Biochemistry, Schizophrenias, and Affective Illness

Abstract

Reading this book is a frustrating experience. It is probably the best source of authoritative knowledge about the biochemistry of mental illness. It is encyclopedic in scope. Yet it leaves the clinician feeling dissatisfied. Why should this be? The editor, Dr. Himwich, has admirably described the present status of indoleamines in schizophrenia and depression. Drs. Snezhevsky and Vartanyan have reviewed the role of erythrocyte permeability in schizophrenia and given us the Russian approach to classification. Dr. Schildkraut has made an exhaustive, scholarly review of catecholamine metabolism and affective illness. Dr. Gottlieb and his co-workers have reviewed their provocative hypothesis about the role of γ2 globulin in schizophrenia and have suggested that this substance is out of control in the schizophrenic just as glucose is out of control in the diabetic. Dr. Heath has brought up to date his immunological theory of the etiology of schizophrenia and the possibility of an