Vital Nutritional Medical Textbook

This is one of the most important books on psychiatry ever written. It is not speculation that high doses of vitamins can effectively treat mental illness; it is a fact. In this authoritative volume, you have an entire textbook devoted to the subject. One might bear in mind that the principal editor of this book is no other than Linus Pauling, the only person in history to have won two unshared Nobel prizes. 36 contributing authors in thirty articles provide abundant scientific basis for aggressive use of orthomolecular (megavitamin) therapy, especially in psychosis. Though often technical, this book is a powerful response to those who insist, still, that RDA or RDI quantities of vitamins are quite adequate for all. Complete, from case histories to biochemical mechanisms, Orthomolecular Psychiatry, along with its many hundreds of included references, firmly establish very-high-dose vitamin therapy as the treatment of choice for schizophrenia, dementia, depression, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and related illnesses. Specific therapeutic guidelines are provided, with emphasis on the most important outcome: results. Most highly recommended.

Rating:


Interesting for historical reasons

An amazing collection of writings from some of the leaders of the "orthomolecular medicine" movement. It was co-edited by the movement's founder, Linus Pauling, who also wrote or co-wrote many of the chapters. Almost everything this book proposes in terms of diagnosis, causes and treatment of mental disorders has either never been supported or has been disproven by subsequent research.

This is not a book to read for information on mental disorders and their treatment - it is for historical reference only. Like an ancient Egyptian medical papyrus, it is fascinating reading but has little or no valid medical or scientific information. It does, however, explain where some of the current medical nonsense seen in "alternative" or "complementary" medicine got its start.

If you have an interest in medical history or the strange side-alleys of medicine, this is a book you'll want to have in your collection.

Rating:


Mis-information and disproven theories on Schizophrenia

Avoid this old book on long-disproven "vitamin cures Schizophrenia" theories - and buy a book by Nancy Andreasen or Irving Gottesman on the new genetics and genomics of schizoprhenia.

This book covers an approach which Dr. Abram Hoffer and others developed in the 1950s, but which by the 1970s was proven to be fruitless. The work of Dr. Hoffer and others is discussed in detail in the American Psychiatric Association Task Force Report, July 1973, which points out methodological flaws in the early work and reviews later studies which failed to show any benefit for such treatments.

In recent years, new medicines, with improved side-effect profiles and techniques to overcome problems with social and occupational functioning, have been well proven advances for the treatment of schizophrenia. Early intervention programs should prevent some of the serious dysfunction of the disease.

Serious illnesses like schizophrenia require proven treatments. Vitamin treatments as "alternative" therapy for schizophrenia should not be recommended.

Rating: