ORTHOMOLECULAR PSYCHIATRY
ORTHOMOLECULAR PSYCHIATRY
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DOI：
10.1126/science.160.3825.265
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发表时间：
1968-01-01
期刊：
影响因子：
56.9
通讯作者：
PAULING, L
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
PAULING, L
大脑的功能受到大脑中通常存在的许多物质的分子浓度的影响。这些物质对一个人的最佳浓度可能与他的正常饮食和遗传机制提供的浓度有很大差异。生物化学和遗传学的论据支持这样一种观点，即正分子疗法，即为个体提供大脑中重要正常成分的最佳浓度，可能是许多精神病患者的首选治疗方法。维生素缺乏症的精神症状有时早在任何身体症状出现之前就已观察到。很可能大脑对重要物质浓度的变化比其他器官和组织更敏感。对于某些人来说，在血液和淋巴中的浓度基本正常的同时，生命物质的脑脊液浓度可能非常低。生理异常，如血脑屏障对生命物质的渗透性降低或脑中物质代谢速率增加，可能导致脑缺陷和精神疾病。这类疾病可称为局限性脑缺陷病。这表明，负责大脑中重要物质浓度异常（缺陷）的基因可能是负责精神分裂症假定基因的增加的原因，而所谓的精神分裂症基因本身可能是导致一种或多种重要物质的局部大脑缺陷的基因。
The functioning of the brain is affected by the molecular concentrations of many substances that are normally present in the brain. The optimum concentrations of these substances for a person may differ greatly from the concentrations provided by his normal diet and genetic machinery. Biochemical and genetic arguments support the idea that orthomolecular therapy, the provision for the individual person of the optimum concentrations of important normal constituents of the brain, may be the preferred treatment for many mentally ill patients. Mental symptoms of avitaminosis sometimes are observed long before any physical symptoms appear. It is likely that the brain is more sensitive to changes in concentration of vital substances than are other organs and tissues. There is the possibility that for some persons the cerebrospinal concentration of a vital substance may be grossly low at the same time that the concentration in the blood and lymph is essentially normal. A physiological abnormality such as decreased permeability of the blood-brain barrier for the vital substance or increased rate of metabolism of the substance in the brain may lead to cerebral deficiency and to a mental disease. Diseases of this sort may be called localized cerebral deficiency diseases. It is suggested that the genes responsible for abnormalities (deficiencies) in the concentration of vital substances in the brain may be responsible for increased penetrance of the postulated gene for schizophrenia, and that the so-called gene for schizophrenia may itself be a gene that leads to a localized cerebral deficiency in 1 or more vital substances.