Recovery from Mental Illness

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Recovery from Mental Illness

 

Another Anecdote of Schizophrenia

Journal of Orthomolecular Medicine Vol. 10, No. 2,

1995

by Abram Hoffer, MD, PhD

 

Allan consulted me early in 1977 when he was 34 years

old. He complained he was hyperactive, which had

started when he was an infant. As a child he was so

active his highchair had to be bolted to the floor.

Scholastically there was no problem. In 1968 he became

interested in vegetarianism and fasting; after each

fast he felt great. But late in 1969 he became

depressed and paranoid. He thought he was the only

white man on earth who would be acceptable to blacks.

His paranoid delusions got worse until he was

committed to a mental hospital for six months.

Treatment included a series of ECT. He improved

slowly. By 1972 he was able to work at a day care

center, but again became hyper excitable and paranoid.

He was discharged from his job. He was then started on

orthomolecular treatment. During the summer of 1973 he

stopped all the vitamins and began to drink

excessively. His psychosis recurred, leading to his

second admission to the same mental hospital, from

July to November. Then he transferred to a private

hospital for one year. During this year he received

twenty ECT combined with moderate amounts of B

vitamins. He improved slowly. When I saw him, he

stated he had been free of psychosis for over one

year. His diagnosis had been schizophrenia on

remission.

 

At this point, each reader of this brief anecdote

should try to predict Allan's future course. Did he

remain sick thereafter, with frequent re-admissions,

on social assistance, lonely, unemployed and

unemployable? Did he remain stable but unable to work

because he was suffering from the tranquilizer

psychosis (fatigue, apathy, disinterest, tremor), or

was he able to overcome his illness and become a

normally productive and responsible person? After you

make your prediction based on what I have written,

read on.

 

I added niacinamide 3 grams per day to his program. He

was normal three months later. He married in October

1978. In November 1989 he reported he had been

employed full time for ten years in a job he liked.

Both he and his wife were very pleased.

 

February 14, 1995, he called me to thank me for his

good health. He added that he felt better than he ever

could remember, was very cheerful and upbeat and was

still faithful to his vitamin regime. He and his wife

were both grateful.

 

I consider him well because: (1) he is free of

symptoms; (2) he gets on well with his family; (3) he

gets on well in the community; (4) he is employed full

time and pays taxes. Before he was started on vitamins

he had spent nearly two years in hospital. He had had

several jobs but could not cope with his day care job.

After treatment with niacinamide was started, he was

able to work within three months.

 

According to recent estimates, schizophrenia costs

about $2 million per lifetime of illness. This

patient's family by insisting he be treated with

vitamins, and this patient by cooperating, have

already saved the province about half a million

dollars.

 

If governments really want to save money they will pay

attention to these classical cases who recover. No one

in 1977 would have predicted his recovery.

 

Psychological Activity of Nicotinamide Adenine

Dinucleotide (NAD)

In 1966 Humphry Osmond and I reported (1) that NAD was

therapeutic for schizophrenic patients treated in a

psychiatric wing of the University Hospital at

Saskatoon. We used an enteric coated tablet containing

100 mg suspended in an oily medium to bypass the

stomach. Patients who were responding slowly to

vitamin B3 in doses of 3 grams daily, responded much

more quickly to NAD using 1 gram daily. For as long as

the NAD was available, they remained well or much

improved. When we ran out of supplies they quickly

relapsed.

 

Two negative attempts were made to repeat our work

using a preparation which was dumped into the stomach

of patients who had been maintained on the backwards

of the mental hospitals of that era and were sick for

many years. (2) These two negative reports effectively

quenched interest in this compound until a few years

ago.

 

Professor J.G.D. Birkmayer and his associates at the

Birkmayer Institute for Parkinson Therapy in Vienna,

Austria, studied a stable form of NADH. They found

that their stable preparation using 5 mg doses was

therapeutic for Parkinson's disease, for Alzheimer's,

and for depression. (3) They wrote, " When we first

used NADH with regard to its clinical efficacy the

effect was not convincing.

 

This was most likely due to the rapid dissolution

(approximately 10-15 minutes) of the capsule leading

to a release of NADH into the acid conditions of the

stomach. Since NADH is rapidly oxidized below pH 7.6,

the conditions in the stomach will inactivate NADH by

converting it to NAD. The investigations of this

report were therefore performed with NADH capsules

coated with an acid stable film and a release time of

2-3 hours. With this galenic formulation of NADH an

improvement in disability could be achieved which was

comparable to that of intravenously applied NADH. "

 

In our studies we used NAD, which was the only form of

this coenzyme available, in doses of one gram daily,

but the Austrian group found NADH active at 5 to 10 mg

daily.

 

NAD and NADH are interconvertable in the body. This

suggests that the active form is the reduced form,

NADH, and that NAD is much less effective since it

would first have to be reduced to NADH. The decreasing

order of therapeutic efficacy would be NADH, NAD and

finally vitamin B3. There would be no formation of

NADH in the stomach from NAD, but there would be some

made in the intestine.

 

I hope these recent Birkmayer studies will reactivate

interest in the therapeutic effect of this potent

coenzyme made from vitamin B3. It is available from

Menuco Corporation, 350 Fifth Avenue, Suite 7509, New

York, NY 10118.

 

References

1. Hoffer A & Osmond H: Nicotinamide adenine

dinucleotide (NAD) as a treatment for schizophrenia.

J. Psychopharmacology 1: 79-95, 1966.

 

2. Hoffer A: Enzymology of Hallucinogens. Reprinted

in: Enzymes in Mental Health. J.G. Martin & B. Kisch,

Eds. J.B. Lippincott Co., 1966.

 

3. Birkmayer W & Birkmayer JGD: Nicotinamide adenine

dinucleotide (NADH): the new approach in the therapy

of Parkinson's disease. Annals of Clinical and

Laboratory Science 19: 38-43, 1989.

 

Birkmayer JGD, Vrecko D, Volc D & Birkmayer W:

Nicotinamide adeninedinu-cleotide (NADH) - a new

therapeutic approach to Parkinson's disease. Acta

Neurol. Scand., vol. 87, Supp. 146, 32-35, 1993.

 

Birkmayer JGD: Nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide

(NADH) the new therapeutic approach for improving

dementia of the Alzheimer's type.

Forschungs-undLehrein-richtung des Birkmayer Instituts

fur Parkin-sontherapie. Vienna, Austria.

 

Birkmayer JGD & Birkmayer W: The coenzyme nicotinamide

adenine dinucleotide (NADH) as biological

antidepressive agent. Experience with 205 Patients.

New Trends in Clinical Neuropharmacology 5: 19-25,

1991.

 

Reprinted with permission of the author:

Abram Hoffer, M.D., Ph.D.

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