Mental diseases

Pentylenetetrazol (188) is a drug with profound stimulatory activity on the central nervous system. As such, the agent was at one time used in shock therapy for treatment of mental disease. Although it has since been supplanted by safer methods, the agents still occupy an important role in various experimental animal models in pharmacology. Addition of hydrazine to the imino ether (186) obtained from caprolactam affords 187. Treat-... 

Tinklenberg, J.R., and Woodrow, K.M. Dmg use among youthful assaultive and sexual offenders. In Frazier, S.FI., ed. Aggression. Research Publication Association for Research in Nervous and Mental Disease. 

Chen, L. X., Wang, Z. G., Ai, M. et al. (2005). Effect of CYP2C19 genotypes on demethylation of amitriptyline in Chinese patients with depression. Chinese Journal of Nervous and Mental Diseases, 31(1), 33-6. 

Si, T. M. Shu, L. (2006). Open-label study the effects of venlafaxine-XR in the treatment of depression. Chinese Journal of Nervous and Mental Diseases, 32(1), 69-71. 

Greenberg, A Meta-Analysis of Fluoxetine Outcome in the Treatment of Depression , Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease 182 (1994) 547-51... 

Bernstein-Carlson, E.,. Putnam, F. W. (1986). Development, reliability, and validity of a dissociation scale. The Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, 174, 727-735. 

Seedat, S., Stein, M. B., Forde, D. R. (2003). Prevalence of dissociative experiences in a community sample Relationship to gender, ethnicity, and substance use. Journal of Nervous Mental Disease, 191, 115-120. 

Let us consider next some of the factors which are known to influence mental health and how they are related to the problem of the etiology of mental disease and to the subject of brain metabolism. Mental ill health has in general remained a puzzle down through the centuries. To attribute it to demoniacal possession or to psychogenic causes leaves the question shrouded in mystery, and gives an unsatisfactory basis for developing therapeutic or prophylactic measures. 

Many drugsbromides, morphine, cocaine, hashish, marijuana, mescaline, scopolamine, di-isopropyl fluorophosphate, ACTH, pervitin, sodium amytal, lysergic acid, reserpine and chlorpromazine are known to have marked effects on the mental processes of the individuals who receive them. These effects are varied and cannot be discussed here. Suffice it to say that some drugs produce symptoms which resemble those observed in mental disease others work in the opposite direction. There can be no doubt that enzyme systems are... 

Senile dementia is another type of mental disease for which physical and chemical causes, aside from aging itself, are known. Cerebral arteriosclerosis is a every common accompaniment, and this is known to decrease the cerebral blood flow and the total metabolism of the brain. 11 This itself is enough to account for the deranged metabolism and the accompanying deranged mental functions. 

Before we discuss how individuality in nutrition enters into the problem of mental disease, we wish to point out, as has been done by others, that the agents which have been used effectively to combat severe mental disease have been physical and chemical ones these obviously are capable of bringing about marked changes in brain... 

We now come to perhaps the most important topic of all so far as the relationship between mental disease and biochemical individuality is concerned, namely, the nutritional aspects of the problem. 

Psychoneuroses involving depression, irritability, anxiety, increased sensitivity to noise and painful stimuli, and uncertainty of memory have been induced in human patients as a result of thiamine deficiency. 22 It seems probable that the Wernicke type syndrome, which is more severe, can likewise be caused by thiamine deficiency. In all cases the psychological symptoms are eliminated or prevented by the administration of adequate amounts of thiamine. Here again is a clear-cut case in which mental disease can be caused by a nutritional deficiency and cured by supplying adequate amounts of the missing nutritional factor. 

Returning briefly to the subject of alcoholism and the work done on the subject in the author s laboratory, we may call attention to the fact that alcoholism is often classified as a mental disease. It is induced, in certain susceptible individuals, by a chemical agent, alcohol, the consumption of which in the amounts commonly used is conducive to the production of nutritional deficiencies because alcohol crowds out of the diet foods which yield minerals, amino acids, and vitamins. 

One of the important questions with respect to mental disease (particularly schizophrenia) is whether or not it has genetic origins. The twin studies made by Kallmann20 indicate that it has. Doubtless the inheritance of susceptibility is complicated because there are probably a number of factors involved, each inherited separately and perhaps counteracting each other. The facts of biochemical genetics... 

If individuals differ at birth in their susceptibility to schizophrenia, for example, of what does their differentness consist Aside from anatomical differences with respect to brain and endocrine glands especially, there is the possibility that they differ in their nutritional requirements. One may have need, in order to meet the stresses of life and keep his brain metabolism functioning, of a larger amount of certain crucial nutrients than the other. Lacking these nutrients, his brain metabolism gets out of joint and mental disease results. 

Certainly the possibility needs to be explored that nutritional supplements [and these may include not only substances known to be necessary for normal nutrition, but others as well (p. 184)] will prevent or cure the various types of mental disease. One cannot hope that a single nutrient factor, such as a vitamin, is going to be the answer for a multitude of people, even if their outward symptoms seem to be about the same. As each new vitamin or vitamin-like substance is discovered (and there are probably more to come), there is a great enthusiasm for its possibilities, oftentimes without regard for the fact that it is only one link in a chain and unless all links are present there is no chain. A single vitamin is likely to be a limiting factor in some process and not the only limiting factor. 

Tranquilizers are a class of chemical compounds used for the treatment of stress, and mild or even severe mental diseases. These relieve anxiety, stress, irritability or excitement by inducing a sense of well-being. They form an essential component of sleeping phis. There are various types of tranquilizers. They function by different mechanisms. For example, noradrenaline is one of the neurotransmitters that plays a role in mood changes. If the level of noradrenaline is low for some reason, then the signal-sending activity... 

A bite from any such parasite is characterized by prolonged host bleeding. This property led to the documented use of leeches as an aid to blood-letting as far back as several hundred years BC. The method was particularly fashionable in Europe at the beginning of the ninteenth century. Many doctors at that time still believed that most illnesses were related in some way to blood composition and blood letting was a common, if uneffective, therapy. The Napoleonic Army surgeons, for example, used leeches to withdraw blood from soldiers suffering from conditions as diverse as infections and mental disease. 

Luthar, S., Merikangas, K. and Rounsaville, B. (1993) Parental psychopathology and disorders in offspring - a study of relatives of drug users. Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease 181, 6, 351-357. 

NIMH s goal is to reduce the impact of mental illnesses and disorders by developing a better understanding of the brain and how it works. Not only does mental disease affect its victims on a personal level, the losses suffered by the economy due to reduced productivity are severe— 150 billion, according to an estimate by the Department of Health and Human Services. 

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