Chemical Concepts of Psychosis: Historical Contributions.

Abstract

Floating on a raft of the present, we glide or are buffeted downstream in our segment of time. Childlike, most of us dabble our hands over the side and splash idly, preoccupied only with the immediate glitter and swirl of the water. Yet we can stand up, if we will, and look backward through the mist toward the bend or headland from whence we came, or, with more difficulty, peer into the shrouded future. History consists of those peerings and glances backward and forward.It is salutary, when one is furthering a favorite notion, to look back a few decades, a few centuries, even a couple of thousand years. As the distance increases one sees through the murk only blurred shadows of those who have engaged in the controversy. And one realizes that in a few more decades, centuries and another couple of thousand years, that is how we shall seem, and our bravest arguments will be cold ashes. Yet sometimes, as the disputed details are erased, the outline becomes sharper and is silhouetted in the distance. So it may be with the chemical theories about mental illness, of which schizophrenia is a particular example.Hippocrates of Cos (90) 1 was one of the first to suggest an endotoxic or at least a biological humoral factor in mental illness. He preferred, with Greek reasonableness, a hypothetical physical factor 1 Parenthetical numbers refer to identically numbered works in the list of references appearing at the end of each paper.

The Serotonin Hypothesis of Schizophrenia: A Historical Case Study on the Heuristic Value of Theory in Clinical Neuroscience

“…Toxicologic theories assume that mental illness is caused by the direct or indirect action of toxins on the nervous system. These theories can be divided into two categories, depending on whether the hypothetical toxin is an endogenous or exogenous compound (Osmond, 1958).…”

A Critical Review of Endogenous Psychotoxins as a Cause of Schizophrenia

“…While a number of these have received wide support for a number of years, none is completely tenable. The adrenochrome hypothesis of the Saskatchewan group represents one such attempt (105). In 1952 Osmond and Smythies, later joined by Hoffer, were impressed by the role of the adrenals in schizophrenia and with the structural similarity between adren aline and mescaline (a psychotomimetic).…”