How to Live With Schizophrenia [Englisch] [Taschenbuch]

The United States Patent Office delayed issuing a patent on the Wright brothers' airplane for five years because it broke accepted scientific principles. This is actually true. And so is this: Vitamin B-3, niacin, is scientifically proven to be effective against psychosis, and yet the medical profession has delayed endorsing it. Not for five years, but for fifty.

In 1952, Abram Hoffer, PhD, MD, had just completed his psychiatry residency. What's more, he had proven, with the very first double-blind, placebo-controlled studies in the history of psychiatry, that vitamin B-3 could cure schizophrenia. You would think that psychiatrists everywhere would have beaten down a path to Saskatchewan to replicate the findings of this young Director of Psychiatric Research and his colleague, Humphrey Osmond, MD.

You'd think so.

In modern psychiatry, niacin and schizophrenia are both terms that have been closeted away out of sight. And patients, tranquilized into submission or Prozac-ed into La-La Land, are often idly at home or wandering the streets, where either way it is highly doubtful that they will get much in the way of a daily vitamin intake. Those in institutions fare little better nutritionally. For everyone "knows" that vitamins do not cure "real" diseases. (http://www.doctoryourself.com/hoffer_paradigm.html)

But Dr Hoffer dissents. For half a century Dr Hoffer has dissented. His central point has been this: Illness, including mental illness, is not caused by drug deficiency. But much illness, especially mental illness, may be seen to be caused by a vitamin deficiency. This makes sense, and has stood up to clinical trial again and again. If you do not believe this, this book will provide you with the references to prove it. And remember that it was Dr. Hoffer who started off those clinical studies in the first place. In 1952.

Dr. Hoffer explains the mechanics of how niacin works against schizophrenia. There is a chemical found in quantity in the bodies of schizophrenic persons. It is an indole called adrenochrome. Adrenochrome (which is oxidized adrenalin) has an almost LSD-like effect on the body. That might well explain their behavior. Niacin serves to reduce the body's production of this toxic material. (http://www.doctoryourself.com/hoffer_psychosis.html)

That Dr. Hoffer can compress a lifetime of research experience into one readable and surprisingly short book is a tribute to how clearly he teaches both layman and physician the essentials of niacin treatment. I have taught nutritional biochemistry to high school, undergraduate, and chiropractic students. To most, it is not an especially gripping subject. But when even a basic working knowledge of niacin chemistry can profoundly change psychotic patients for the better, it becomes very interesting very quickly.

Dr. Hoffer has treated thousands and thousands of such patients for nearly half a century. At 87, he still is actively practicing orthomolecular (megavitamin) psychiatry. He has seen medical fads come and go. What he sees now is what he's always seen: that very sick people get well on vitamin B-3.

(Additional books by Dr. Hoffer are posted at http://www.doctoryourself.com/biblio_hoffer.html)

Dr. Hoffer is a brilliant and extensively published author in both journals and books. His writing is very clear and he doesn't hide complexities. This book is no exception. My only complaint is that his writing does not divide topics very well for easy digestion. His mind is full of facts, and he types what he thinks.

The primary orthomolecular approach to schizophrenia is niacin or niacinamide (vitamin B3) in > 2 g/d doeses. In double-blind trials, 3 grams of niacin daily resulted in a doubling in recovery rate and a 50% reduction in hospitalization. Later double-blind trials did not reproduce the positive results, but Hoffer contends these trials were poorly designed. Subsequent research has been too meager to quote.

There are several complexities to niacin therapy. It must be at least 3,000 mg per day in divided doses. It must not be "time release" forms made by pharmaceutical companies that are dangerous and the root cause of the irrational fears of niacin. There are several forms of niacin. Make sure you follow Dr. Hoffer's guidelines. It's most effective if the patient's schizophrenia is a fairly recent development. Ignoring these issues is probably why some studies are negative.

Please keep in mind there are websites dedicated to trashing megavitamin therapy. They modify other's writings from 1998, change the wording a little, and pretend it's their own recent writing. They then copy and paste the same negative plagerism under several of Hoffer's books. On their web site they reference journal articles "disproving" megavitamin therapy but when you take a closer look, they are often not related to the issue at hand.

Doesn't it seem strange they have to go back all the way to 1973 to find a legitimate and relevant negative reference? That's over 30 years ago. Dr. Hoffer has done a lot of research since then. At 88 he's still mentally active, publishing, and treating patients. His research in the 1950's that showed niacin improves schizoprenia was the first double-blind study in psychiatry. Dr. Hoffer has been trying to make psychiatry a science for a long time, but the influence of money has been a much tougher opponent than ignorance and Frued.

Here's a 2003 interview of Dr. Hoffer:

http://www.lef.org/magazine/mag2003/jan2003_report_hoffer_01.html

I feel I should offer a rebuttal to szwebmaster The report referenced by szwebmaster is the 1973 APA psychological report, a report full of errors, misleading statements and poor arguments. Hoffer has claimed that Niacin & vitamin C works best on acute schizophrenics, the 1973 report used niacin alone on chronic schizophrenics. It sounds like a minor issue, but the biology of schizophrenia and its treatment varies for the two. Hoffer wrote a well thought out retort to the 1973 report entitled `Megavitamin Therapy in reply to The American Psychiatric Association Task Force Report on Megavitamin and Orthomolecular Therapy in Psychiatry.' In it he details all of the misleading statements of the APA report, and I urge everyone here to actually read the 1973 report and its rebuttal. In fact, after reading this retort JR Wittenborn, one of the six authors of the APA report conducted a test of niacin using Hoffer's parameters (acute schizophrenics) and found positive results (A Search for Responders to Niacin Supplementation). Naturally none of the skeptics reference that study. Hoffer claims his theories have helped over 100,000 patients with niacin. Should we discourage all of them to throw their treatments in the trash? PS the methodological flaws referenced by the APA report are mainly a lack of double blinds, which is not only false (hoffer conducted double blinds) but which Hoffer had trouble with due to the Niacin flush.

There was a drug for schizophrenia first discovered over 50 years ago, but because it was a medication unrelated to mental illness nobody wanted to use it. Doctors laughed at other doctors who prescribed it and many in the medical community wrote off how effective it was. However for the doctors willing to shrug off the criticism of the skeptics and who tried it noticed massive improvements. This drug was just an antihistamine, how could it treat schizophrenia? That drug was called thorazine (thorazine was originally an antihistamine), and it started the revolution that led to antipsychotic medications which has helped millions of people. Where would we be if we had just written off thorazine because it was `just an antihistamine'? Why is this better than writing off niacin for being `just a vitamin'? Would we be better off today as a community of medical patients if we had let the skeptics win on that battle? Would we have geodon, abilify or risperdal today if we hadn't fought back against the medical dogmatists fifty years ago?

All I know is my feelings of unreality, my magical thinking and my paranoia are not present now that I am on niacin therapy. No error laden, misleading study written 34 years ago is going to make me feel like I'm not better or take away the fact that I can function better. Schizophrenia is a horrible disease, and it is too important for us to stop looking for every treatment we can find. Instead of believing me or szwebmaster actually ask a schizophrenic on niacin therapy what their experience is/was.