Novemeber 20, 2014
by Nick Fortino, PhD Candidate
(Orthomolecular.org) by Nick Fortino, PhD Candidate
(OMNS Oct 27, 2014) Schizophrenia is usually treated with prescription antipsychotic drugs, many of which produce severe adverse effects (1-6); are linked to an incentive for monetary profit benefiting pharmaceutical corporations (7-13); lack sufficient evidence for safety and efficacy (9, 14); and have been grossly misused (15-20). Orthomolecular (nutritional) medicine provides another approach to treating schizophrenia, which involves the optimal doses of vitamin B3-also known as niacin, niacinamide, nicotinamide, or nicotinic acid-in conjunction with an individualized protocol of multiple vitamins. The orthomolecular approach involves treating “mental disease by the provision of the optimum molecular environment for the mind, especially the optimum concentrations of substances normally present in the human body” (21).
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Evidence for the Niacin Treatment of Schizophrenia
Vitamin B3 as a treatment for schizophrenia is typically overlooked, which is disconcerting considering that historical evidence suggests it effectively reduces symptoms of schizophrenia, and has the added advantage, in contrast to pharmaceuticals, of mild to no adverse effects (22-35). After successful preliminary trials treating schizophrenia patients with niacin, pilot trials of larger samples commenced in 1952-reported in 1957 by Hoffer, Osmond, Callbeck, and Kahan. Dr. Abram Hoffer began an experiment involving 30 patients who had been diagnosed with acute schizophrenia. Participants were given a series of physiological and psychological tests to measure baseline status and were subsequently assigned randomly to treatment groups. Nine subjects received a placebo, 10 received nicotinic acid, and 11 received nicotinamide (the latter two are forms of vitamin B3). All participants received treatment for 42 days, were in the same hospital, and received psychotherapy from the same group of clinicians. The two experimental groups were administered three grams of vitamin B3 per day. Each of the three treatment groups improved, but the two vitamin B3 groups improved more than the placebo group as compared to baseline measures. At one year follow up, 33% of patients in the placebo group remained well, and 88% of patients in the B3 groups remained well. These results inspired many subsequent trials, and those that replicated the original method produced similarly positive results.
Antipsychotic Drugs
