic showed that certain plant sterols improved the
function of the immune system. Richard Kunin spoke about ischemia induced
apoptosis (cell death) and Tory Hagen showed that dietary supplements could
reverse the mitochondrial decay of aging. Mikhael Adams combines nutritional
and homeopathic therapy with standard cancer treatment and Isaac Lesser
reviewed his new classification of mental patient types and the brain chemistry
diet. We were all pleased to hear Stephen Lawson of the Linus Pauling Institute,
located in Oregon at the University, bring us up to date on this important
institution. It is following in the grand footsteps originated by Linus
Pauling. The Vancouver Premier of the film "Masks of Madness; Science of
Healing" featuring Miss Margot Kidder was wonderfully well received by
a full house. I followed with a discussion again pointing out that schizophrenic
patients on tranquilizer medication alone seldom pay income tax; they do
not and can not become normal.</font>
<p><font face="Arial,Helvetica"><font size=-1>Copyright C 2000 and prior years Abram Hoffer, M.D. Reprinted with permission.</font></font>
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