Volume 10

To The Editor:

The following is a submission I made in de-fence of Orthomolecular Medicine/Psychiat-ry to a Medical Benefjts Revision Committeewhose plan it was to make food allergies,vitamin/mineral assays "screening tests" andnot eligible for government subsidy/healthfund payments. I was given 15 minutes topresent mV case:

Orthomolecular Psychiatry (as defined byme in The Australian Medical Journal, July

a'14, 1979, p.40, and noted in lndex Medicus,March, 1980) "is the study of genetic, metab-olic, endocrine, immunological and toxicdisturbances that are contributing to, per-petuating, exacerbating or even causing thepsychiatric sym ptomatology''.

The other half of the definition which is

often left out when people criticize ortho-molecular psychiatry, and to distinguish itfrom biological psychiatry where usually vit-amins, minerals, food allergies are notmeasured, is as follows:"lt is the investigation of vitamin (coen-

zyme) levels, mineral (cofactor) levels (ortoxic levels of lead, copper and so on), hor-mone levels (we can't measure endorphinlevels, exorphin levels, or prostaglandinlevels at the moment), immunoglobulinlevels (especially lgA and lgM), electrolyte

REPRINTED FROMThe Journal of Orthomolecular Psychiatry

Pubtication Office: 2229 Broad Strcet, Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada, 54P I Y7. Published

Quarterly. Reproduction without permission is prohibited.

Letters to the Editor

qe2Number 1

levels (especially bicarbonate, calcium, (and)blood sugars, and so on). What can be cor-rected is corrected and the patient is fol-lowed up regularly."

Such a definition was not challenged byProfessors of Psychiatry, the College of Psy-

chiatry, the Fund Directors or the Common-wealth Health Department and is acceptedinto the world literature and well accepted

by orthomolecular psychiatrists here andoverseas. lt clearly states any organic factorsthat could be causing the psychiatric symp-toms become the concern of the ortho-molecular psychiatrist including vitamin andmineral deficiencies and food allergies.

The medical literature is full of organicconditions presenting as psychiatric symp-toms and I refer to "Medical Screening ofPsychiatric Patients" by Earl Cardner andRichard Hall, Journal of Orthomolecular Psy-

chiatry, Volume 9, No. 3, pp. 2O7-215,

where they look at the incidence of medicaldisease in psychiatric patients and state the"following conclusions seem justified for thestudy:

1. Approximately B0 percent of state psy-

chiatric hospital inpatients have some med-ical illness requiring treatment.

2. lt is difficult to distinguish physical dis-

orders from functional psychiatric disorders

29

oRTHOMOLECULAR PSYCHIATRY, VOLUME 10, NUMBER 1 , 1981 , Pp.29-34

on the basis of psychiatric symptoms alone.3. A large percentage of patients admitted

to a state psychiatric hospital have previous-

ly undiagnosed medical illnesses whichcause or exacerbate their psychiatric symp-toms.

4. The endocrine and central nervous sys-

tems are the physiological systems of thebody most often associated with medical ill-nesses which cause or exacerbate psychiat-ric symptoms.

5. Patients with medically determinedmajor psychiatric symptoms are most oftendiagnosed as suffering from schizophreniaor depressive disorders.

6. The vast majority of medical illnesses

which cause or exacerbate psychiatric symp-

toms respond rapidly to treatment withmedication.

7. A combination of complete psychiatrichistory, indepth physical and neurologicalexaminations, SMA-34 blood chemistry,electrocardiogram, routine urinalysis, and

sleep deprived electroencephalogramshould be considered the minimum stand-

ards for the medical evaluation of all pat-ients being admitted to an inpatient psy-

chiatric facility."Also in the Archives of Psychiatry, Volume

37, September 1980, pp. 989-995, Hall et al.

state: "One hundred patients of lower socio-economic class were intensively evaluatedmedically on a research ward for the pre-

sence of unrecognized medical illnesses thatmight have affected their hospitalization.Forty-six percent were thought to have med-

ical illnesses that directly caused or greatly

exacerbated their symptoms and were con-sequently responsible for their admission,while an additional 34 percent of patientswere found to be suffering from a medicalillness requiring treatment. A diagnostic bat-

tery of physical, psychiatric, and neurologicexaminations, coupled with a 34-panel auto-

mated blood analysis, complete blood cellcount, urinalysis, ECC, and sleep deprivedEEC established the presence and nature ofmore than 90 perceht of the illnesses de-

tected, and is therefore recommended as an

initial evaluation battery, particularly for pat-

ients facing involuntary commitment to a

mental hospital."

30

The cases listed include 56 schizophrenics

where such things as folic acid deficiency,malnutrition, hypoglycemia, iron deficiencyanaemia, thyroid, liver, and adrenal dis-

order, infections, toxic metal poisoning andrenal disorder caused or exacerbated sym-

toms. The same applied to other disorderssuch as depression, manic depression,personality disorders and organic brain syn-

dromes and such autoimmune diseases as

Hashimoto's thyroiditis, parathyroid disord-er, and adrenal disease. Thus not surpris-ingly when I looked at chronic long termpatients in Ward 5, North R-yde PsychiatricCentre, 1973, using some of the tests, I in-

creased by 10 fold the discharge rate from12 per year to 120 per year at a time whenBO patients in hospital a year cost the state amillion dollars - thus saving 1.5 milliondollars in 1973.

The vitamin profiles provided free at thetime by Roche Laboratory showed that of 1B

schizophrenics looked at (1) 17118 (94-5ok)

were low in Vitamin C; (2) 15118 (83.2%\

were low in Vitamin 81; (3) 13118 (72-2%)

rvere low in 86; (a) i3ll} (72.2%) were lowin Vitamin A; (5) 11/18 (62%) were low infolic acid and 6i1B (33.3',6) were low inVitamin 812 - of these none were anaemic,hence article on Latent Pernicious Anaemia,

original article, Australian Medical Journal,

January 25, 1975. Note 33 percent had fivevitamin deficiencies; 50 percent had four; 16

percent had three and only one percent had

one.-Patient (S1 2) came to the ward on 120

mg/day of Stelazine and exfoliative derma-titis and left a few months later mainly onlMl812.

Patient (56) left hospital after twelve years

in hospital and did well on lMl 812 for six

months and vitamins, was working, and thenthe community psychiatrist ceased her injec-

tions because he thought she was so well,

sending her back into hospital where she

has remained since 1973. She was also dev-eloping anterior lens changes from largactiland had severe iron deficiency anaemia sev-

eral months before discharge and hypogam-maglobulinaemia. At one stage her maintreatment was ECTx3/week.

Patient (S2) left hospital after three years

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

on high doses of fluphenazine enanthateweekly and tofranil daily, only needing 81,folate, Vitamin C and remained out of hosp-ital for a year travelling overseas but re-lapsed after returning and going off hervitamins.

Those patients tested before treatmentwith TAT, WAIS, Rorschach and CrahamKendall memory scale all showed improve-ment .on the vitamin treatment after sixmonths. Tony Diment (Sydney UniversitySchool of Psychology - unpublished).

It was several years later that the true mal-absorption was learned. See table of food al-lergies in 20 male and 20 female schizo-phrenics tested by cytotoxic testing. Note inthe females 70 percent were allergic tocow's milk, and 70 percent allergic to glutencontaining foods especially wheat, malt,oats, rye (this is exactly what Dohan found).Fifty-five percent of males were allergic tocow's milk and gluten containing foods.Thus of the 40 schizophrenics:

Percentage Allergic to62 cor,r/s milk and gluten

Hence my letter in ARAFMI newsletterAugust 1980 and conclusion. "Thus I can sayschizophrenia is a treatable/reversible or-ganic illness that results from a genetic ten-dency to have gluten/ agliaden/ acasein(and toxic components of yeast, eggs, curryand many other foods) intolerance/hyper-sensitivity resulting in malabsorption for vit-amins/minerals/amino acids/tendency tohypoglycemia, and acidosis and defectiveimmune system associated with abnormallgM, lgA levels in particular and autoanti-bodies (especially reticulin and bile ductantibodies) and complement defects.

The treatment involves total avoidance ofthe food allergies, correction of the low vit-amins/minerals/hypoglycemia/acidosis andthe patient will need less and less tranquil-izers until within six to 1B months they areusually not required at all."

Similarly, looking at severely ill patientswith neurasthenia/depression/arthritis/mi-grain/early hair loss and host of other pro-blems I picked up seven 5LE's confirmed bybiopsy and another 2S still to have biopsybecause immunologically/clinically theyhave SLE (i.e. high ANF titres, elevated dsDNA, immune complex abs, anti lympho-cyte abs, otherautoantibodies and low com-plements). Unfortunately one patient hadbeen ill for 29 years; another for 10 yearsand was deeply depressed, had not res-ponded to tryptanol for the last three yearsand was on 12 Tolvon/day, two Noctec andthree Altorvite and about to have myelo-

107.57.57.57.57.57.57.57.57.55

5

2.52.52.52.5

porkgreen beans

applesfish

peaspeanuts

soya bean

Srapestea

barleyhops

chickensafflowerbananas

datesrice

35252522.422.522.520202017.517.51515151512.512.512.512.512.512.510101010

containing foodsyeast

mushroomswheatcurrymalt

orangescoffee

aoo- trl,rye

chocolategingergarlicoats

tomatoeslamb

prawnskimmed milk

cane suSarbeefbran

pineappleonions

cornpotatoes

sunf lower

31

ORTHOMOLECULAR PSYCHIATRY, VOLUME 10, NUMBER 1 , 1981 , Pp' 29'34

cord tumour stre didn't travegram Tor a-sprnal^and advised b have

fsychosurgery which she didn't want. She

not only had SLE but also low vitamins,

minerals and food allergies and is now off all

osvchiatric medications.' They are doing well on a milldgluten free

diet and correctlon of their vitamin and min-eral deficiencies. Most not needing corti-sone.

The prevalence of SLE is two to three per

100,000. Most recent estimates indicate that77 percent of patients with SLE survive fiveyears and thus 23 percent or more than onefifth die before five years. (Harrison textbookof medicine 9th edition.) Thus to see as

many SLE patients as I have seen, you wouldnormally have to see half a million people.

ln July 1980, to assess the efficacy of ortho-molecular treatment and the effect on re-

ducing not only psychiatric symptorns^ butalso somatic/physical problems such as arth-ritis, proneness to infections, etc. and eval-uate cost effectiveness, I sent out a quest-ionnaire to my patients and 558 persons re-

turned it by '1 .10.80. See table.Note: oi 39 conditions treated 1439

(35.87o)showed between 90 and 95 percentimprovement and 21139 (54%) between B0

and 85 percent improvemeht and only 4/39(10%) improvement rate of 74toBO percent.

Thus 90 percent of 39 symptoms listed

showed an improvement rate of betweenBO and 95 percent. Also note the followingfindings:

163 patients admitted to psychiatric med-ication at commencement of orthomolecu-lar treatment

1 now takes more21 take the same amount42 take less29 take much less65 take none at all

.617012.880/0

28.83%17.8o/o

39.88o/o

87 patients admitted to hospitalization forpsychiatric reasons in 5 years prior to treat-ment. Of these

4 had almost continuous treatment for 5 yrt had almost continuous treatment f or 2 yrt had daily treatment for B monthst had weekly treatment for 5 yearsa total of 38 visits for othersa total of 3,521 weeks treatment for the

32

rest

12 patients admitted to hospitalization forpsychiatric reasons since treatment com-menced. Of these

1 still has continuous treatment2 commented that they each had one visita total of 41 weeks for the others

23 patients admitted to hospitalization forphysical reasons in 5 years prior to treat-ment, Nil since commencement of ortho-molecular treatment.

General Physical Health272 are less prone to infections234 show fewer white dots in nails (cor-

relates with malabsorption for 86 and zinc)

195 have less acne, better skin/hair/nails125 have less sinusitis110 have less indigestion106 have less diarrhoea105 have fewer mouth ulcers102 have less constipation98 are less underweight/have been able to

put on weight97 had fewer cramps89 have fewer palpitations (heart racing)89 have fewer migraines75 have less rash/dermatitis75 are less obese/overweight72have fewer cold sores (herpes)67 have less premenstrual tension62 have less arthritis48 have less asthma14 have fewer epileptic turns

The orthomolecular approach has helped293 in their general physical/mental health

so they have fewer complaints202 to make new f riends201 in their ability to exercise201 to take new interests'l 85 in their school situation135 in their work situation126 ro renew old interests not previously

possible

ConclusionThe above strongly supports the literature

in the relevant tests done for the correctdiagnosis and correct treatment and thus

t

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

management of the patient is essential andmandatory and orthomolecular psychiatryas defined by me is an effective cost saving,

Dr. Chris M. ReadingB.Sc., M.8., 8.S., M.R.A.N.Z.C.P.

Pacific Medical Center8 Pacific Parade

Dee Why 2099 Australia

TABLE 1

THE FoLLOWING FIGURES WERE DERIVED FRoM A oUESTIONNAIRE SENT OUT ON THURSDAY 17th JULY 1980 To ALL PAST AND PRESENT

PATIENTS (TOIAI 1230). THE PATIENT GAVE DETAILS OF CONDITION TREATED AND PERSONAL OPINION OF PROGRESS,

even life saving form of therapy and helpinga wide variety of conditions.

Condition Treated

ConcentrationLess angry/irritableTense/anxiousChronic lack of energyDepressionMemorylncreased f rustration toleranceChange to more pleasant personalityN4otivation

Learning difficultiesLess shy/self consciousConfusedCo ordinationLess indecisionHeadacheslnsomniaTendency to make mistakesFearfulEehavioural problemsHyperactive problemsSleep disordersLose thingsPanic attackslrational fearsSuicidal ideas/attemptsLibido/sex driveObsessionallrational ideas

PhobicOdd behaviourDepersonalisationViolenceDerealisation8ed wettingSeeing imaginary thingsHearing imaginary voicesAutistic problemsAlcohol abuseDruq abuse

No of Patients Extremely Goodwho Commented Good Progress Proqress

Fair NoProgress Progress

Problem % Showingls Worse lmprovement

407331

321309302291241

266260

220

220211216

195182183181

154152141133113105100100

81

807-7

655445424031

2924

90 16980 14674 144

112 118111 12557 11556 131

7A 11580 8656 91

50 101

61 8057 9061 8484 71

61 7638 1549 7542 8041 1253 582a 5045 4737 4356 2424 2933 2021 33

29 26

27 2726 2323 13

21 I24 1019 11

14 613 tt6 5

113 3380 2384 2062 1647 17

85 3278 145'41812 2066 2355 14

4A 3059956 1537 1933 2246 2040 1644 1231 I23 1543 1926 1520 11

14 9

21 2326 11

15 8

11 I19 5

13 I67'15 3

10 5

345364622

2251

2221

2

3

1

2

4

91.492.44

94.593.788.3294.31

92.869't.5489.1 293.3685.9194.9393.0589.387.1 887.3689.6291 .71

93.5188.1685.8248.7288.549.52747944.24

88.89

88.7587.0184.6194.4488.8988.1

87.583.8789.6695.83

A total of 558 persons returned the questionnaire bV 1 .1 0.80.Of that number.

353 had seen General Practitioners about the above problem before beinq referred here.1 1 0 had seen Paediatricians about the above problems before being referred here.1 89 had seen Psvchiatrists about the above problems before being refered here.1 63 had seen other specialists/counsellors about the above problems before beinq referred here

33

5