How Schizophrenia Affects the Brain

It’s hard to fully understand a mental disease like schizophrenia without peering into the human brain. Now, a study by University of Iowa psychiatry professor Nancy Andreasen uses brain scans to document how schizophrenia impacts brain tissue as well as the effects of anti-psychotic drugs on those who have relapses.

Andreasen’s study, published in the American Journal of Psychiatry, documented brain changes seen in MRI scans from more than 200 patients beginning with their first episode and continuing with scans at regular intervals for up to 15 years. The study is considered the largest longitudinal, brain-scan data set ever compiled, Andreasen says.

Schizophrenia affects roughly 3.5 million people, or about one percent of the U.S. population, according to the National Institutes of Health. Globally, some 24 million are affected, according to the World Health Organization.

The image shows the MRI brain scans used in this study.
Nancy Andreasen and her lab are using brain scans from magnetic resonance imaging to better understand how anti-psychotic drugs affect the brains of schizophrenia patients. Credited to Nancy Andreasen, University of Iowa.
The scans showed that people at their first episode had less brain tissue than healthy individuals. The findings suggest that those who have schizophrenia are being affected by something before they show outward signs of the disease.

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Q: (L) I guess that's enough on that. Next question: We have this question from {name redacted}. (Psyche) {name redacted} says, "It's about my difficulty with mammalian meat. Is there some reason besides leaky gut?"

A: Incorrect formulation of the question.

Q: (Perceval) That's assuming that she has a problem with mammalian meat. (Ailen) Or with leaky gut.

A: She does, but that is not a feature of leaky gut. It is a feature of multiple system breakdown.

Q: (L) Okay. Psyche? (Psyche) Does {name redacted} have a brain chemical imbalance due to her food choices? (L) Well, why don't we get to the multiple system breakdown? What systems? Uh... Maybe that's the wrong question. They're trying to tell us to get to some really basic things here. (Psyche) Epigenetics?

A: Yes mainly, but also specific genetic line problems.

Q: (L) Let's try to ask some real simple questions and get through this. What are the primary parts of the systems that are broken down?

A: First, the gene expression has been altered after many years of abuse of the system design.

Q: (L) Is this something like what Gedgaudas writes about that once you’ve been eating carbs and grains and things for so many years, your body gets conditioned to it and it's very very difficult to switch over? Is that part of what it is?

A: Yes and more.

Q: (Ailen) Does your DNA get atrophied or something? (L) I don't know. I think it shuts down certain DNA. (Ailen) Because they're saying that the gene expression has been altered after many years of abuse of the system. (PoB) Is it reversible?

A: It is mostly reversible for {name redacted}, but more difficult for her child who is third generation.

Q: (L) So you're saying that her mother has also put her system through improper use of the natural genetic profile?

A: Yes.

Q: (L) Okay. What's the next question? (Psyche) We were checking some statistics and we realized that full siblings of schizophrenics are nine times more likely than the general population to have schizophrenia, and four times more likely to have bipolar disorder. Is {name redacted} affected by this genetic tendency?

A: Oh indeed! However this requires explanation. First of all, the genetics that are associated with schizophrenia can be either a doorway or a barrier. Second, the manifestation of schizophrenia can take non-ordinary pathways. That is to say that diet can activate the pathway without the concomitant benefits.

Q: (Burma) I think that they're saying that schizophrenia could essentially be a way to be open to seeing other aspects of reality but diet can make it so it basically just makes you crazy without actually seeing anything.

A: Primitive societies that eat according to the normal diet for human beings do not have "schizophrenics", but they do have shamans who can "see".

Q: (Perceval) So a schizophrenic on animal fat is a shaman. (L) Well, wait a minute. There's something real subtle here. What I think you're saying is that when these genetic pathways are activated through wrong diet, it screws up the shamanic capacity?

A: Yes.

Q: (L) So, schizophrenia as we understand it or have witnessed it is a screw-up of something that could or might manifest in a completely different way on a different diet? Is that it?

A: Yes

Q: (L) And that's what you meant by not only a doorway, but also a barrier because the person who is on the wrong diet and has schizophrenia is barred from being able to be a bridge between the worlds. They kind of get lost. They're barred from having a normal life, and they're also barred from coming back from their delusions or whatever they're seeing even if they're not delusions. Maybe they’re seeing, but they're unable to help or do anything.

Okay. Now, you made a remark about the diet that is normal for the human being. And I know {name redacted} and a lot of people - not just {name redacted}, but a lot of people - have a problem with a diet that requires you to consume the flesh of other creatures. And I know that we've read what Lierre Keith has written about it, and it's a very moving statement about life and earth and so on and so forth. But I'd like to know if there's something a little more esoteric that we could understand about this? I mean, I don't understand why and how a person can achieve spiritual growth, which is what you seem to be implying throughout all of this stuff that we've been learning, from eating meat. How many other groups have taken a vegetarian pathway and said that this is... I mean, aside from the fact that we now know that agriculture and vegetables and the owning of the land is pure STS destruction... What about fruit? Well of course they didn't have fruit then. Like everybody, I'm having a little problem with this. So can you help me out here?

A: You know the saying: Only through the shedding of blood is there remission of sins?

Q: (L) Yes.

A: And what about: Take eat, this is my body?

Q: (L) Yes.

A: And: Take, drink, this is my blood?

Q: (L) Yes. (Burma) So it sounds like they're saying that there's a hidden thing in the whole resurrection or salvation by the blood thing. That agriculture is evil and we could return by going on an animal-based diet?

A: No not exactly. When humankind "fell" into gross matter, a way was needed to return. This way simply is a manifestation of the natural laws. Consciousness must "eat" also. This is a natural function of the life giving nature of the environment in balance. The Earth is the Great Mother who gives her body, literally, in the form of creatures with a certain level of consciousness for the sustenance of her children of the cosmos. This is the original meaning of those sayings.

Q: (L) So, eating flesh also means eating consciousness which accumulates, I'm assuming is what is being implied here, or what feeds our consciousness so that it grows in step with our bodies? Is that close?

A: Close enough.

Q: (Ailen) And when you eat veggies you're basically eating a much lower level of consciousness. (L) Not only that, but in a sense you're rejecting the gift and you're not feeding consciousness. And that means that all eating of meat should be a sacrament.

A: Yes

Q: (Burma) With agriculture, you're not only rejecting the gift, you're turning around and beating up the Mother. (L) Well that sure puts a whole different light on the whole Cain and Abel thing! {Interesting that the original “vegetarian” was the first murderer, too.}

A: Yes.

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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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sarek said:

This is disconcerting news. As my LD gf is suffering from untreated(by her own choice) schizophrenia it is important to find any and all supportive modes of treatment.

It has long been a suspicion that antipsychotic meds damage the brain in some way but so far its has never been clear whether the observed changes are due to the illness itself or to the medication. This study apparently shows it is both.

Perhaps there is a link between infection/inflammation and early brain development?

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H-kqge said:

Many thanks for this Ennio. The help provided by this network has allowed me to get so much information about these types of disorders in particular. My mother has this but her mother refuses to give her the help that i've been passing on for the last two years. To see the rate of disintegration, the rapid ageing, & the total incoherent speech & behaviour is just horrible. I even pointed out that she was said to be wheat-gluten intolerant back in 2001 but my grandmother (who's in charge of her health & finances as well as my youngest aunt who's been mentally ill since 1987) won't hear it. Thankfully i won't be another that succumbs to our hereditary diseases. I remember that session well too, so thanks for including it.

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Ennio on Today at 04:27:52 AM said:

Even leaving aside such special information as the C's sometimes provide, it still amazes me how far off the conventional wisdom is about treating certain conditions and how unwilling many are to think outside the box a little bit - even if what's being done is already being shown NOT to be working.

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...there is a brief window of time, from 1946 to 1954, when we can look at how newly diagnosed schizophrenia patients fared and thereby get a sense of the “natural outcomes” of schizophrenia prior to the arrival of Thorazine.

Here’s the data. In a study conducted by the NIMH, 62 percent of first-episode psychotic patients admitted to Warren State Hospital in Pennsylvania from 1946 to 1950 were discharged within twelve months. At the end of three years, 73 percent were out of the hospital. A study of 216 schizophrenia patients admitted to Delaware State Hospital from 1948 to 1950 produced similar results. Eighty-five percent were discharged within five years, and on January 1, 1956—six years or more after initial hospitalization—70 percent were successfully living in the community. Meanwhile, Hill side Hospital in Queens, New York, tracked 87 schizophrenia patients discharged in 1950 and determined that slightly more than half never relapsed in the next four years. During this period, outcomes studies in England, where schizophrenia was more narrowly defined, painted a similarly encouraging picture: Thirty-three percent of the patients enjoyed a “complete recovery,” and another 20 percent a “social recovery,” which meant they could support themselves and live independently...

Whitaker, Robert (2010-03-31). Anatomy of an Epidemic: Magic Bullets, Psychiatric Drugs, and the Astonishing Rise of Mental Illness in America. Random House, Inc.. Kindle Edition.

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Megan said:

Here is an interesting excerpt from Anatomy of an Epidemic by Robert Whitaker that characterizes schizophrenia in the days just before Thorazine came on the market.

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H-kqge said:

Ennio on Today at 04:27:52 AM said:

Even leaving aside such special information as the C's sometimes provide, it still amazes me how far off the conventional wisdom is about treating certain conditions and how unwilling many are to think outside the box a little bit - even if what's being done is already being shown NOT to be working.

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That's what does it for me. What they've always done hasn't/doesn't work, they claim to be in serious pain or suffering, then they'll ask me for advice on their physiological symptoms, (those that have asked for my input) i point to their obvious diet issues (if they bother giving necessary details) & encourage them to look at some of the collected info from respected peer-reviewed journals from around the globe which i condensed for ease & clarity. And they can't be bothered to read a few pages! Worse, i inform them that the early transition yields very quick results for (at least partially at first) confirmation of sensitivities - elimination diet. Still nothing. I use myself as a direct example, one with many sensitivities & hereditary stuff & how dramatic the changes have been & continue. All to no avail.

So from what some have said on the forum, it seems that these people aren't really in pain or suffering. I think that they probably need to suffer more than most members of this forum, just to trigger the need for exploration of objective truth. Sadly it seems that this applies to a great many.

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Megan said:

Of course these studies do not take into account factors among schizophrenics such as grain sensitivity/toxicity and other issues relating to living in unnatural ("civilized") conditions, so they only hint at what is possible under the right circumstances. Unfortunately, for many of us, it is not really possible to live in a natural environment but much can still be done.

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SMM on Today at 11:45:10 AM said:

It seems there are some who can live for years, or a lifetime, without exhibiting any real sign of suffering or having it affect their lives. Since it doesn't rock the boat or interfere with their comfort or self-interest, exploration doesn't cross their minds when the opportunity presents itself.

Sorry to hear about your mum & aunt also H-kqge.

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H-kqge said:

My mum was officially diagnosed as wheat-gluten intolerant (dunno if they couldn't make their minds up, it's supposed to be one or the other isn't it?)

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ignis.intimus said:

Megan said:

Here is an interesting excerpt from Anatomy of an Epidemic by Robert Whitaker that characterizes schizophrenia in the days just before Thorazine came on the market.

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Sounds like a really interesting book Megan, I smell an up-and-comer to the book discussions going on at meet-ups.

Did the author provide comparisons to what the discharge and recovery rate/time-frame for schizophrenics are today?

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sarek said:

Thank you everyone, you are all amazing. And yes, she is vegetarian and on top of that has many other eating issues also. I am going to dive deep into this and pass it on to her.

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