2011 Revised Edition

Biology and Schizophrenia:

Examining the Evidence

by Thomas Mitchell Blaise Shepherd

Is there a biological cause of schizophrenia?

First, there is no conclusive evidence to support the claim that what physicians commonly call schizophrenia is a disease, nor is there any conclusive evidence to support the claim that it is an inherited condition, although there may indeed be a genetic predisposition.

Schizophrenia is believed by many experts, including psychiatrists and social critics like R. D. Laing, M.D. to be a behavior and bio-chemical reaction to the severe stress an individual encounters in growing up in a severely confusing home and community environment, in which the child’s parents and surrogate-parents fail to provide effective adult role modeling. In many instances, the parents’ primary sexual feelings are directed towards the child instead of towards each other. The child-adolescent thus finds himself or herself in a perpetual checkmate situation and is thus unequipped for handling adult responsibilities and dealing with adult interpersonal relationships.

One theory has it that the schizophrenic-prone individual, as well as the bipolar-prone individual, has an unusual biological sensitivity to environmental stimuli and either under reacts or over reacts to the disturbing behavior patterns of significant others – a parent, surrogate parent, sibling, classmate, neighbor or spouse. Such an individual has extreme difficulty modulating his or her reaction to such stimuli.

Such individuals commonly have extremely finely tuned hearing and are thus significantly affected or derailed by high decible noise levels that do not significantly affect others. At times, such individuals act as if they were deaf; at other times they may ‘jump out of their skin’ as it were. As a result, they have a tendency to withdraw – to move away from environmental situations – situations that destabilize their emotions. The schizophrenic-prone individual is in time thus likely to avoid crowds.

“We know that the biochemistry of the person is highly sensitive to social circumstance. That a checkmate situation occasions a biochemical response, which, in turn, facilitates or inhibits certain types of experience and behavior is plausible a priori,” says Laing in The Politics of Experience.

The individual labeled schizophrenic, whose view of normality has been skewed by his/her own home and/or neighborhood environment, commonly believes that behavior so-called normal people find to be meaningful is absurd. In short, so-called schizophrenics commonly believe that so-called normal people, not they, are the ones who are insane. Perhaps they (we) are correct in their (our) appraisal! Perhaps we’re all a little crazy, suggests the main character in William Faulkner’s As I Lay Dying!

Schizophrenia is a general label for a number of behavior or thought manifestations, to include: paranoid schizophrenia, hebephrenic schizophrenia, catatonic schizophrenia, undifferentiated schizophrenia, post-schizophrenic depression, residual schizophrenia, simple schizophrenia and schizoaffective schizophrenia. Individuals diagnosed with residual and simple schizophrenia do not present any significant evidence of hallucinations or delusions, although they are characterized by marked loss of interest in competition, in achieving goals and in extreme social withdrawal, largely as a result of their inability to sustain concentration on a fixed goal and to sustain satisfactory interpersonal relationships.

Schizoaffective schizophrenia, also known as schizo-affective disorder, is commonly diagnosed when an individual is observed to experience periodic mood-swings (hypomanic states) in conjunction with other milder symptoms of schizophrenia (not necessarily hallucinations). The term ‘emotional instability’ has also been substituted for the term ‘schizo-affective disorder’ by some diagnosticians. The term ‘emotional instability’ was commonly used by government psychiatrists during the 1950s and early 1960s in diagnosing Armed Services enlisted men whose symptoms were characteristic of what is today commonly termed ‘schizo-affective disorder.’

For diagnostic criteria for each sub-type as determined by the ICD (International Classification of Diseases) approach and by the DSM (Diagnostic Statistical Manual) approach, view the Counseling Resource Index.

Schizophrenia has also been divided into two types:

Type I schizophrenia is characterized by “positive symptoms,” to include hallucinations, delusions and disorganized behavior, and is hypothesized to be associated with poorly functioning neurotransmitters. A hallucination might best be defined as a recurring yet troublesome memory that overwhelms the individual – a bad dream that periodically resurfaces in one’s mind during one’s waking moments. A delusion might best be defined as a misperception of reality.

Type II schizophrenia is characterized by “negative symptoms,” to include withdrawal, apathy and attention impairment – a tendency to either under-respond or over-respond to environmental stimuli, and is hypothesized to be associated with structural abnormalities of the brain, especially in the frontal cortex. Some researchers have suggested that insufficient blood supply to the prefrontal cortex may be a factor. However, many individuals have a variety of mixed symptoms, both positive and negative, and naturalists suggest treating the symptoms with an improved diet (to feed the neurotransmitters) and moderate exercise (to stimulate blood flow to the brain), in lieu of drug therapy.

Schizophrenics, even though they may appear to be dull on the surface, often have superior levels of intelligence and they thus need to be encouraged and enabled to develop or improve trade or professional skills sufficiently so that they can become vocationally independent, as most schizophrenic individuals have great difficulty working in a group situation or in a subservient capacity.

In some instances, individuals diagnosed with schizophrenia display behavior characteristic of a form of autism known as Asperger’s syndrome. Such individuals, especially as children, tend to daydream excessively and have extreme difficulty with group sports -- especially in throwing a ball straight or in catching a ball.

In social situations, such children and adults tend to clam up – to remain relatively mute; or else they may dominate a conversation by restricting the conversation to a particular favorite subject of their own, frequently repeating themselves and going into great labyrinths of detail, indifferent to social clues that would indicate others are bored, confused or disinterested in their singular train of thought.

Such individuals tend to mature at a slower rate than others – severely lagging behind others in psychomotor, emotional and intellectual development.

Ironically, as adults they may surpass the average individual in their creative and intellectual capacity in certain areas of expertise in arts and/or science.

Generalized symptoms of schizophrenia include: ambivalence (contradictory thoughts); avolition (loss of interest in pursuing goals); alogia (speech that tends to ramble or that seems to others to be non-logical); delusions (ideas that cannot be substantiated by others as real); and hallucinations (seeing, feeling or hearing things that others do not see, feel or hear).

One of the best – and perhaps most brilliant – descriptions of the schizophrenic process is described in Part I, Chapter 1, ‘The Environment of the Schizophrenic’ and Chapter 2, ‘The Inner World of the Schizophrenic’ of the book How to Become a Schizophrenic: The Case Against Biological Psychiatry by John Modrow, a description shared by some of the leading spokespersons in the field of psychiatry, to include Henry Stack Sullivan, Ph. D., Theodore Lidz, M. D., Bertram Karon, Ph. D. (who writes the introduction to How to Become a Schizophrenic) and others. Part III of the book, ‘The Medical Model Reexamined’ is a very well researched critique of drug-oriented therapy. Don’t be spoofed by the ironic title and by the efforts of main-stream psychiatrists to pan the book. The book is highly critical of commonly accepted viewpoints regarding the cause and treatment of behavior commonly known as ‘schizophrenia.’

Part II of John Modrow’s book is autobiographical – his experience as a patient from the time he was a mere child. If you yourself are a patient, a relative or friend of a patient, or a therapist, I highly recommend that you purchase a copy of How to Become a Schizophrenic either from your book dealer or from Amazon.com/books. Once again, read Part I and Part III of the book, even if you read nothing else on the subject of schizophrenia or psychiatry. It is remarkably well written, remarkably insightful and well documented. It may safe your own life or the life of a loved one.

Another widely accepted description of the schizophrenic process is elaborated on in Understanding and Helping the Schizophrenic: A Guide for Family and Friends, written by Silvano Arieti, M. D., who is recognized as a leading authority on the subject of child development and schizophrenia and winner of the National Book Award for Science.

“The early environment of the child,” writes Arieti, “is certainly important and affects the rest of his whole life, including his proclivity to develop schizophrenia. However, this is only a part of the picture. Among the psychological causes of schizophrenia we must include the way the child experienced his environment. An undue sensitivity or a special biological predisposition probably made him react too strongly to some stimuli, especially to unpleasant ones. . . . his whole life history has to be studied. . . . social factors indeed affect the way parents relate to their own children . . . . mothers and fathers have at times been overcome with the difficulties of living . . . . the [schizophrenic] would spend his childhood in an environment in which relationships with other people were characterized by intense anxiety or hostility, by detachment, or by a combination of these feelings. . . .”

NOTE: Although auditory hallucinations (hearing voices that others do not hear) is behavior most commonly associated with schizophrenic behavior, the fact is that there is no objective test by which anyone can verify that another individual is actually experiencing auditory hallucinations. Probably less than 10 percent of individuals diagnosed with schizophrenia, including paranoid schizophrenia, even claim they experience auditory hallucinations. The opinion that they are suffering from delusions depends entirely on the subjective opinion of the individuals making the diagnosis. It bears repeating that there is no objective test for verifying that an individual is actually experiencing auditory hallucinations.

Society demands individuals repress or suppress their most basic human instincts. Religious dogma is commonly used by society to reinforce repression and suppression.

It is my own opinion, based on my own observations and life experiences, that virtually all people have a natural capacity for experiencing romantic and sexual feelings for others of the same sex. As members of a repressive society, we are thus socialized to deny the existence – the reality – of these feelings or experiences. The repression and denial can be highly stressful for certain individuals – especially for those more sensitive individuals who are unable and unwilling to conform to society’s artificial and somewhat barbaric concepts of masculinity or femininity – of gender role modeling – and is possibly an underlying factor in virtually all forms of schizophrenia, as well as in bipolar disorder and other diagnosed mental conditions.

However, it appears that there are multiple causes for so-called psychosis and schizophrenic-like symptoms, including: gene mutations, brain lesions as a result of injury, brain tumors or brain surgery and dependency on caffeine, tobacco, alcohol, amphetamines, cocaine and other psychoactive drugs. Because caffeine, tobacco and alcoholic beverages are legal, marketing advertisers typically fail to warn consumers of the fact that all of them are potentially dangerous psychoactive drugs and can indeed contribute to or exacerbate schizophrenic, as well as bipolar, episodes.

Cruel disparagement by significant others, especially while being closely confined with one’s tormentors for a lengthy period of time can result in psychosis or a schizophrenic reaction. This can take place within one’s family of origin, at a boarding school or while one is confined in a severely constricting civilian or military environment. The victim of cruel disparagement is usually an outsider of sorts or at the bottom of the so-called pecking order.

There is a great deal of pressure put on all people to compete, and individuals diagnosed with schizophrenia generally are those who are disinterested in competition. Typically, it is only when parents, peers, teachers, employers and spouses coerce or browbeat such individuals into competing in the rat race as it were, that the schizophrenic breaks down. That is my opinion, based on my own life experiences.

When I was in the second grade, my teacher sent me home with a note to my mother, expressing her opinion that I might be deaf. The fact is that I was periodically lapsing into trances, totally unaware that my teacher, Miss Crickard, or my classmates were speaking to me or attempting to get my attention. Apparently, I would be sitting quietly at my desk, my eyes wide open, staring into space. Once a hearing test was administered to me by the school nurse, indicating my hearing was fine, I gradually became aware of my trances only after I regained consciousness while sitting at my desk and noted that my reading section was seated in the group reading area at the front of the class.

There were several factors that may have contributed to my trace-like behavior or withdrawal:

(1) My mom was under a great deal of stress during and after her pregnancy, as she and my father became estranged and separated. Actually, he abandoned her, leaving her with two babies, my brother (a year older) and me.

(2) I ran a fever of 106 degrees at the age of six months, as a result of an ear infection, requiring the puncturing of my eardrums.

(3) I began receiving regular gonadotropin booster shots – treatments for a partial cryptorchidism (an undescended left testicle – a birth defect) beginning at age six; I underwent a surgical procedure known as an orchipexy at the age of 8, when my testicle was pulled down into the scrotum. While recovering from the surgical procedure I had a psychotic breakdown while in the hospital. The frightening paranoia I experienced (believing all hospital physicians and attendants were involved in a plot to kill me) was believed – by physicians – to have been triggered by the ether administered to me as an anesthesia prior to the surgical procedure.

(4) My mother suddenly switched careers from that of a receptionist, office manager and nursing assistant to a local physician, to that of a musical theatrical director, in which she was on the road – away from home for weeks and months at a time – in order to provide an adequate living for us.

(5) I had begun to feel very much different from other children because I did not have a mom and dad at home; thus, I spent a great deal of time fantasizing about having a mom and dad at home, during which moments I would apparently break off contact with my environmental surroundings while indulging my fantasy.

(6) I had become a repeated victim of battering by male and female classmates, who perceived that I was relatively complacent and therefore not likely to fight back. I had a significant and noticeable maturational lag in physiological and mental development.

(7) I had on several occasions witnessed my older brother being ganged up on and tortured by neighborhood children.

Ironically, the first individual that battered me, beginning while I was in kindergarten, was the grandson of the chief of police of my hometown. The battering began on the first day of school. Every time the teacher’s back was turned, he punched me in the arm. As a result, I was extremely fearful of returning to school the following morning. However, my grandmother accompanied me to school, where I continued my schooling. However, every once in a while, always while the teacher’s back was turned, I would be punched in the arm by same boy, who became aware that I would not respond to his assaults.

I was later battered in the face by the son of a lawyer and the grandson of a local judge, who perceived I was not likely to fight back. Still later, while I was on duty as a school patrol boy in the sixth grade, I was hit in the face by a female student, for no other reason other than the fact that female, who was accompanied by my girlfriend, was aware that I was a relatively complacent individual and not likely to do anything about it. It had become standard procedure for neighborhood children to batter either my older brother or me whenever they saw us. We had become, as it were, the neighborhood scapegoats, primarily because we had no father present in the home to act as a leveraging agent in the community and thus did not have a male role model to teach us appropriate methods for defending ourselves as males.

By the time I was a sophomore in high school, I had become a victim of repeated battering by other school “friends,” all of whom were well aware of the fact that I was not likely to respond in kind to the physical abuse of another. The term “in kind” means “in a similar manner” or “an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth.”

During my sophomore year in high school, two of my closest childhood friends and neighbors – a surgeon’s son and a funeral director’s son began abducting and tormenting me on an almost daily basis. They would encourage me to hang out with them, then (while we were alone) gang up on me and humiliate and batter me. On one evening in early 1954, when I was 15 years old, the two showed up on my doorstep, accompanied by a third so-called ‘friend’ who had once hurled a softball at me, hitting me in the face, prior to the start of a neighborhood softball game.

After the three of them rang the front doorbell, I opened the door to invite them inside, when I was pulled out of the doorway, slugged in the face and thrown to the snow-covered ground. In the process expensive orthodontic work – a stay plate used to support two missing adult lateral incisors (a birth defect) was damaged. Neither the three boys nor their parents (to include a surgeon, a funeral director and a department store manager) ever expressed remorse, nor did they offer any form of restitution for the assault and battery.

That particular incident was probably one of the most traumatic experiences of my adolescence and has remained a primary traumatizing psychic wound throughout my adult life, primarily because my so-called “friends” – all life long friends – afterwards spread malicious and false rumors about me throughout the community in order to justify their anti-social behavior and because they succeeded in afterwards persuading other classmates to avoid socializing with me. The incident also triggered the breakup of my mom's and stepdad’s marriage later that same evening, my stepdad’s resignation as treasurer of the electric power company several days later, and his suicide a year later.

It was indeed a catastrophic event that was triggered by a manipulative and sadistic senior varsity jock and ROTC student who encouraged the harassment and abuse of me by other students merely because I had, during a weekly ROTC inspection, truthfully reported to the inspecting officer that the reason I was out of uniform was the same senior ROTC student had demanded I hand to him my uniform cap only minutes prior to the weekly inspection.

My older brother and I were both of course severely handicapped by not ever having had a dad to provide us with affection and guidance, as well as protection. Although our mom remarried when my brother was 12 and I was 11, our stepdad merely further undermined our self-esteem as boys by failing to provide us with ongoing emotional support. He was a rather passive individual whose passivity was counteracted by my mom’s domineering attitude. He thus displaced his own feelings of inadequacy onto me, thus undermining my own self-esteem as a male by verbally emasculating me. I was his scapegoat. In the end, I became virtually everyone’s scapegoat.

When other children and adults are aware of the presence of a strong, stable and visible male role model in any home, others are less likely to pick on the child, as well as on the child’s female parents.

It bears repeating that from the onset of my life I have suffered immensely as a result of a severe maturational lag in physiological and mental development, as I never seemed to catch up with my peers. I had (and still have) a face that appears to be significantly younger than my chronological age. Many females have shunned me all my life because I failed to develop adequate male secondary sex characteristics. I have been repeatedly characterized by females and males as appearing ‘too young’ for my chronological age or as looking more like a teenage boy than a mature man.

This truth affected the way I was treated in the classroom, in the work place and in adolescent and adult recreational social situations. I have been shunned or humiliated and bullied (abducted, assaulted and battered) by others – those older than I, those the same age as I, as well as those younger than I – my entire life by members of every ethnic, religious and racial group, including my own. I am now 70 years old. I have suffered throughout my life what has been characterized by psychiatry as ‘severe ego impoverishment.’ There is no medical cure for such a state of mind, other than to avoid other people as much as possible.

As a young man, I was preyed on by virtual pedophiles – well-connected pedophiles – both Jewish and Gentile, to include a Roman Catholic World War II Marine-Navy Commander, fourteen years my senior, whose own dad had been a surgeon; and a group of well-connected Jewish businessmen who attempted to induct me into a prostitution ring, realizing that I was homeless, naïve, an ex mental patient and at an economic disadvantage. The police, in fact, were being paid by the Jewish businessmen to look the other way.

Unfortunately, I have never been adequately compensated by any individual or government agency for the ongoing abuse and resulting economic impoverishment I have endured, as all of my assailants and their associates have managed to cover up or suppress evidence of abuse, much of which took place while I was serving my country either as a civilian employee or as a member of the U. S. A. Armed Services, where I was repeatedly victimized (as an enlisted man) in a variety of forms of sexual assault and battery by my own comrades and by civilian females that take advantage of naïve, virtually powerless, young enlisted men (non-officers) in uniform.

There is little doubt about the fact that I have continued to lapse into states of unconsciousness (most likely an unconscious mechanism for escaping the unbearable psychological pain of rejection and humiliation by others) throughout my adult life, never aware at the time of my absent state of mind, although on some occasions I was later confronted by others with behavior I had either absolutely no recollection of or only a vague recollection of, unsure whether or not what had previously transpired was reality or a mere dream.

I myself first experienced hallucinations as a child following surgery to correct my birth defect. During my hallucinatory break from reality – during which I experienced terrifying paranoid delusions – I was of the impression that everyone that came near me – physicians and nurses included – was present in an attempt to kill me. The cause of the hallucinations was attributed by my physicians to the ether that was used as an anesthesia during the surgical procedure. The ether was sprayed by a female surgical assistant through a gauze mask that she placed over my eyes after my hands and legs had been strapped down on the surgical table. Because that surgical procedure failed, a second surgery was scheduled several days later, when gas was used as an anesthesia. Nevertheless, upon leaving the hospital, I continued to experience similar hallucinations at bedtime – on a regular basis.

About a year later, shortly after my grandmother and brother and I had put our mother on a plane bound for Santa Fe, New Mexico, where she was scheduled to direct as show for a Santa Fe civic organization, I experienced the most terrifying paranoid hallucination I had had since my hospitalization. I might here mention, that when our mother was away my brother had a habit of tormenting me endlessly whenever the two of us were alone. To make matters worse, the two of us shared a bedroom:

I had gone upstairs to my bedroom. As my maternal grandmother soon after followed after me and came into my bedroom to tuck me in, I flipped out. I was still standing, with my clothes on, yet it appeared to me that I was enveloped in a fog and that my grandmother’s intention was to kill me. I thus yelled at her, begging her to stay back. My brother apparently heard my scream and also came into my bedroom. I believed he too was going to try to kill me. I thus ran past the two of them, downstairs. As they followed after me, I remember running over to the fireplace mantle and attempting to climb up on an adjacent built-in bookcase.

Gram was ever so patient and gently coaxed me to relax, reassuring me that she was not going to harm me. I thus soon regained my ‘sanity’ and returned to my bedroom. She phoned Dr. Juliet Eliscu, a family pediatrician, who came out to our house and gave me a shot – a sedative. I went to sleep. When I awoke I was back to normal. However, the evening hallucinations at bedtime, while I was in my bed alone, just before falling asleep continued for years. I would believe the Venetian blinds of my bedroom windows were turning into pillows that would gradually enlarge in size until they enveloped the entire room, thus attempting to suffocate me. As the pillows covered my head, I screamed and somehow came out of my insane hallucination.

I did not learn until many, many years later that Grandmother Snyder’s own father, Tom Mitchell, my namesake, had died in the Kansas State Hospital for the mentally impaired. One of his nieces, Gram’s cousin, Marjorie Frampton Dobbs (the wife of Atlanta broker Samuel Candler Dobbs Jr.) had been in and out of mental hospitals most of her adult life.

I myself was first hospitalized for a schizophrenic reaction at the age of 20, while serving in the Coast Guard. In fact, most people are first hospitalized for a schizophrenic reaction when they leave home to attend college, to begin a career, to enter the military, or to find a spouse and get married, and find themselves unable to meet the demands of competing in a world that, for the schizophrenic, is overwhelmingly confusing and terrifying.

Psychiatrists and pharmaceutical companies that manufacture neuroleptic drugs to treat so-called schizophrenic reactions have tried for years to prove evidence exists for supporting a biological cause of schizophrenia. Although a combination of biological and environmental factors probably is the cause of schizophrenic behavior, evidence suggests that prescribed neuroleptic drugs are more of a nemesis than a remedy in treating schizophrenic reactions. Regular exercise, balanced nutrition and a stable and serene home environment is apparently the most feasible solution for living with schizophrenia or preventing schizophrenic reactions!

Television programming designed to provoke human emotions has been proven to trigger schizophrenic episodes in those predisposed to schizophrenia. The individual that develops a schizophrenic reaction is believed to be more sensitive to environmental stimuli than are other individuals. Schizophrenic-prone individuals are perhaps more easily swayed by suggestive, deceptive and subliminal advertising – advertising commonly designed to encourage the use of alcoholic beverages, caffeine products – products that are decidedly harmful to schizophrenic-prone individuals.

The dopamine theory of schizophrenia hypothesizes that the brain’s dopamine neurotransmitters are abnormally hyperactive in the brains of individuals labeled schizophrenic. However, other neurotransmitters, including norepinephrine, histamine and serotonin are also believed to be involved in schizophrenic behavior, as well as in bipolar behavior.

Neuroleptic drugs are used to suppress the production of dopamine and norepinephrine, two of the brain’s neurotransmitters that are believed to be overactive in persons diagnosed with schizophrenia. Other psychotropic drugs, SSRIs, are used to increase the production of serotonin. However, the drugs in fact do not do what the pharmaceutical companies claim they are supposed to do. In fact, the drugs seem to exacerbate symptoms of schizophrenia, as well as symptoms of bipolar disorder.

Since the building blocks of the brain’s neurotransmitters are the vitamins, minerals and amino acids found in food, a well-balanced diet rich in tryptophan, the primary building block of serotonin, and total abstention from caffeine, since caffeine activates the overproduction of dopamine and norepinephrine, and total abstention from alcohol, since alcohol reduces the production of serotonin, are now recommended as a preferable treatment of and prevention of schizophrenia.

Some experts, including Elliott Valenstein, author of Blaming the Brain: The Truth About Drugs and Mental Health, believe that schizophrenia is caused by prolonged and intense environmental stress, although pharmaceuticals, including amphetamine, LSD, antidepressants and neuroleptic drugs used to treat schizophrenia can actually induce, exacerbate or replicate the symptoms of schizophrenia.

However, caffeine, an amphetamine of sorts, which is known to stimulate the release of dopamine, as well as of norepinephrine, and alcohol, a depressant, which suppresses the formation of serotonin, can also induce or replicate symptoms of schizophrenia, as well as of bipolar disorder.

Studies have been done to try to determine whether so-called schizophrenics have abnormally active dopamine pathways, and some of the studies confirm that they do. Other studies confirm that while some schizophrenics have abnormally active dopamine pathways, other schizophrenics have abnormally inactive dopamine pathways.

Studies reveal that both normal subjects and subjects diagnosed as having schizophrenia have virtually the same reactions to neuroleptics and other psychotropic drugs, as well as to caffeine and alcoholic beverages, suggesting that hyperactivity in the dopamine system of individuals is probably a normal response of a normal brain to caffeine and neuroleptic drugs. Other studies reveal that certain individuals have a more intense reaction to caffeine, neuroleptics or other psychotropic drugs than others.

Thus, schizophrenia is viewed as caused by prolonged and intense emotional stress, although caffeine, alcohol, amphetamines, LSD and psychotropic prescription drugs can also induce or exacerbate schizophrenic symptoms.

The widely accepted dopamine theory is based on a study of fifteen sets of identical twins, using brain-imaging techniques (MRI). Scientists conducting the study found that in almost every case, the diagnosed schizophrenic twin had shrinkage of brain tissue while the normal twin did not. The scientists who conducted the study claim have proven a biological basis of schizophrenia. The scientific investigators assume that the cause of the brain shrinkage is the presumed disease of schizophrenia, although they do admit that neuroleptic drug and electroshock treatment may actually CAUSE the brain shrinkage or brain damage in individuals diagnosed with “schizophrenia.”

All but two of the patients tested in the study had been given massive drug treatment, averaging a decade or more, suggesting that neuroleptic drugs were the cause of the shrinkage of brain tissue.

Common sense and experimental evidence indicates that certain passionate states are associated with corresponding changes in brain function. Prolonged mental stresses of almost any kind, as well as physical trauma or stress, causes the brain to stimulate increased production of certain hormones, such as steroids, according to Peter Breggan, M.D. Conversely, if you are relaxing right now, your steroid output may decline. In each of these instances, the mental state influenced the brain, rather than vice versa.

We find the same results examining brain waves, says Breggan. If you are excited, with intense focus of your attention, your brain is likely to generate fast, low-amplitude electrical waves on the electroencephalogram (EEG). If you then relax, the EEG will show alpha waves –slower, with higher amplitude. In each case, the mental state influenced how the brain reacted, not vice versa.

Because the neuroleptics inhibit dopamine nerve transmission in the frontal lobes, should we suppose there’s something wrong with these areas of the brain? “Not at all,” says Breggan, author of Toxic Psychiatry, “we’ve seen that these drugs have the same effect on ALL people, regardless of their diagnosis of mental condition. They always inhibit passion and willpower. They even have this effect on animals.”

Breggan goes on to consider alcohol and its impact on us. “For many people, alcohol provides at least a brief sense of relaxation, and maybe even euphoria. Alcohol accomplishes this by impeding brain function, and, with chronic use, it disables brain cells and can kill them. Does this mean there is something wrong with these brain cells because people “feel better” when the cells are disabled or even dead? The same question may be asked in regard to the tranquilizing effects of nicotine in tobacco or the energizing effects of caffeine in coffee. Must we assume the prior existence of a defect in the brain in order to explain our “need” for nicotine or caffeine?”

Breggan’s findings are supported by Elliot S. Valenstein, author of Blaming the Brain: The Truth about Drugs and Mental Health.

Medical journalist Robert Whitaker has focused on deceptive advertising by pharmaceutical corporations that falsely promote neuroleptic drugs as a “cure” for schizophrenia, when in fact the drugs do not cure schizophrenia or any other diagnosed mental illness, but rather reproduce symptoms of encephalitis lethargica, colloquially known as sleeping sickness, a viral infection causing brain inflammation that leaves people apathetic, lacking the will to do anything, and with waxlike facial expressions.

Perhaps 100 percent of patients treated with neuroleptic drugs (Haldol, Thorazine, Stelazine, Clozaril, Mellaril, Zyprexa, etc.) resultantly suffer from extrapyramidal symptoms of some type. In addition to Parkinson-like tardive dyskinesia, akathasia (involuntary movements of the face, hands and legs), muscle stiffness, and blunted emotions, patients also suffer from impaired vision or blindness, fatal blood clots, arrhythmia, heat stroke, swollen breasts, impotence, obesity, sexual dysfunction, blood disorders, skin rashes, seizures, and should they reproduce, children with birth defects.

While patients treated with neuroleptics may appear to an observer to be sedated, they actually are experiencing intense anxiety and depression, and in many instances become more prone to violent behavior than patients not treated with neuroleptics.

Research by natural medicine experts indicates that at least some schizophrenics tend to have abnormally high histamine levels. Abnormally high histamine levels does result in a variety of allergies, to include hay fever. However high histamine levels can also result in psychotic symptoms. Thus, reducing the histamine levels with antihistamine foods can actually reduce or stave off psychotic symptoms. Read The Natural Medicine Guide to Schizophrenia by Stephanie Marohn.

Diphenhydramine hydrochloride is an antihistamine with a mild sedating effect. It can be helpful when used as a tranquilizer and/or sleep-aid, as it does NOT induce the dangerous side-effects that the prescription neuroleptics do. It is also far safer than prescription antidepressants. Antidepressants tend to provoke hypomanic episodes. Because it is far safer, the FDA has approved diphenhydramine for over-the-counter sales – commonly labeled a Benadryl or as an anti-histamine or sleep aid under a different brand name. It is also far less expensive. The FDA recommended adult dosage is from 25mgs. to 50 mgs. three or four times a day, as needed. Bottom line: diphenhydramine does not require a prescription from a physician and you can adjust the dosage to suit your needs – to prevent and abate over-reacting to troublesome situations – to thwart hypomanic episodes when you feel yourself losing control of your emotions. Getting a good night’s sleep – and even an afternoon catnap – is elementary.

Don’t get suckered into the deceptive billboard, magazine, on-line and television advertising that promotes the use of alcoholic beverages, coffee, tea, other caffeine products and other harmful drugs – especially harmful to schizophrenic-prone or hypomanic-prone individuals.

Avoid crowds. Schizophrenic-prone and bipolar-prone individuals tend to have extremely finely-tuned hearing and are more sensitive to noise, hostility and sarcasm than other people. They have a tendency to startle easily – to jump out of their skin when exposed to high decibel noise levels that do not seem to bother ordinary people, possibly as a result of congenital malformation of the hypothalamus section of the brain or early life damage to the hypothalamus section of the brain – an area that is believed to enable a normal individual to modulate his or her responses to environmental stimuli of various kinds.

Whitaker uses the term NIDS (neuroleptic induced deficit syndrome), to describe the nerve damage resulting from neuroleptic drug treatment that mimics Parkinson’s disease or encephalitis. Tragically, the debilitating symptoms of NIDS are in many instances irreversible.

Patients originally diagnosed with schizophrenia are sometimes rediagnosed by another physician and treated for bipolar disorder.

Lithium, a widely accepted stabilizer for individuals diagnosed with bipolar disorder can result in permanent damage to the thyroid gland (necessitating its removal) and actually exacerbate manic-depressive symptoms, resulting in full-blown psychotic behavior and suicide, as can Tegretol, Depacote, Trileptal (which technically is an anti-seizure drug) and other so-called “mood stabilizers” commonly prescribed by psychiatrists to treat bipolar disorder.

Kayla F. Bernheim and Richard R. J. Lewine, authors of Schizophrenia: Symptom, Causes, Treatments, conclude the following: For a time it seemed as if genetics would be shown to be the major determinant of schizophrenia. More recently, it has become clear that while genetics may be a necessary condition for many forms of schizophrenia, it is by no means a sufficient one. We are only now turning from efforts to show that schizophrenia has a genetic component to careful examination of what the predisposition might be and what environmental events are important in precipitating schizophrenia.

For one thing, caffeine and alcoholic beverages, the two most commonly used stimulants or mood-altering chemicals, can exacerbate schizophrenic and bipolar symptoms in individuals already diagnosed with schizophrenia or bipolar disorder, and can trigger schizophrenic and bipolar behavior in individuals not already diagnosed with schizophrenia or bipolar disorder.

The latest evidence suggests that environmental stress, coupled with caffeine and alcohol dependency, is the cause of hyperactivity of the dopamine system of the brain and increased steroid production, as well as the cause of a reduction of serotonin formation, and that prolonged environmental stress, coupled with caffeine and alcohol dependency can result in long-term, if not permanent brain damage.

The latest trend in psychiatric treatment is to identify and eliminate the environmental stress factors rather than to prescribe psychotropic drugs or shock treatment. Psychotropic drugs, which can actually induce or exacerbate psychotic or schizophrenic behavior, and shock treatment are now viewed more as a nemesis than a remedy in dealing with mental illness.

Lifestyle changes, including regular mental and physical exercise, improved nutrition [including foods rich in tryptophan, niacin and other B complex vitamins,] total abstention from alcoholic beverages, coffee and tea, and transcendental meditation are viewed as appropriate remedies for treatment of schizophrenia and other forms of mental illness, including bipolar disorder, attention deficit disorder and post traumatic stress disorder.

More About Caffeine, Alcohol and Nutrition

Caffeine interferes with normal neurotransmitter function by overstimulating the release of norepinephrine, dopamine and histamine. In individuals who have a predisposition to schizophrenia, the result can be disastrous. It is advisable to monitor yourself and to limit yourself to one cup of coffee in the morning.

Alcohol also interferes with normal neurotransmitter function by impeding the supply of the amino acid tryptophan to the brain and thus reducing serotonin formation. Serotonin is the neurotransmitter that enables us to relax, remain calm and to get a good night’s sleep. However, wine vinegar used as a condiment is OK. In fact, vinegar (of whatever source) is a recommended condiment for aiding digestion and for killing any harmful parasites in fresh salad greens.

It makes sense to avoid alcoholic beverages and caffeine products altogether. It also makes sense to consume a WELL-BALANCED diet of foods that are high in tryptophan and niacin. One of the best sources of tryptophan is the soybean (which contains all of the essential amino acids) and soybean products: soymilk and tofu. Shelled cooked soybeans and canned organic soybeans can now be purchased in the better supermarkets. Another excellent source of tryptophan is the potato, preferably baked with the skin and topped with olive oil, not with sour cream and margarine or butter. Nuts, especially cashews, are also a good source of tryptophan. However, nuts have a high fat content and salted nuts can increase sodium levels to an unhealthy level. Thus, it is best to avoid nuts as a snack.

Incidentally, tryptophan produces some niacin, once it is in the body.

Also consume coldwater finfish: wild salmon, mackerel and sardines. Canned wild salmon, mackerel and sardines (which contain tiny, edible bones) are not only high in omega-3 fatty acids, but they are also high in protein and calcium, they are low in saturated fat and they are an excellent source of niacinamide (an animal predigested form of niacin). Pure niacin (vitamin B-3) can only be obtained from vegetable sources or from vitamin supplements. Multiple B-vitamin supplements contain niacinamide. Pure niacin must be purchased separately. Pure niacin, not only helps to stabilize the nervous system, but it also has been proven to reduce LDL cholesterol and artery plaque, the cause of arteriosclerosis.

Folic acid is also necessary for healthy brain functioning: Sources of folic acid include: green leafy vegetables, soybeans, other beans, and broccoli and oranges. Zinc is also important in balancing the neurotransmitters and the hormones: Good sources of zinc include: oysters, salmon, mackerel, sardines, lima beans, soybeans, whole grain wheat and yogurt.

I now drink only non-fat dairy milk. Soy milk that is fortified with calcium and vitamin D is acceptable, except that soymilk is commonly sweetened with corn syrup.

Also, in order to stabilize and reduce your blood pressure to a healthy level, eat a couple sprigs of crisp celery and a clove of fresh garlic every day! You may surprise yourself to find that a couple sprigs of fresh crisp celery and a single clove of fresh garlic will, within only a matter minutes, significantly reduce your blood pressure. Thus, if a physician has recommended you take drugs for high blood pressure, first try lowering your blood pressure with celery and garlic.

If you practice eating a serving of soybeans, one or two small baked (red) potatoes with a dash of extra virgin olive oil as a topping, and serving yourself a juice drink twice daily of fresh fruit juice (no sugar additives) blended with carrots, garlic and celery, you will be amazed to see the improved results in your health, both mental and physical.

It is interesting food for thought that people tend to avoid the very foods that are perhaps most essential for stabilizing the nervous system and the circulatory system: they avoid onions and fresh garlic in order to avoid onion or garlic breath. They avoid beans, including soybeans, in order to avoid farting. They avoid potatoes, thinking that potatoes are fattening. Baked potatoes with a dash olive oil are NOT fattening. They are a very necessary and healthy source of carbohydrates. Carbohydrates, by the way, are absolutely necessary for transporting nutrients to the brain.

In addition, people tend to avoid drinking healthy beverages (non-fat milk and fresh fruit and vegetable juices) because they are inundated with advertising that URGES them to drink caffeine products, sodas and alcoholic beverages and because healthy beverages often are not available at lunch counters.

Tryptophan makes anyone sleepy. Thus, after eating a healthy lunch, anyone is inclined to become sleepy. However, if you can find yourself a place to relax and at least catnap for 15 to 30 minutes instead of drinking coffee to wake you up, you will be much more relaxed and mentally alert for the remainder of the afternoon!

Stay away from all margarines, except for canola based margarines! Use only extra virgin olive oil or canola oil as a salad oil or as a baking ingredient. Avoid all fried foods. Extra virgin olive oil is a monounsaturated fat, which does NOT oxidize, as do other vegetable oils and margarines. The avocado also contains monounsaturated fat. Once again, monounsaturated fat is a healthy form of fat that significantly reduces LDL cholesterol. It is nature’s protection against heart disease and cancer!

Commit Yourself to Sound Nutrition

Remember: If you want to stabilize your emotions and reduce your risk for developing heart disease, breast cancer or prostate cancer, then commit yourself to fresh fruits (including tomatoes and avocados), fresh leafy green vegetables, fresh garlic, crisp celery, extra virgin olive oil, soybeans, baked potatoes and steamed or baked (not fried) coldwater finfish!

Suggested Garden Drink: Using a blender, combine ⅓ cup non-fat milk, ⅓ cup orange juice or pure grape juice, one or two springs of fresh, crisp celery, carrots, a small tomato, one clove of fresh garlic, a handful of washed greens (e.g. spinach leaves), broccoli, grapes or strawberries or orange sections (ANY VARIETY OF THE ABOVE). Blend in osterizer for about two minutes. Substitute this drink (two or three times a day) for soft drinks, for coffee, for tea and for alcoholic beverages. EXCELLENT SOURCE OF FIBER!

Seafood Salad Loaf Recipe: Combine one 15-oz. can of wild salmon or mackerel or water-based tuna (include liquid), one cup of uncooked oatmeal, ⅓ cup non-fat milk, ½ cup chopped onion, green peppers and carrots, one tablespoon of lemon juice, ¼ cup of egg-beaters. Place in loaf dish and shape into loaf. Spread one or two small cans of tomato paste over top. Cover with vented plastic wrap. Microwave at high for approximately 10 minutes. Let stand, covered, for 5 minutes. Provides 4 to 6 servings.

Healthy Burrito: dice/chop precooked pieces of chicken breast, onions, tomatoes or pimentos, avocado and a little plain, non-fat yogurt and fold into an 8” or 10” warmed flour tortilla (preferably made without lard). Warm your tortilla on flat-iron grill (covered) for no longer than 2 or 3 minutes.

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