Professional Documents
Culture Documents
1956 Osmond 4093 2
1956 Osmond 4093 2
202
I_europharmaco!ogy.
Transactions
of the 2nd Conference_
14ay 25-27_ 1955. Princeton_
N.J. Ed.by H.A.
Abramson.
Josiah i{acy Jr. Foundation_
_,IewYork 1956
R_SEARCH
ON SCHIZOPHRENIA
*
p.183.
bn
_7_
_0
dqi
HUMPHRY
OSMOND
Saskatchewan
Hospital
Weyburn, Saskatchewan,Canada
..'Ji_
S
....
HIZOPHRENICPEOPLE are the bas_s of some extraordinarily fasct{_ing and interesting work.
The psychiatrist, approaching
them
through
_L
,
.
.
ieurology, neurophys,ology,
pharmacology and biochemistry, and
t_r0ugh elegant and frequently astoundingly brilliant techniques, comes
tgl a point where he begins to wish to find out more about this illness or
group of illnesses of these sick people, some of whom we call "schizophrenics. ,, It is here of course, that difficulty arises, because now it
becomes uncertain (a) whether there is such a condition at all, (b)
Whether this condition is so all-embracing that we are all schizophrenics,
{'_) whether this is simply a normal mode of people responding to a
_6rtain type of sociological setting, or (d) whether this is, in fact, an
Hifiess which exists like other illnesses, of which there are more or less
SeVere cases and different cases.
:_So numerous are the references and so varied are the opinions among
_chiatrists
as to what is meant by "schizophrenic," that it is essential
_,_ me to give some idea of what I think it means; otherwise, we may
b:gtalking about something quite different.
. To begin with, I do not accept the view that schizophrenics are to be
iSoked upon as any but the end process of an illness, nor do I take the
view which some hold, that schizophrenic people are necessarily either
antisocial or not useful. On the contrary, there is ample evidence
that some of the most brilliant and gifted and valuable people who have
ever lived have suffered from mental illness. I immediately think of
William Blake (1,2,3) and of Sir lsaac Newton (4). The latter's
strange ailment would certainly have led him to a psychiatrist if he had
lived three hundred years later, and one has the feeling that as his illness
The work discussed here was done under the auspices of the Saskatchewan Committee for
Schizophrenia
Research c/o Psychiatric Services Branch, Dept. of Public Health, Regina,
Saskatchewan.
Funds were provided by the Provincial Government
of Saskatchewan,
the
l_aderal Government
of Canada through the Department
of Health & Welfare,
and the
Rockefeller
Foundation.
.-i_[
t83
1
/
.<
184
continued on and off for about fifteen years, he might have ha_ _
leukotomy. However, Sir Isaac got very well after about 8 months, and
was governing the Mint at the time and, he produced one of his more
famous books many years after he had had his first bout of severe paranoid illness. Simultaneously, he was devoted to his work on numerology
and discovering "The Beast," among other things. One can think of
many contemporary people from the rather less satisfactory Rudolph
Hess (5) to the genius and wonder of Franz Kafka (6,7).
Many would be prepared to say this is complete nonsense on my part,
because schizophrenia has _he unique virtue of being an illness from
which there is no recovery. It has been said that if the patient does re5
cover, he really did not have it. Of course, if this is true, it is extreme_
unfortunate, but, luckily, common observation does not suggest thisi:_fi!
fact, from time to time, one has the extraordinary experience of seeing
someone who has been ill for 10, 15, 20, or even 25 years leaving the
hospital and apparently recovering.
My picture of schizophrenia is that it is an illness which is characterized by disturbances in thinking, in mood, and in perception (and sometimes in posture, which may or may' not be a result). These three great
groups of disturbances may be combined or may not be combined, and
they may be congruous or incongruous. I do not see any reason why they
should necessarily be combined, but, as a matter of common observation,
they quite often are. Clearly, where there is incongruity between thinking, mood, and perception, one would suppose, at any rate, that corn:
plete social disintegration is practically certain, though this is not certain,
as a matter of fact. On the other hand, where there is a little incongruity;
one would believe that social integration is possible.
Unfortunately, the information available as to what makes for social
integration is very small. We have no reason to think that this simple
picture of the degree of congruity, being very important, is, in fact,
what keeps people in our large mental hospitals. But my picture of an
illness is one which I personally see. Dr. Kallmann's work* suggests,
as do field studies, that for every schizophrenic patient treated in mental
hospitals, there are at least two or three out of the hospital. I would
say that even this is an understatement, bu_ I have done very little field
work.
However, I know a few schizophrenic people who are living happily
in a community and who are keenly interested in things around them.
One end of the parameter shows the schizophrenic person lying in
*Prof. Franz J. Kallmann,
Department
of Medical Genetics of the New York State Psychiatric Institute, Columbia University, New York, N. Y.: Personal communication,
1954.
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them. When he was reproached at the time, he said that he was not
made that way.
Fremont-Smith: May I support you ? I think that definitions, unless
made for a specific and limited goal, have no value other than to be
restrictive and to interfere with thought and experimentation. I think
that definitions, on the whole, are to be avoided, except a working definition for a specific, limited, and stated goal.
Sherwood: I only wanted to make sure that I knew what you meant
by"area."
Fremont-Smith: And you gave us a chance. I am very much in agreement with you.
Osmond: As to posture, there is a good deal of neural evidence. I
think that there are specific disorders of posture that occur, but, here
again, occasionally you get an interpretation of a catatonic posture in a
person that makes one feel that, in fact, as one would expect, these are
psychological entities. Certainly, to the catatonic person, his posture
may represent holding up the earth or punishment for cutting his father's
throat, or something of that sort. But, again, in this particular instance,
if one makes too narrow a definition or if one narrows oneself, it does
not help, and I feel that the posture entities are very important.
At any rate, we started our investigation from this, not really having
any idea what to do, but making numerous consultations. We obtained
a great deal of help from Dr. J. Harley Mason, University Demonstrator in Organic Chemistry, Cambridge, England, and from Dr. C. M.
Scott, Director hnperial Chemical industries (Pharmaceuticals),
Blackley, Manchester, England. We decided to collect numerous compounds,
starting with mescaline and working slowly and progressively toward
epinephrine.
Leake: Did you by any chance run into Louis Lewin's Phantastica
(17)?
Osmond: Yes, but never in an English translation, unfortunately. It
went out of print in England in about 1935.
Leake: Did you go into Sigmund FrSnkel's Die Arzneimittel-Synthese
(18)?
Osmond: No.
Leake: That, again, is not available in English. So much of this was
rather clearly anticipated in connection with type of activity, many years
ago, but unfortunately, in a narrow, restricted field, in relation to chemical constitution and biological action. It did not come into clinical
attention, so the possible value of it, either from the standpoint of experimentation or even of clinical investigation, was not appreciated.
Another work of similar interest is Lewin's Die Gifte in der Well-
188
N e ur op harmac olo g y
geschichte
(19) which has a lot of incidental information
these lines. It is not a popular item, but much more detailed.
all along
(20,21,22).
We
had not done any simple arithmetic, because, otherwise, I think it would
have struck us that the orderly progression that we had in mind represented something like ten thousand compounds.
There was the further
detriment to this orderly progression
that each compound,
as we soon
discovered, takes a long time to try, and we had no animal methods
worked out in our minds. Only recently, Dr. Mirsky has been working
on some animal methods, but we did not know about these, and it would
have been a very long journey. There is the added fact, of course, that
the number of people who are prepared to engage in taking ten thousand
unknown
compounds
is limited, and, therefore,
on a volunteer
basis
alone, one is soon going to run out of subjects.
I took mescaline in 1951 and I found this a most extraordinary
experience which I will describe later. My experience was recorded and
in order to find other subjects, my colleague, John Smythies, thought that
we would play this recording to others in order to encourage them to
try it (23,24,25).
We at length found a man who we thought would be a very good
subject. He was a young history professor, and we felt that he would
be intelligent, interested, and able to make a clear report. We also
thought that he might produce aspects of experience that would be
interesting for us to study.
As this man listened to the recording, he appeared rather ill. When
asked what was the matter, he said that the recorded reactions were
familiar to him. He said that he was a severe asthmatic and that when
he suffered from asthma badly,
things happened to him.
if he took epinephrine,
some of these
We interpreted
that, rightly or wrongly, I am not certain, to mean
that if there are people in whom the pressor effects of epinephrine do not
take place, then either epinephrine itself or some of its metabolites could
produce this type of disturbance, and this began to shift our attention
a little bit.
We found that this was not very uncommon
know, there is a curious relationship
between
a small group of people. We found that quite
have these very curious disturbances,
often in
with asthmatics.
As you
asthma and psychosis in
a few asthmatics, in fact,
affect and sometimes in
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189
communication,
1952.
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195
Magoun: My guess would be that this was brought into the mucosal
vessels and thus into the circulation.
Kety: May I summarize the situation on cohoba to avoid confusion
about what is known of this substance? Horning's laboratory at the
National Heart Institute in Bethesda isolated bufotenin (33), which is
dimethyl serotonin, from cohoba. Evarts at the National Institute of
Mental Health (36) found that bufotenin given intravenously, in large
doses, to monkeys produces the same symptoms as do large doses of
LSD; these symptoms seem to be blindness and certain disturbances in
motor behavior, but there was no evidence of subtle mental aberrations
with small doses. Bufotenin cannot be given to man intravenously in
large doses because of its profound circulatory effects, which resemble
those of serotonin. Dr. Homing tells me that there are other substances
in cohoba besides bufotenin which may very well be the active principle.
Harris Isbell, at the United States Public Health Service Addiction
Research Center in Lexington, is administering bufotenin by the intranasal route, in order to test the possibility that this may be the mode of
administration necessary. He is going to prepare it the way the Indians
used it, and to administer it that way. He is having great difficulty
because his subjects sneeze violently when given the crude drug, while
pure bufotenin by aerosol has not yet shown any mental effects (37).
To the best of my knowledge, that seems to be the situation at the
present time.
Abramso_e: I might add that the sneezing might be connected with
the particle size of the aerosol which it produces in the snuff.
Kety: That is an interesting point.
Fre,mnt-S,zith: _rould a tiny speck of anesthetic of some sort prevent
the sneezing ?
Kety: That is another good point.
Marrazzh How large were the doses of LSD and how did you detect
the blindness ?
Ketj: These were appreciable doses, something of the order of milligrams.
Cerletti: I have seen 1 mg./kg, in a report.
Kety." And the blindness was obvious from the behavior of the
monkey. The monkey would run into things, and did not seem to react
to visual stimuli.
Cer/etti: Should not the possibility also be considered that, if something is applied by snuffing, the stimulation of olfactory endings could
influence the psychic functions? Such studies have been made with
special products of the perfume industry. Perhaps there is an effect only
in certain people with abnormal or psychopathic tendencies.
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197
investigate, and one that we did investigate; that was ololiuqui (an
Aztec name) which comes from the seeds of Rivea corymbosa. I will
come back to ololiuqui later in the discussion. I found it very interesting as it was the primary narcotic of the Aztecs, and peyotl was,
in fact, their secondary narcotic. They esteemed ololiuqui highly and
kept it secret from the Spaniards while they allowed the invaders to
learn about peyotl. It is odd that although they had this extraordinary
substance, peyotl, to work with, they preferred to work with ololiuqui,
but there is little doubt that they did. For many years the inquisitors
used to ask whether the Indians had taken the "devil's root," and also
ololiuqui, the "devil's seed," but all they managed to get was peyotl.
Rinkel: Dr. Osmond, since you have talked about ololiuqui, will you
please elaborate on it a little more? I know from your work that there
are some quite intriguing facets to it. I thought we might have some
details.
Osmond: I thought it would be more logical to return to ololiuqui
later, and for the present, to discuss harmine, about which there is a
good deal in the literature. I have never found any satisfactory psychological experiments with it, however. It was not easy to obtain. I have
some seeds of the harmala and have eaten some of them. They are very
unpleasant, and they do not seem to produce any effects, but I think
that may be because we have not eaten enough.
Ibogaine is the next one. I wrote to Dr. Albert Schweitzer to try to
get information about ibogaine. I believe Lewin (17) has information
about it, also, doesn't he ?
Leake: Yes. Janot and Goutarel (d2) have isolated voacangine from
Voaca_2ga africaIza, which is related to ibogaine. Voacangine is a
methoxy indole.
Osmond: We have tried to obtain a supply of that from the S. B.
Penick Company of New York, but it is apparently quite difficult to
collect the right bean, and the Penick Company was concerned that we
might get a supply of the wrong bean, and, of course, so were we. For
that reason, we have never taken ibogaine. Albert Schweitzer's (43)
account of it certainly suggests that it should be tried and experimented
with.
We got a group of these substances together, and then it seemed to
us that there was a possible pattern here. It was conceivable that if
mescaline joined into some sort of indole-like compound, possibly, there
might be some sort of unit),.
Armed with this idea and with the pink epinephrine idea, we went
to our colleagues in the University of Saskatchewan, Prof. Charles
McArthur and Prof. Vernon _roodford of the Department of Bio-
198
chemistry, and Prof. Duncan Hutcheon of the Department of Pharmacology, and asked their advice. We were thinking of a breakdown
product of epinephrine that would be active but without its pressor
qualities. We had not, however, reached a firm decision as to what this
might be, so we asked them. Dr. Hutcheon, who is now with Chas.
Pfizer & Co., suggested adrenochrome, which he and his pupil, Mr. Eade,
made.
They tested it on mice, and we began to go into the literature on it
and found that there is an extensive literature in many directions except
on its psychologic effects. Apparently, it has always been known to be
rather unstable and difficult to deal with. Dr. Leake tells me that it is
always resonating and becoming something else, so that it is clearly an
interesting substance. Also, Chevremont (44) has done some work on
it in relation to the mitosis of cells.
If we were right in our supposition that there is a toxic substance in
human beings, those already loaded with it, i.e., abnormal humans,
psychotic patients, would obviously be entirely unsatisfactory subjects
for study, so for that reason we have always felt that it was essential to
study the effect of the drug on normal human beings. In the same way,
if you give someone a large dose of LSD and then another there appears
to be very little effect. I think L. Cholden* has shown that if LSD is
given at short intervals, eventually it becomes quite ineffective, something, presumably, having happened.
Abramson: Tolerance to LSD-25 was first observed by Dr. Harris
Isbell and his group (45) at Lexington, Kentucky. I think that is important for the record.
Osmond: Yes. The difficulty was that, although in actual fact, it is
rather nontoxic with mice (46), we did not know what it would do
when administered to human beings, and we did not know how to administer it. We gave it initially by subcutaneous injection, which is very
painful, and we started at what we thought were extremely low doses,
about 0.5 mg. I have some reason to suppose that the dosage which we
used was larger than we intended as we had a new electrical balance
which I do not think we were using properly. I suspect that our initial
doses were at least ten times what we supposed they were, and that we
started off first with 1 mg. and then with about 5 mg. Certainly our
later experiments suggest that about 10 mg. is about the lowest effective
dose.
Then, of course, we began to run into some of the difficulties with
methodology because, ideally, one should really have all these things
*Unpublished
data.
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tioning, I didn't much like the colors, and I didn't like the van Gogh,
but then we went outside and there was a curious sensation of the place
having changed.
We were driving along a familiar road but it didn't seem familiar. I
would look into a house and see a lamp there, and this would seem
significant; then I would begin to think and brood about it. The other
thing I noticed was that I was extremely disinterested in my colleagues.
They kept saying how interesting this was and I felt that I ought to feel
that it was fascinating, but I didn't.
Marrazzi: This was different from the feeling of being at the bottom
of an aquarium ?
Osmond: Yes. This was while I was out in the outer world. I didn't
return very much to the aquarium sensation. I should say, again, that
this was an unscientific experiment because we did not have any particular intention of doing the experiment that night. We finally arrived
home and some people came in. I sat there for the best part of 3 hours,
quite disinterested in them. I didn't want to talk. I found that I could
be interested in and preoccupied with things and really felt happy with
them, but people were a great strain. They seemed to make very silly
remarks which they always wanted to press on me. It was almost as
though they were intruding upon me. The only other time I have had
an experience in any way similar was after I had taken mescaline. I
normally do not feel this extreme reluctance to relate to people.
Sherwood: Would you care to say whether what you experienced then
was caused primarily by an impairment of memory of a relatively recent
kind or was it the cognitive power that was impaired ?
Osmond: The memory was excellent. I could name the street quite
easily, but it did not look just the way it normally did. It wasn't a case
of being disoriented and not knowing where I was.
Sherwood: So the significance of things was your difficulty ?
Osmond: Yes; that is it; the significance.
Fremont-Smith: It doesn't seem to me that this quite describes it,
either, because the significance would mean from one point of view. You
recognized the street was leading you to the place where you expected to
go, b{atthen it also seemed strange. It seems to me that what you are
describing is the quality of a strangeness combined with the fact that it
was still the street it was supposed to be.
Leake: Were you in any way disoriented in time ?
Osmond: No; I knew where I was. I knew, if pressed, I could verv
well say what time I took this drug and that we were making an experiment, but this appeared to be very unimportant.
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203
so I went out. Then I found that I just couldn't get myself away from
the two wrecked cars. There was a feeling that I was involved with
them, that the accident they had been in had something to do with me.
I wondered what had happened to them and then I came to think that I
knew, which, of course, was not true.
This effect, I am glad to say, wore off completely after about 24 hours.
We then carried out two more experiments with Dr. Hoffer, one of
which he assured me at the time had produced no results. He told me
that some of his things had been stolen by people in the building and
that there were many fiendish people about. Of course, this was not
true. In fact, the things were there and I was able to find them. Later
on that day he made arrangements to buy an expensive picture when he
didn't have the money to pay for it. He did not need the picture, and,
in fact, he had to go back the next day and tell the rather disappointed
artist that he did not want it.
We came to the conclusion that this substance produced peculiar
changes in affect and perception of the subject and which, when you
knew him were easy to spot and very obviously were there. One of the
effects really worried us. Dr. Holler gave his wife 10 rag. of adrenochrome, and 2 days later I found her in what was quite clearly a clinical
depression. She had lost insight in us. She said that she was sure it had
nothing to do with the injection, but that everything seemed so hopeless
and she didn't have any energy. We both were certainly alarmed; however the depression went away after 3 days.
Another curious thing was the fact that about eight or nine years ago
Mrs. Hoffer had had a quite severe jaundice. Evidence has been accumulating with LSD and with mescaline that in some people, there are
prolonged reactions after jaundice.* Again, this is not a thing on which
anyone has done much systematic experimenting. It may not be jaundice;
infectious hepatitis seems to be the relevant one, but, again, we do not
know.
Fremont-Smith: It would be a good point, though for anyone working with LSD or these other compounds, to make a historical note for
each subject, as to whether or not there was a history of jaundice.
Osvmnd: We are very careful about it.
Fremont-Smith:
of us.
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N europharrnac olo gy
the lighting with the use of this compound. We, too, have noticed that
one of the first effects of LSD is an apparent change in the lighting. If
you look at the subject's pupils, however, they are going up and down,
and, of course, their interpretation of "the powerhouse failing" can very
well be this change in pupil size, which occurs very rapidly. Another
thing which occurs is that there may be dilation of one pupil before the
other, in which case they may have a Pulfrich effect (47) in which things
appear to be traveling in arcs instead of straight lines. If these patients
are tested with a pendulum, it will seem to them that it is going in a
circle instead of in its single plane. This is explained by the fact that
the light from one retina gets to the visual cortex ahead of the other.
The ophthalmologist puts a patch over one eye in order to get rid of this
disturbing phenomenon, which can be interpreted, of course, as a central
nervous system effect but it is actually a phenomenon originating in the
eye.
Fremont-Smith: I don't quite understand why a change in the pupil
would make light or the impulse get to the visual cortex faster.
P]eiffer: It is presumably a greater intensity of light on one retina
than on the other.
Osmond: Clearly, there are several other important directions in which
this work might lead us: The first thing we wished to do was obtain more
information about adrenochrome, and, to do this, we carried out a rather
small number of experiments because, unfortunately, we ran out of our
supply and it has been most difficult to obtain. Also it can deteriorate.
Quaste]: What do you mean ?
Osm(md: It ended up as melanin.
Quaslel." You mean, it has gone a stage further ?
Osmond: Yes.
Quastel: Why should it do that ? Was it present in solution ?
Osmond: No; this substance was under nitrogen and made by competent people.
Ouastel: It was supl_osed to be a purified product ?
O.rmond: It was supposed to be a purified product, yes. This has
happened on several occasions when it came from a reliable place.
Rinket: I have been told that it is extremely unstable.
Quaslel: Was the substance kept under nitrogen ?
Rheke]: It has to be handled with the greatest of care. The laboratory
(Eli Lilly Research Laboratories) which produced it for Dr. Hoch and
me sent it to us in packed ice just the day before the experiment. We
used it quite fresh.
Kety: Dr. Osmond, in the light of this, do you feel that the results
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205
which you gave us and which I have no doubt are valid resulted from
adrenochrome or from some yet unknown, unidentified substance ?
Osmond: I only know that this was a red substance, like adrenochrome, and when it went a bit further, it was quite different. It became
a black compound; as long as we were using that red compound we felt
fairly confident. Dr. Duncan Hutcheon who made our adrenochrome
for us was an expert at working with members of the epinephrine
family. His co-worker, Eade (46), has published a description of his
method and Dr. Hutcheon himself will be publishing in the near future.
As I said he is now with Chas. Pfizer & Co. and they are generously
supplying us. I know, however, that even with Dr. Hutcheon some
batches quickly became melanin.
Kety: Have you been able to obtain similar results with your adrenochrome since ?
Osmond: With the next lot, we obtained similar results again, but it
is only recently that we have been able to get our adrenochrome from
the same source.
Leake: Had Dr. Hutcheon any idea of the impurities in the first batch ?
Osmond: I don't know. There were certainly no pressor impurities,
but he does not say what impurities there were.
Cantoni: Do I understand you to say that it was only with adrenochrome made by this particular man in this particular laboratory that
you obtained these effects ?
Osmo,zd: That is correct. We did not obtain any effects with the
other substance because it was wrong; it was black by that time. We
never use it if we can see any black in it at all, and we have had at least
two or three lots like that. Now, we have a third lot, but made in a
different laboratory by Dr. Hutcheon. That is the position, at present.
Marrazzi: Dr. Osmond, this adrenochrome has been chemically characterized as pure ?
Osmond: I gather that Dr. Hutcheon has done it. He says that he is
certain, and his paper will come out and say exactly how it was prepared.
I would not like to give you my views on it.
Marrazzi: My question is a little bit different. It is not only this preparation, but the final characterization after it has been prepared, as a
pure substance ?
Osmond: I think so, but I would not like to say definitely, because,
again, he is writing this now and soon you will be able to read his whole
account of exactly what it is.
Reynolds: At any rate, there was nothing intentionally added to it as
a stabilizer ?
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Rinkel: I was greatly impressed by Dr. Osmond's results with adrenochrome. We also had come to a similar concept of psychosis, although
from a different angle, as I will elaborate later. Naturally, we tried to
duplicate the experiments of Osmond and Hoffer, but at that time, we
did not have the pure adrenochrome available. We, therefore, used,
perhaps not justifiably so, but for the time being, the stable semicarbazone of adrenochrome which was available in this country, and is being
widely used as a hemostatic in surgery.
Since then, however, we received pure adrenochrome from the Eli
Lilly Research Laboratories, with a report by Dr. Norbert Neuss,* of
the procedure and chemical identification of adrenochrome, and Dr.
Hoch received the same adrenochrome.
The adrenochrome was packed in ice and in vials each containing 20
mg. This was received on the morning of the experiment. I finally persuaded Dr. J. Jackson DeShon of the Boston Psychopathic Hospital, to
give me an injection of this substance.
Fremont-Smith: Subcutaneously ?
Rinke]: No, intravenously, because we had already had the same
experience as Dr. Osmond who stated that the subcutaneous injection
was very painful. He had suggested that it be injected intravenously,
*The adrenochrome
was prepared for this experiment
by Dr, N. Neuss using the method
of Sobotka and Austin (48) as modified by Kornfeld.
The spectral properties
(infrared and
ultraviolet
absorption)
were identical with those reported in the literature.
The material
was shown *o be free of epinephrine
by paper chromatography.
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Osmond: Yes.
Quasteh Here again we have labile groups to consider. In what form
are these groups ? I suppose you are sure of the structure of the molecule.
Osmond: I am not quite sure. I was merely assured by Dr. Hutcheon.
I understand it is a far from easy thing to be absolutely sure on this
thing.
Abramson: I should like to ask Dr. Osmond why he restricts his
chemical concept to this group of compounds. Clinically speaking, the
steroids, we know, do produce psychoses very often. I see them constantly. We know that they are natural products and know that the
psychoses they produce lead to suicide, to confusion, and, in fact, meet
all the requirements of change in thought, mood, perception, and posture. Why not stress the steroids with just as much interest as this group ?
Elmadjian: There may be close relations between the metabolism of
adrenal cortical and adrenal medullary hormones. Von Euler and his
associates (52) have demonstrated a reduction in the norepinephrine
excretion after ACTH and cortisone administration. We have been
able to confirm the effect of ACTH on norepinephrine excretion (53).
Furthermore, we have studied the effect of whole adrenal acetone
powder on the possible conversion of hydroxytyramine to norepinephrine-like material.
In the study of the physiological reactions to stress, we know that both
the adrenal medulla and the adrenal cortex play important roles. Attempts at studying together the adrenal-pituitary
and sympathicoadrenal systems have been delayed because of the lack of reliable techniques for the measurement of epinephrine and norepinephrine.
In
brief, the hypothesis may be stated in a general way that it is not just
by chance that these two portions of the adrenal gland, medulla, and
cortex happen to be together. There may be some functional and
metabolic relations between them.
Cleg,born: I would like to support that hypothesis.
Elmadjian: Table XII shows the results obtained by incubating 25 rag.
of whole adrenal acetone powder with hydroxytyramine in addition to
umarate, magnesium, and phosphate buffer. Control incubations included all factors except hydroxytyramine while the experimental
incubations contained 500 _g. of hydroxytyramine. In experiment 1,
ATP, DPN, and TPN were omitted. The control and experimental
results are the same. However, when these cofactors are added we
obtained an increase in the measurable norepinephrine-like
material.
The iodometric color reaction of von Euler and Hamberg (54) was of
limited value because hydroxytyramine gives a color approximately
15
per cent of that of norepinephrine.
Research
on Schizophrenia
TABLE
Incubation
of Adrenal
Acetone
211
XII
Powder
with
Hydroxytyramine*
Norepinephrine
Experiment
Cofactors
1. C
E
None
None
28.4
24.5
2. C
E
24.5
65.5
3. C
E
23.5
38.5
9. C
E
33.4
76.4
C__control
Bio-assay
_,g.
Iodometric
Color
22.0
159.2
36.0
192.0
without hydroxytyramine
Ezexperimental
and F. Elmadjian.
*Incubations were for 2 hours except for experiment 9, which was for 8 hours.
is the differ-
212
Research on Schizophrenia
213
214
Neuropharmacology
Research on Schizophrenia
215
there was any difference in what was picked up. Dr. Fischer has suggested that since wool is an ectodermal tissue and most of the central
nervous system is ectodermal in origin, wool may be a useful and easily
handled model of the central nervous system.
We pressed on and certainly at the moment, it does seem that you
can get differences in what is picked up on wool from schizophrenic
people and what is picked up from nonschizophrenic people.
Fremont-Smith: Measured by weight ?
Osmond: Yes, measured by weight.
Fremont-Smith: You mean, more in the schizophrenic people ?
Osmond: Yes, more in the schizophrenic people and less from nonschizophrenic people. It is an extremely tedious process, not wholly
satisfactory, and technically difficult.
Fremont-Smith: Does the urine have the same specific gravity?
Osmond: I understand all these points have been carefully considered
and allowed for. But this technique is tedious and it is affected by all
sorts of things like humidity. I am not satisfied with it, and we want
to get rid of it. But I thought I would mention it as one thing that we
have been doing.
Mirsky: Dr. Osmond, did you or did you not confirm Macht's
work (56) ?
Osmond: We never confirmed Macht's work (55,56) because we
decided not to go into this lupine seed work. We decided on the cell
once we knew we had the cell culture available and found it worked.
We were thinking of going to see Macht and learning his technique,
but we decided not to because it seemed too tricky.
Mirsky: Incidentally, has anyone confirmed this work or attempted
to confirm it ?
Osmond: I think Dr. Jacques S. Gottlieb, now I believe at the University of Michigan, said that many years ago, he attempted it but he
did not have any success; he said it was a difficult technique and he
was not certain that he had got it. It sounded difficult to us. I feel
that our wool work is in this category. I think that there are certain
techniques that a few people can do but are too tedious or too boring
for anyone else to do. These things, of course, are often of no practical
use because some more straightforward technique is called for, for
general use. Therefore, from the wool work, we went on to see, if we
got that substance or if we thought that some substance has absorbed,
whether we could grow various things on the wool and see if their
rate of growth were changed.
We had considerable satisfaction from this and got marked differential growth in wheat seedlings and in oat seedlings. Then, we
216
Neuropharmacolo
gy
ran into some difficulty and, for the last months, we have had whole
batches going wrong. We don't understand it, but we are trying to
find out why this is happening.
Fremont-Smith:
growth ?
You
mean
you
are
not
having
the
differential
Osmond:
No differential growth, and some dying off. We originally
thought that we had copper in the water, which is one of the things
that often happens in Saskatchewan.
We are now trying to avoid this.
Therefore,
I don't know what happened to that. Certainly, initially,
the results were promising.
Now, they are far less promising.
The
wool work itself is still standing up fairly well.
A4arrazzi: Do you have any idea what absorbed onto the wool ?
Osmond:
No. We think indolic substances, but our tests have been
very gross, and I would not say. I think it can go on the record as being
gross, but I do not think it should be accepted as being that.
However, this area of the work is going on, and we are trying now
to find out what this substance is that deals with cell cultures.
Apparently, the evidence so far suggests that if the serum is heated to about
56 C. the toxic substance is destroyed and the cells are unaffected.
But I understand that it is not thought to be a virus.
Then, the next area in which we are particularly
interested
is in
exploring some other substances.
The first one that we explored was
largely a matter of personal
interest, I think. I got some ololiuqui
seeds by the kindness of Dr. I. D. Clement, Director of the Atkins
Memorial
Laboratory
and the Harvard
Botanical
Gardens
in Cuba.
I was very much interested in these and started to investigate them.
Briefly, they are interesting
from several points of view: The first is
that there is a magnificent
monograph
on them by Richard
Evans
Schultes (35), so you start off with the advantage
of a fascinating
story of how this thing got lost for so long. It is one of the apparently
celebrated
ethno-botanical
cases of a substance getting lost for many
years amid great differences of opinion, and Schultes did this very able
bit of work in identifying it. Then the Indian accounts, both ancient
and modern, have proved to be accurate. Finally, it is queer in itself;
the seeds are very hard and must be chewed. Eventually,
we invented
a little machine for breaking them up, as they taste rather unpleasant.
Ololiuqui
produces minor changes in visual perception
but major
changes in affect and volition.
When given a close of this substance,
the subject does not want to do anything, won't do anything, and gradually he becomes more and more inactive. Then a kind of alert watchfulness supervenes.
I found
seeds, this is quite a feature.
Research on Schizophrenia
217
It is quite difficult to decide whether I did not want to move or was not
able to. I also found that when I did move there was a tendency, once
I got going, to keep going. If I stopped, I remained where I was. For
example; if I started writing, I would keep on writing; if I stopped
writing, there I would stop. But I didn't write the same syllable over
and over again.
Fremont-Smith: But you kept on writing ?
Osmond: Yes; I kept on writing. There were several curious and
interesting things. Again, I had this detachment from human beings,
but a feeling of great comfort from small animals. We had a little
Chihuahua dog, who was particularly comforting and friendly. This
makes one wonder how many psychotic people may get great pleasure
from small animals.
Fremont-Smith:
Do they have pets? Do they like pets? Do we
know ?
Osmond: We know of many strange old people who live alone with
pets, and the death of the pet is a terrible catastrophe for them. They
may well be right, and the great comfort obtained from this little animal
is really extraordinary.
I noted in the hospital that many of the patients want to have pets
but for administrative reasons many do not have them. I often wonder
of how much we are depriving them. Pets were a feature of the
famous Retreat at York, England, about 1800. It was considered
therapeutic for patients to have helpless creatures depending on them.
In retrospect, I found this an intriguing idea because it may be of
great clinical interest. As far as I know, the capacity to form relationships with animals has received little attention except in the medicolegal field. Nevertheless, it is of some importance. For instance, the
human relationship with the dog is immensely old, and not only hunters
but many others form a very close reciprocal attachment to these excellent creatures. It seems odd that this survived when human beings
were terribly tiresome. I found my little dog far less difficult to relate
to than my small daughter then aged 4 and very active. She was darting
about, and couldn't understand what was happening. This was annoying to me so I thought I would give her a little shove, but without
meaning to I knocked her absolutely fiat. Here was an example of an
almost all-or-none response. Also, I got one of my arms up in the
air and found myself unable to get it down. Eventually, however, I
got it down by pulling it with the other arm. This, I would say was
a so-called catatonic phenomenon.
Fre/,ont-Smith., You mean, you had a sense of helplessness about
getting ),our arm down ?
218
N euroDharmacolo gy
Research on Schizophrenia
219
this reaction went away. I am quite used to adrenochrome and the way
these reactions go away, but this time I had the impression that with
ololiuqui the reaction can go away extremely quickly. I was very much
impressed by Dr. Cerletti's dogs which made a very sudden recovery.
My impression with the ololiuqui is, and this is borne out by the tapes,
that in about 20 minutes, one moves from being really extremely inefficient to being thoroughly active and interested, with insight and all
these things, and one is left in a very curious condition of well-being.
After mescal, and certainly after adrenochrome and adrenolutin, I did
not have a feeling of well-being. But, after ololiuqui, I felt very relaxed, cheerful, active, and able to think very clearly and well.
Fremont-Smith: For how long?
Osmond: This feeling of well-being lasted for about 24 hours.
Another interesting thing was that sleep was not interfered with by
this substance; I was able to go to sleep, and when I was awakened in
the night by my daughter, which normally would make me very irritable,
I felt relaxed and calm. I would like to know whether this happens to
other people. It seems to me that these little points are interesting in
that they may throw light on the very many curious properties of these
things.
In continuing to look around, we came upon adrenolutin. Abram
Hoffer asked Harley Mason at Cambridge for some suggestions which
he gave us. Dr. D. Hutcheon in Saskatchewan had worked with this
initially and had done with Dr. N. Eade some experiments on mice.
The great advantage of it from our point of view is that it is stable
and can be stored quite easily. We didn't know how it had to be given,
but we didn't feel it was going to deteriorate. This allowed us to work
with it more easily, because, after our experience with adrenochrome,
which we were still trying to get, we were hoping to find something a
bit more stable.
Leake: Doesn't this turn color in solution ?
Osmond: No; it just goes yellow. It will after you leave it long
enough, but we found that it didn't go dark quickly. It meant that we
could bring it over from England in a little bottle without having to
have it very carefully prepared.
At the moment we have done about eight or nine experiments with
adrenolutin. In the first one, I took 5 rag. of the lot that Harley Mason
gave us. This was the original lot we got from England. I certainly
did not expect it to have an effect because we started at what we
thought was as low a dosage as possible. I did, however, have certain
changes from this.
The lot had never been meant for intravenous use. We thought it
220
NeuroDharmacology
Research on Schizophrenia
221
222
Neuropharmacology
Research on Schizophrenia
223
therefore, to screen out people who were "suggestible" and only then
did we use our screened test subjects to test our unknowns.
However, we found that even this was not inoculation enough. Dr.
Jarvik and Mrs. Hirsch improved the questionnaire (Table XIV). Instead of having the first question given half an hour after, we give the
questionnaire to the subject and he is asked to say ahead of time whether
or not he has any symptoms. Table XV illustrates a marked response
to zero dosage. This subject would be unsuitable for screening purposes.
This, then, will prepare for the part of the work on tolerance which
will follow Dr. Rinkel's presentation, because none of our work is
done on subjects unless they have been screened and found to be
satisfactory. This screening must be done on the same subjects periodically. We always introduce a placebo from time to time.
I found one very interesting thing. Mr. B. has been used as a subject
for 2 years. At first, I allowed Mrs. B. who helped in the experiments,
to know in certain critical experiments whether or not he and other
subjects were getting the drug. But by her facial expression and attitude,
he could often guess what was going on, even though she did not say
a word. So the problem of unconscious communication between the
observer and his subject is very important.
I think the experiments
should be run as blind as possible.
Leake: In connection with the experiments described by Dr. Osmond,
all of us were impressed by the extraordinary quality of the description
of subjective symptoms, and this would suggest the value of a battery of
projective tests, establishing for subjects a base line personality profile,
as it were, which then could be run almost routinely in connection with
the subsequent effect under drugs.
Fremont.SmBh: Especially of the normal subjects.
Leake: Yes, especially of the normal subjects, of course, and that
would give a considerable amount of information that is pretty well
standardized as to significance and interpretation, with regard to the
sort of projections that are made.
Osmond: We have done that with our LSD work modified by niacin,
and we have had a lot of work done on this. We found that so far-we started to work with rather high doses of LSD--our tests have not
shown any that worked very well during the procedure, because they
are too long, but we are trying to get a series of much shorter tests,
such as Lehman* was developing at one time.
Leake: Or the Zondi is extremely rapid, and that shows as quick
changes in projective personality.
*Unpublished
data.
224
N europharmacolo gy
Abramsom
We have had considerable experience with projective
tests (65,66,67). In any test situation, what you get depends not only
on the personality structure, but also on the dosage. That must be
considered constantly. You may get no change with a given test with
50 _g. but important changes on 75 _g.
Beecber: I would like to say that there is another way of handling
this questionnaire problem. It is hardly fair to put in a question, "Do
you feel weak," because there is a suggestion there. Of course some
suggestion is unavoidable, but you can minimize the effect of suggestion
by presenting two opposites simultaneously.
TABLE
XIII
Questionnaire
i.
Half
tions are
Section I
1.
2.
Are you
3.
4.
Have
you a feeling
of choking?
Is salivation
increased?
the following
direct
questo + + + + + basistUp To
Up To
Alter
3Y2 Hrs.
4 Hrs.
4Y_ Hrs.
nauseated?
6. Or
Is your
appetite
5.
decreased?
..................
_.
increased?
...
i
7.
Or decreased?
8.
9.
i
J
]
--[,
lB.
Is it a bitter taste?
11.
12.
"(i
13.
Does your
]4.
15.
16.
Or
1"
head ache?
you?
unsteady?
21.
22.
23.
Or
24.
2.5. Or
cold?
dry?
26.
Or'cold?
27.
Is your
28.
skin sensitive?
/
Research
on Schizophrenia
Up To
Hr.
QUESTION
29.
30.
31.
Or
32.
33.
34.
35,
36.
37.
38.
39.
40.
41.
42.
43.
44.
Or
45.
46.
47.
'Up To
I% Hrs.
225
Up To
2% Hrs.
Up To
$ Hrs.
Up To
4_/2 Hrs.
After
4 Hrs.
.....
light?
fatigued?
The
following
are
tested
and
rated
QUESTION
by the
experimentor,
Up "to
Y7 Hr.
Up _o
IE/2Hrs.
and
]
,
scored
Up To
2J/_ Hrs.
normal
Up To
3Y: Hrs.
- -; abnormal
t
r
1.
PalIor
2.
Flushing
3.
Restlessness
4.
Tremors
5.
Twitching
6.
Fasiculation
7.
Fibrillation
-I
8.
Pupillary
9.
Reactions
10.
Hearing
11.
Respiration
12.
Pulse
13.
Perspiration
14.
Blood
15.
Tendon
16.
Coordination
(Decreased)
Pressure
Reflexes
t8.
19. Handwriting
_llusions
(Increased)
(Impaired)
Up To
4 firs.
+
j
t
+.
After
4 Hrs.
TABLE
XIII
(Continued)
Questionnaire--Section
|.
Molo_ Bdmvi0_
II
_4 Hour:
.,,
2 Hour*:
Hour:
2 H'oen:
3 Hours:
3_ Horn's:
4_ Hours:
4 Horn.st
Late_
Late_:
s+ Comtroh
7. O-"+_,,,t_mt
Hour:
!% Hours:
J'
2_ Hours:
2% Hours:
3 Houri:
4% Hours:
4 Hours:
Later:
Later:
3. Omsciommtu:
8. Memory:
Hour:
Hour:
1 Hours:
1 Hours:
2 Hours:
2% Hours:
3 Hours:
3 Hours:
4 Hours:
4_ Hours:
L
.....
Hour:
1 Hours:
_}
/
/
_
9.
Ha|lucinatiom:
L
.....
g Hours:
4% Hours:
4_/_Hours:
3 Houri:
Later:
11/I Hours:
4% Hours:
_
% Hour:
3V_ Hours:
Later:
2 Hours:
l Hours:
_/
S Ho..:
4. Concentration:
>
Hour:
Later:
2 Hours:
TABLE
Revised
XIV
Questionnaire
Subject
Dose
Data
Time of Administration
Indicate time you first feel any kind of changes
Answer the fallowing questionswith "O" if your answer il "no"; "1'"
for slight; "'2" for moderate; and "3" for severe positive answers.
HOURSAFTERDRUG
QUESTION
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
] 1.
12.
13.
14.
15.
16.
17.
18.
19.
20.
21.
22.
2_.
24.
25.
26.
27.
28.
29.
30.
PRI_
2t/t
S2.
$3.
54.
55.
$6.
57.
58.
59.
SO
51
_____
_l
4th
228
N euro pharmacology
TABLE XV
A Completed Questionnaire on a Subject with Zero
Dosage LSD-25
FoodPrior:_-,'_?_
Food
During
I.
Half
tions
arc
_'."_-o _
|.
2.
A ...........
Is your ppetlte
Or
d_creased
'
+'+ I|
4
incr,,,d?
++ ]
"
8.
9.
D ....
10.
Is it bitter taste?
It.
Are your
lips numb?
12.
Or drawn
!........
+ I *+' I ]1
4
....... i
1
h?
++
+_.
"
II
i
* it i ]I+*+
..
14.
t
;
15.
Do you
feeldi_ty?
16. Or unsteady?
..!,7.
.Ib
"_+
h....
the following
direct
questo + + + + + basis:Up To
Up To
Af(er
3_/I Fir*.
4'/_ Hrs.
4Vt HH. ,.
'4'
ed?
Ord......d?
6.
I174
_A_ ,q._
_3..,_
or_ho_ing:
,.,.,tio_ f.liog
.......
d
_.e_.
18.
19.
20.
.1renal?
I
23.
Or
25.
Or dry_
cold?
_.
Or cold?
..
2,.,,,_.._,.._.?
_, _,_.., .... ,......
" i
+-I
a.?l ++ I
'"
+ I
+ It
+ II
Research on Schizophrenia
Up To
QUr.STION
Do
Mrh_dt--,,_,..
30.
31.
Or lillhtP
32.
I,
33.
I, your h_lrin,
Up To"
+* r-.
4'4'
* I
Up To
4% Hrs.
After
4% Hn:.
+* J|
+4"
++
abnorm81_ .
34.
++
$5.
36,
37.
'
"
_r
+++
...
++
Ji
++
,,.
',
._
39.
40.
41.
42.
43.
44.
Or
45.
46.
47.,
fatJil_ed?
UpTo
38.
" Up To
229
wly?
++
J
+
4"4'
4'
++_
|
=
.--
**
The followlng are tested and rated by the exper[mentor, and scored normal- -; sbnonnkl + +.
upHr.
To
.%
QUESTION
I.
Pallor
2.
Flushing
3.
R_tlemne_
4.
"]l'remorl
5.
Twlicbin#:
6.
Fm_uhttion
7.
Fibrillation
8.
Pupillm7
9.
VisualFie!dl
UpHrs.
To
2V=
_pfl_.
To
SVs
4_I_,.
_-rHrs.
4YI
Reaetlom
10.
Hearing
11.
Resplrmtiom
12_. Pulle
upHrs.
To
IVs
(tocoulromafion)
(_)
.....
15.
Persplnti_t
14.
Blood
15.
Tendms
Premure
Refletes
(I_)
IS. Coo,,,tnJtioe
(.l_lm_l
' )
18.
Hamdwri_
17.
ll.
Articulation
illusion,,
._.
...........
t
....
230
N euro pharmacology
Abramson:
We thought of that.
Beecher: We have used, for example, "sad . . . happy", 3, 2, 1, 0,
1, 2, 3. You check the point which applies most accurately.
You get
opposite suggestions at the same time, and, at least in our experience,
this is a better way of handling the thing.
Abramson:
We weren't looking for the best way. We were looking
for a useful way. In our hands this has proven very useful over a period
of years, with slight modifications.
Beecher:
You should, I think, present opposites
simultaneously:
"strong-weak,"
"happy-sad."
Abramson:
Yes; we could. There are many ways of setting up a
questionnaire.
Sherwood: Would it be worth-while
to try to establish the basic personality characteristics,
such as Dr. Osmond mentioned?
Should we
determine if the subject rarely sees hypnagogic shapes. I always do,
so I assume that if I took LSD, I would probably get these things much
sooner and it would be much less significant than if he sees them.
Fremont-Smith:
You might not get them at all, but it would be
worthwhile.
That is the purpose of this suggestion of Dr. Leake's, to
establish the personality profile to some extent in advance.
Abramson:
We have done that in all our subjects,
Dr. Leake
(65,66,67).
REFERENCES
i.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
1.0.
Research
11.
12.
13.
14,,
15.
16.
17.
18.
19.
20.
21.
22.
23.
2d.
25.
26.
27.
28.
29.
30.
3l.
32.
33.
34.
on
Schizophrenia
231
2 32
Neuropharmacology
35.
36.
37.
38.
39.
40.
41.
42.
43.
44.
45.
46.
47.
48.
49.
50.
51.
52.
53.
Research
on Schizophrenia
54. VON EULER, U. S., and HAMBERG, U.: Colorimetric determination of noradrenaline and adrenaline. Acta physiol, scandinav. 19,
74 (I949).
55. 1V[ACHT,D. I., and MACHT, MT.B. : Phytotoxic reactions of some
blood sera. ]. Lab. & Clin. Med. 26, 597 (194I).
56. Mac_r, D. I.: Pharmacologic reactions of normal and psychotic
blood sera. South. M. I. 43, 1049 (1950).
57. FEDOROVF,S.: Toxicity of schizophrenic blood serum in tissue
culture. Anat. Rec. 121,394 (1955).
58. --:
Growth promotion and growth inhibition in tissue culture. Thesis, Univ. Saskatchewan Dept. Anatomy. 1955.
59. FISCHER,R.: Factors involved in drug-produced model psychoses.
Experientia 10, 435 (1954).
60. SANTESSON, C. G.: Notiz tiber Piule, eine mexikanische Rauschdroge. Ethnol. Studies 4, 1 (1937).
61. OSMOND,
H.: Ololiuqui: The ancient Aztec narcotic: Remarks on
the effects of Rivea corymbosa (Ololiuqui).
1. Ment. Sc. 101,
526 (1955).
62. HUXLEY, A. L.: The Doors of Perception. New York, Harper &
Brothers, 1954.
63. ABRAMSON,H. A., JARVIK,M. E., KAUFMAN, M. R., KORNETSKY,C., LEVINE,A., and WAGNER, M. : Lysergic acid diethylamide
(LSD-25): I. Physiological and perceptual responses. ]. Psychol.
39, 3 (1955).
64. ABRAMSON,H. A., JARVIK,M. E., LEVINE,A., KAUFMAN,M. R.,
and HmSCH, M. W.: Lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD-25) : XV.
The effects produced by substitution of a tap water placebo.
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