Perhaps drugs are not the answer because mental illness is not caused by drug deficiency. But much illness, especially mental illness, may indeed be caused by nutrient deficiency or nutrient dependency. Only nutrients can correct this problem. This not only makes sense, it has stood up to clinical trial again and again.(6) Vitamins like niacin are cheap, safe and effective. Modern "wonder drugs" are none of those. But they do make money. Especially when the drug makers control the research, the advertising, and the doctors. No wonder which approach you've heard more about.

We've all been carefully taught that drugs cure illness, not vitamins. The system is remarkably well-entrenched. 2.3 million Americans per year serve as human subjects for pharmaceutical company drug testing. Pharmaceutical companies set up patient support or advocacy groups to attract specific subjects for their clinical trials. Doctors are paid an average of $7,000 per patient for every patient they enroll in a drug study. Drug companies pay nearly two-thirds of the costs of continuing medical education. While the pharmaceutical industry's reach into education is bad enough, its grip on research is scandalous. For example: Drug company "publications strategies" have them "sponsor minimal research, prepare journal articles based on it, and pay academic researchers to put their names on those articles." So bad is it that Dr. Angell wrote an editorial in NEJM (7) entitled "Is Academic Medicine for Sale?" A reader wryly responded, "No. The current owner is very happy with it."

The result? "Bias is now rampant in drug trials. (Pharmaceutical) industry-sponsored research was nearly four times as likely to be favourable to the company's product as NIH-sponsored research."(3) Remember, "NIH-sponsored" means "taxpayer-funded." And then, when they need to use a drug, those same taxpayers pay again, and way too much, for the drug they already paid out grant money to develop, in a rigged trial, for a high-profit company.

What a sweet system for the pharmaceutical industry.

References:
(1) Drug studies skewed toward study sponsors. Industry-funded research often favours patent-holders, study finds. Vedantam S. The Washington Post, April 11, 2006. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12275329/from/RS.5/
(2) Heres S, Davis J , Maino K, et al. Why Olanzapine Beats Risperidone, Risperidone Beats Quetiapine, and Quetiapine Beats Olanzapine: An Exploratory Analysis of Head-to-Head Comparison Studies of Second-Generation Antipsychotics. Am J Psychiatry 163:185-194, February 2006. http://ajp.psychiatryonline.org/cgi/content/full/163/2/185
(3) Angell M. The Truth about the Drug Companies. NY: Random House, 2004.
(4) Hoffer A. Healing Schizophrenia. Complementary Vitamin & Drug Treatments. Ontario: CCNM Press (2004). ISBN-10: 1897025084; ISBN-13: 978-1897025086. Also: Vitamin B-3 and Schizophrenia: Discovery, Recovery, Controversy, by Abram Hoffer, MD. Quarry Press, Kingston, Ontario Canada (1998) ISBN 1-55082-079-6. Reviewed at http://www.doctoryourself.com/review_hoffer_B3.html
List of publications by Abram Hoffer: http://www.doctoryourself.com/biblio_hoffer.html
(5) Stroup TS, Lieberman JA, McEvoy JP et al. Effectiveness of olanzapine, quetiapine, risperidone, and ziprasidone in patients with chronic schizophrenia following discontinuation of a previous atypical antipsychotic. Am J Psychiatry. 2006 Apr;163(4):611-22. See also: Stroup TS, McEvoy JP, Swartz MS et al. The National Institute of Mental Health Clinical Antipsychotic Trials of Intervention Effectiveness (CATIE) project: schizophrenia trial design and protocol development. Schizophr Bull. 2003;29(1):15-31.
(6) For free access to peer-reviewed nutrition therapy journal articles: http://orthomolecular.org/library/jom
(7) Angell M. Is academic medicine for sale? N Engl J Med. 2000 May 18;342(20):1516-8.

Nutritional Medicine is Orthomolecular Medicine

Orthomolecular medicine uses safe, effective nutritional therapy to fight illness. For more information: http://www.orthomolecular.org

The peer-reviewed Orthomolecular Medicine News Service is a non-profit and non-commercial informational resource.

Editorial Review Board: Damien Downing, M.D.
Steve Hickey, Ph.D.
Abram Hoffer, M.D., Ph.D.
James A. Jackson, PhD
Bo H. Jonsson, MD, Ph.D
Thomas Levy, M.D., J.D.
Erik Paterson, M.D.
Gert E. Shuitemaker, Ph.D.

Andrew W. Saul, Ph.D., Editor and contact person. Email: omns@orthomolecular.org

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