Detection of Psychotomimetic N,N-Dimethylated Indoleamines in the Urine of Four Schizophrenic Patients

Abstract

Pollin, Cardon and Kety (18) investigated the effects of large doses of various amino acids in combination with a monoamine oxidase (MAO) inhibitor on the behaviour of schizophrenics. They found that methionine in the presence of such an inhibitor was capable of producing behavioural changes which may ‘represent a biochemically induced acute flare-up of a chronic schizophrenic process on the one hand, or a toxic delirium superimposed upon chronic schizophrenia on the other’. Brune and Himwich (8) confirmed the clinical results of Pollin et al. On the basis of their previous work indicating that tryptamine appeared in increased concentrations in the urine before and during the activation of psychotic symptoms, they suggested that under loading conditions the formation of various N,N-dimethylated indoleamines might be facilitated in the body. The tertiary indoleamines so formed might mediate the psychotic effect of methionine with a MAO inhibitor on schizophrenic patients.