On the effect of a monoamine oxidase inhibitor on the behavior and tryptophan metabolism of schizophrenic patients

Body Fluid Indoles of Normal and Mentally-Ill Subjects

A role in mental illness for an aberrant metabolism of indole compounds was first advanced some sixty years ago, when their alleged toxicity to the nervous system figured prominently in the then current theory of auto-intoxication by bacterial action in the bowel (Herter, 1898, 1907). Although in a modified form it continues to receive the support of Buscaino (1958), auto-intoxication of this nature is now generally rejected as a factor in mental illness (see particularly Alvarez, 1924) and the renewed interest in indoles and brain function of recent years has come from a different standpoint. Thus, study of the central nervous system effects of indoles such as 5-hydroxytryptamine (serotonin) and bufotenin, and of compounds containing an indole group such as lysergic acid and reserpine, has inspired several new theories concerning normal and abnormal roles for indoles in the brain (Woolley and Shaw, 1957; Brodie and Shore, 1957; Hoffer, 1957).

Fatty acid profiles in mental disease. Part 1. Linolenate variations in schizophrenia

Lipids were isolated from 6 patients suffering from schizophrenia and also from 6 age-matched healthy controls. The extracted lipids were fractionated into erythrocyte and plasma lipids. Column and thin-layer chromatography on silica gel were employed further to isolate the extracts into sub-classes within the major neutral and polar lipid classifications. The fatty acid composition of each sub-class was then monitored by gas chromatography after transmethylation. A significantly higher proportion of linolenic acid (18:3w3) was found in schizophrenics when compared with the controls. The change was reflected in both the neutral lipids and phospholipids from plasma and erythrocytes of the patients. On average, 8.7 +/- 2.6 and 3.9 +/- 1.5 mole % linolenate/100 mg lipid extract were obtained from the plasma of patients and healthy controls, respectively, while 8.6 +/- 2.3 and 3.0 +/- 1.2 mole/% linolenate/100 mg lipid were recorded from the red blood cells. The other fatty acids investigated did not show such significant differences between patient and healthy subject. A net increase in the amount of total fatty acid was recorded in the patients and it is thought that either linolenate alone or linolenate together with other polyunsaturated fatty acids not considered here are responsible for these observations. Correlations of these findings with the pathology of schizophrenia are discussed.

Effects of Amino Acid Feedings in Schizophrenic Patients Treated with Iproniazid

Large oral doses of individual amino acids were given three or four times daily for periods of 1 week to schizophrenic patients, some of whom were maintained on iproniazid. Marked alterations in behavior in some patients were associated with the administration of l-methionine and of l-tryptophan.