Nicotinic acid in the treatment of schizophrenias. Canadian Mental Health Association collaborative study. Progress report II

Abstract

Initially, the term 'megavitamin therapy' referred to the use of very large doses of vitamin B3 (nicotinic acid or nicotinamide) for the treatment of schizophrenia. Over the years it has evolved to include ascorbic acid, pyridoxine (vitamin B6), folic acid, vitamin B12, and other vitamins, minerals, hormones, diets and drugs. The theoretical basis for the use of vitamins in 'mega' doses has also shifted over the years. Initially, it was hypothesized that vitamin B3 acted as a methyl group acceptor which reduced the formation of an endogenous psychotogen. Today, it is argued that schizophrenia is an incipient form of cerebral pellagra based upon individually, idiosyncratic needs for exceptional quantities of vitamins of the B group. Furthermore, Pauling maintains that it is conceivable that schizophrenia is due to genetically idiosyncratic needs for exceptionally large doses of vitamins. He considers the schizophrenias as a group of illnesses with different biochemical aberrations. Prerequisites of treatment and recovery are the recognition and correction of the biochemical abnormality, a treatment which Pauling refers to as orthomolecular psychiatry. But by the same token, and taking into consideration that under normal conditions there is a balance among some of the vitamins in the organism, it may even be speculated that these negative therapeutic findings with nicotinic acid in the CMHA Collaborative Study are the results of an imbalance of vitamins due to the administration of excessive dosages of nicotinic acid.