Daring to Think Differently About Schizophrenia

New York Times ^ | 24 February 2008 | By ALEX BERENSON

[shrinkermd]

Great news if it works and works safely.

[ClearCase_guy]

I’m of two minds on this subject ...

[Slings and Arrows]

I’m enthusiastic, but the voices in my head are skeptical.

[ConservativeMind]

I really didn’t think the author did a good job setting up the introductory portion of the article.

However, the insight about glutamate is intriguing.

[#1CTYankee]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yU_JyGBDeIc

[Red Badger]

The voices in my head approve!............

[joshhiggins]

I put Monosodium Glutamate on everything I eat and I'm sane.

And so am I.

[Red Badger]

Chinese restaurants everywhere will now have signs:

NOW WITH DOUBLE MSG!...................

[Bear_Slayer]

Was that an American Idol band? They suck!

[John Robie]

This is good news. It is very sad to see people struggle with mental illness.

[Dr. Bogus Pachysandra]

I wonder if this drug would be useful in the treatment of autism????

[Ditter]

Note to self: Do not ever eat at Josh Higgins house.

[PurpleMan]

But, but, but....

I thought that the pharmaceutical companies, especially the big four - Merck, Pfizer, Glaxo SmithKline, and Eli Lilly, were the embodiment of corporate evil?

[sarasota]

I’m reminded of the film A Brilliant Mind and the potential for finding some semblance of peace; surely the wife gave him the strength and space he needed.

[Lucius Cornelius Sulla]

According to the film his will and the newer drugs both helped a lot!

[xJones]

surely the wife gave him the strength and space he needed.

The movie was idealized, to put it mildly. Nash's wife did everything possible for him, but she divorced him in the early '60s and they lived apart for several years. She took him back though, when he literally had no place else to go. Through the great kindness of the mathematical community he's made a great improvement, but the Nashs' only son is also diagnosed with schizophrenia now.

[adorno]

I thought that the pharmaceutical companies, especially the big four - Merck, Pfizer, Glaxo SmithKline, and Eli Lilly, were the embodiment of corporate evil?

Well, if they plan on making any money from that research and from the manufacturing of the drugs, then they are evil. But, if they don't make any money from the research and give away the drugs for free, then they will be viewed as saints.

[wideminded]

A relative of mine has been diagnosed with schizophrenia, although it appears to be a mild form. We have noticed that she thinks much more clearly when we get her to eat plenty of protein. I figure that she must need more of some particular amino acid than most people, but I don’t know which one. Maybe it is glutamate.

[Ken H]

A psychiatrist charged me $200 for a visit and told me I was schizophrenic. I paid him $100 and told him to collect the rest from the other guy!

[E. Pluribus Unum]

A guy I got my Chemistry degree with worked in a lab in the early seventies that was analyzing the dialysate from schizophrenics who had been placed on kidney dialysis in an attempt to isolate any chemical compounds that might be causing their condition.

Funny thing happened... the schizophrenics lost all their symptoms while on kidney dialysis, meaning their kidneys were evidently not removing some waste product from their blood that was causing their hallucinations.

The research was very promising, but since the purpose of all pharmaceutical research is to turn human misery into a drug-revenue stream, there was no obvious way to make money from any cure that might be found, so the project was shut down.