Posted by med_empowered on March 23, 2007, at 2:29:41 [reposted on March 25, 2007, at 4:34:59 | original URL]
In reply to Re: Orothomolecular treatment for bipolar disorder » Squiggles, posted by Larry Hoover on March 22, 2007, at 14:05:53
I'm personally interested in orthomolecular psychiatry, and have been looking for someone locally. The ideas are pretty sound, I think: vitamins/minerals cal alleviate mental distress, with fewer side effects than psychotropics. Lithium, after all, is a mineral; this is not a concept entirely foreign to psychiatry.
I don't want to play the conspiracy card, but...you can't patent vitamins/minerals, and Big Pharma dictates the direction of a lot of research. To claim otherwise would be naive. So I think part of the problem is that there isn't funding for orthomolecular research, and the psychiatric establishment is too in love with $$$ pharmaceuticals to really think about, say, niacin therapy. Plus, science moves by revolution, not evolution. 40 years ago, psychoanalysis was popular. Now its the bio-bio-biopsychiatric model. In 30 years, it could well turn back to more psychosocial models of distress. Point it, within our current paradigm, I don't think there's a lot of room for vitamin therapy, and there may not be for a while--that doesn't mean it doesn't work.
poster:med_empowered
thread:744029
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/alter/20070320/msgs/744037.html