MIND, BRAIN AND BIOCHEMISTRY 403 



Probably the most extensive biochemical study of mental 

 illness has been of that large amorphous gi'oup, the schizo- 

 phrenias. A recently published review of the field makes it clear 

 that biochemists are still very far from giving a biochemical 

 account of schizophrenia,*'' The more thorough biochemical 

 approach to the problem has been to explore biochemical para- 

 meters of the whole body, rather than to restrict investigations 

 to the chemistry of the brain. *^ 



First of all with regard to schizophrenia, there is little doubt 

 that no single factor will account for it. Schizophrenia, after 

 all, is a generic name and not a specific disease. Further, 

 it is most probable that there are predisposing factors as 

 well as " triggering " events which must be considered. While 

 there is suggestive evidence for some genetic factor in the 

 development of schizophrenia, this is not certain. A further 

 difficulty is that too little is known of the brain's biochemical 

 topology. There is a real probability that the biochemical 

 changes in question take place in very restricted areas of the 

 brain. It is even possible that chemical systems operative in 

 these areas are unknown in others. Consequently, any abnor- 

 mality in such unique systems would be extremely difficult to 

 detect, since the existence and nature of the system itself would 

 hardly be suspected. One attractive hypothesis, though as yet 

 unproved, is the possibility of an abnormal metabolism of 

 commonly occurring substances, such as epinephrine yielding 

 adrenochrome, adrenolutin or similar compounds.*^ 



The isolation of serotonin (5-hydroxytryptamine) , a sub- 

 stance found in the brain in relatively high concentrations 

 (although also present in other tissues of the body) , has raised 

 the hopes of some that this substance might be implicated in 



"S. S. Kety, "Biochemical Theories of Schizophrenia," Science, CXXIX (1959), 

 1528-1532 and 1590-1596. 



*''' D. Richter, " Biochemical Aspects of Schizophrenia," in Derek Richter, ed., 

 Schizophrenia: Soinatic Aspects (New York: MacMillan, 1957) , pp. 53-75. 



** A. Hoffer, "Adrenaline Metabolites and Schizophrenia," Diseases of the Nervous 

 System, Monograph Supplement, XXI (1960), No. 2, pp. 1-8. 



