Abstracts

A vitamin dependency occurs when there is a defect in the binding of the vitamin-related coenzyme to its apoenzyme.  The only way to correct a vitamin dependency is to obtain daily amounts much greater  than recommended dietary allowances.I believe that the most common vitamin dependency among patients with metnal illnesses is vitamin B3. These three cases involve members of the same family. Each case improved clinically upon taking megadoses (500-1500mg/day) of the vitamin. A fourth member of this family has schizophrenia. This is significant since recent postmortem biopsies of brain tissues have shown defects in the ability of schizophrenic patients to generate adequate amounts of vitamin B3 coenzymes from tryptophan. Families share simlar genetics and environmental factors, and thus this family likely shares varying degrees of the ability to synthesize adequate amounts of vitamin B3 coenzymes. If schizophrenic genes are common among the entire human population, then the majority of people will suffer from slight-to-severe defects in this biosynthetic pathway.