January, 2004 - Nr. 1
The Treatment of Schizophrenia
Schizophrenia is a condition characterized by disturbances in form and content to thought, mood, sense of self and relationship to the external world and behaviour. It is really a group of disorders and should be termed schizophrenias. Present psychiatric opinion about these conditions says a person will never get well, never finish high school, never marry and never get off medication. This is true of standard drugs-only psychiatry.
New anti- psychotic drugs are addictive. These include Resperidone, Olanzapine and Clozapine and once a patient is taking these medications, it is very hard to get them off. So these modern chemicals have to be used carefully and are very tricky to handle.
In fact, initially they are very successful in reducing the intensity and frequency of symptoms to a point where the person appears normal. Unfortunately, as the drug is continued, the patient begins to react to the medication and becomes sick again.
So what has been achieved is the transferring of a schizophrenic psychosis to a tranquilizer-induced psychosis.
How many patients get well on tranquilizers? Absolutely zero. They stay sick forever and never recover.
So how does one overcome these terrible outcomes in drug treated schizophrenic individuals?
Lets go back in history about the treatment of these people. In the 1850’s, the Quakers introduced a moral treatment of the insane. They created little homes each one holding twelve afflicted persons and they gave them good food, shelter, a safe space and humanity. They were integrated into the social activities of the group and the recovery rate was 60%!
In 1844, in the first issue of the American Psychiatric Association Journal, there was a report from the mental hospitals then existing in the USA and they published their annual recovery rates. They reported that 50 – 60% of their psychotic patients recovered. What was the treatment? Shelter, food and dignity.
In fact, schizophrenia has a very high natural recovery rate if one allows it to occur which is about 50%. No drugs, just time, good food, a safe place to live in and kind and competent care given.
So, the three basic elements in treatment are:
- Shelter, not the streets, run down hotels, prisons and mental institutions.
- Decent food, not the typical modern diet.
- Respect and human dignity, which is rare to be found in mental hospitals, psychiatric wards, on the streets and in prisons.
In addition there is the use of orthomolecular treatment and dietary intervention.
Diet
- Remove junk food from the diet. A simple rule is to avoid any food preparation that contains hidden sugar. This will remove about 90% of the food additives as well.
- Find and eliminate foods to which the patient is allergic. Gluten is well known to be neurotoxic in some individuals. Check for delayed food allergies and remove reactive foods from the diet.
Nutrients
- Vitamin B-3 (niacin, niacinamide, Inositol niacinate)
- Niacin – usual dose range 1.5 to 9 gm daily, after meals. If dose is too high, it will lead to nausea and vomiting. It initially causes vasodilatation and flushing.
- Niacinamide – usual dose 1.5 to 9 gm daily. It will cause nausea if dosage is too large. There is no vasodilation or flushing with this nutrient.
- Inositol niacinate – doses range from 1.5 to 9 grams daily. No side effects, but expensive.
- Vitamin B6, pyridoxine – usual dose range 100 to 1000 mg daily. In these doses ranges non toxic.
- Ascorbic Acid and its mineral salts. Usual dose range is 3 to 12 grams daily.
- Omega 3 essential fatty acids, usual dose 3 to 6 grams daily as fish oils.
- Zinc - usual dose 50 mg daily.
What about anti psychotic drugs?
These are essential evils and are only used to get the overt symptoms under control. Their use alone will not lead to recovery.
What is recovery? Free of symptoms, gets on well with his family, gets on well in the community and pays income tax.
So treatment must combine the drugs and the orthomolecular
approach. The vitamins make the drugs more effective and less toxic. As the
patient improves, the medications are withdrawn very carefully while
maintaining the orthomolecular approach. The patient will eventually reach a
point where they are free of medication.
What would be the ideal scene?
Community treatment centres where there is safety, good care, proper nutrition and vitamins.
The modern mental hospital with its brutality and suppressive treatments is not the way to give a schizophrenic quiet and rest.
Results of Treatment
- Treatment by drugs only. Recovery is less than 10%. Drugs cause a drug psychosis, which allows recovery to be impossible. Therefore, drugs must only be used as a temporary measure, as a crutch and must be combined with the four basic treatments (shelter, good food, proper nutrition and vitamins). If the drugs are not withdrawn the drugs will also mask the improvements of the above, which cannot be observed until the drugs are withdrawn.
- Moral treatment (Quakers, 1850). 50% recovery
- All 4 treatments in early current or in relapsed cases. 90% recovery over two years.
- All 4 treatments in chronically sick patients of greater than two years and treated over 7 years. About 50% recovery.
Conclusion
Appropriate and non- damaging treatments to psychotically ill patients would lead to huge improvements in the health of our culture and bring individuals into a state where they can contribute to the society and free them from the entrapment of their internal demons.
Paul Jaconello, M.D.
Director
Doctor Jaconello is the Medical Director of the Jaconello Health Centre for Nutritional and Preventive Medicine
This article was taken in its majority from a lecture given by Abram Hoffer, M.D., Ph.D. whose pioneering research into the treatment of schizophrenia has improved this condition in many thousands of patients.
This lecture was delivered at the Ninth International Symposium On Functional Medicine in May 2002, in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, U.S.A.
Note
Any person reading this article must not institute orthomolecular treatment on their own and must be under the care of a health professional conversant with this treatment.
