Did caffeine in cola lead to schizophrenia and murder?

GEORGIA MENTAL HEALTH
Unstable mental patients freed by flawed system
By Alan Judd
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Sunday, June 28, 2009
Chris Pak pleaded with doctors and nurses at the state psychiatric hospital. His sister, Na Yong Pak, was still psychotic, he said. If they let her go home, he was afraid she would kill herself or someone else – their mother, most likely, the frequent target of her schizophrenia-fueled rage.

Two weeks earlier, Georgia officials had pledged to use caution in discharging patients from its psychiatric facilities. Federal investigators had sharply criticized the state for releasing patients to homeless shelters and bus stops, street corners and abandoned buildings, with little hope for continuing treatment or, in some cases, survival.

Now, on a Friday evening in January at Georgia Regional Hospital/Atlanta, Na Yong angrily refused to sign her discharge papers. She cursed the nurse and swore she would not take her antipsychotic medication.

The doctor and nurse sent Na Yong home, anyway.

“That,” her brother would say later, “is when I knew hell was going to break loose again.”

Twelve days later, after she left Georgia Regional, authorities say, Na Yong doused her mother with gasoline, struck a match, and watched her burn. Myong Hui Pak, 58, died 10 hours later.

Na Yong, 32, is in the Gwinnett County Jail, charged with murder. Her case illustrates the deficiencies that plague Georgia’s mental health system and challenges the state faces in making corrections mandated after a federal civil-rights investigation of hospital conditions.
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"Her depression gradually turned darker. She yelled at people no one else could see. She would drink only Coca-Cola, but often threw nearly full cans on the floor and against the walls. She accused her mother of poisoning her food."
Link

Since 1953, we have known that adrenochrome malfunction - sometimes related to caffeine - can trigger schizophrenia. See research by Abram Hoffer here and here, as well as an in-depth investigation of caffeine and mental health in our previous post here.
Many young people have a break with reality under the stresses of establishing themselves as adults - while consuming empty calories or toxic foods. But with proper nutrition, vulnerable people's stories do not have to end in tragedy. Link

We would like to see an investigation into caffeine/cola as factors in this murder, though we wonder if the city that is the center of cola manufacturing would permit it.

Is Caffeine Driving You Crazy?

Drinking copious cups of coffee isn’t just bad for your health, it’s also more likely to drive you crazy, or at least crazy enough to hear voices. According to a study published in the academic journal “Personal and Individual Differences,” people who consumed the equivalent of more than seven cups of coffee per day (330 mg) were more likely to have hallucinations than those who consumed less than one cup (10 mg).

The articles link, link claim that they have not quite worked out why this is so. However, caffeine, an alkaloid, was known as a psychoactive to the Cherokee in America before written history,
and caffeine psychosis was identified in Western medical literature at least as early as 1936. Go here to see Blogger StoneSoupStation's great collection of coffee craziness links.

For decades, orthomolecular physician and psychiatrist Dr. Abram Hoffer has recommended elimination of caffeine from the diets of his schizophrenic patients - and they get well:

'The majority of scientists and psychiatrists subscribe to the dopamine excess theory of schizophrenia--that too much dopamine is largely responsible for the symptoms of psychosis. However, since 1952, Dr. Abram Hoffer, the founding father of orthomolecular medicine, has researched, published, and expanded upon the adrenochrome theory of schizophrenia. (1,2) He and his colleagues, Drs. Osmond and Smythies, came to this theory by studying and researching the effects of substances such as mescaline, lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD), and amphetamines--all of which can cause a clinical syndrome in normal individuals that would be clinically indistinguishable from schizophrenia.

Hoffer noticed that mescaline had a similar chemical structure to that of adrenaline, and since both can be converted to indoles in the body, the potential schizophrenic toxin might be an indole derivative of adrenaline with similar neurochemical properties to that of mescaline or LSD. He eventually deduced that the schizophrenic toxin was an oxidized derivative of adrenaline known as adrenochrome. Since the early 1950s, Hoffer's adrenochrome theory has been validated due to the following findings:

* that adrenochrome and its close relatives--dopaminochrome (from dopamine) and noradrenochrome (from noradrenaline)--are present in the human brain, (3-5)

* that these compounds probably induce a combination of neurotoxic and mind-mood-altering effect, and (3-5)

* that reducing adrenochrome and its close relatives is therapeutic for the treatment of schizophrenia. (6)

The majority of schizophrenic patients (about 90%) who receive mainstream treatments remain unwell and nonfunctional for the rest of their lives despite receiving the most advanced drugs and social services currently available. (7) Estimates of first episode schizophrenics are a little more optimistic, reporting that of five recently diagnosed patients, one will recover sufficiently to live an almost normal life without medication or with very low doses of medication. (8) The economic costs of schizophrenia to society are enormous, amounting to approximately two million dollars for each schizophrenic patient over a 40-year course of the illness. (9)

In a recent publication examining the economic burden of schizophrenia in Canada, the direct and non-direct heath care costs associated with this disease were estimated to be 2.02 billion Canadian dollars in 2004. (10) In addition, when these figures were added to the high unemployment rate with additional productivity, morbidity, and mortality losses, the estimate reached 4.83 billion Canadian dollars, for a total cost estimate of 6.85 billion Canadian dollars in 2004. The authors of this report arrived at the following conclusion: "Despite significant improvements in the past decade in pharmacotherapy, programs, and services available for patients with schizophrenia, the economic burden of schizophrenia in Canada remains high."

The purpose of the report is to highlight the problems with the standard medical treatment of schizophrenia and to demonstrate that the addition of orthomolecular medicine provides patients with the best opportunity of living a reasonable quality of life. Common orthomolecular treatments are reviewed, including summaries of relevant clinical studies and prescribing information. Four patient cases are described to show the reader the potential benefits of this approach, as well as the difficulties with this approach when certain essential treatment components are lacking.'
Source

You can read a short article on Hoffer's methodology here, and
see Dr. Hoffer's book on nutrition and mental health, PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER, here. Hoffer's work remains the gold standard in the field and he is a hero and savior to many.