MIND, BRAIN AND BIOCHEMISTRY 405 



certain mental deficiencies as mentioned above) . Further, it is 

 extremely hazardous at present to say whether the observed 

 biochemical abnormality is the cause or the effect of a mental 

 illness. They might even be concomitant, the result of a 

 common cause. While the tendency in research at present has 

 been to search for a gross and manifest biochemical abnor- 

 mality, it is entirely possible that small changes in one ana- 

 tomical area may be accumulative with similar small changes 

 in other areas. Further, the deviation from the normal range 

 in the activity of one biochemical system, though relatively 

 insignificant in itself, may be highly important when coupled 

 with changes in other chemical systems that serve the same ulti- 

 mate behavioral expression. Notwithstanding certain reversals 

 met with in current research, we may say summarily that the 

 experimental determination of some kind of disturbance in the 

 biochemistry of the central nervous system, at least, is con- 

 fidently expected. It might further be noted that mental health 

 might be dependent, in the chemical order, on the proper con- 

 centrations of certain compounds and on activities of particular 

 enzymes in specific areas of the brain, whereas mental illness 

 may result from an imbalance of these very same substances.^* 

 The fact that chemical compounds, e. g., LSD, mescaline, 

 amphetamine, can bring about symptoms of mental illness 

 suggests the brain's chemistry has been disturbed. 



On the other hand, it is possible that mental health and 

 disease involve the chemistry of the entire body and not merely 

 that of the brain. It is generally recognized that the body 

 under stress responds with a change in the endocrine balance.^^ 

 The basic hormonal and biochemical patterns of the body, 

 which may represent the physiological component of tempera- 

 ment, could act as a dispositive cause for certain behavioral 



54 ■ 



L. G. Abood, " Some Chemical Concepts of Mental Health and Disease," in 

 The Effect of Pharmacologic Agents on the Nervous System (Baltimore: Williams & 

 Wilkins, 1959), p. 393. 



^^ J. S. L. Browne, " The Interplay Between Endocrine Disturbance and Psy- 

 chological Aberrations," CIBA Foundation Colloquia on Endocrinology, vol. Ill, 

 Hormones, Psychology and Behavior (Philadelphia: Blakiston, 1952), pp. 112-19. 



