Carl Pfeiffer (pharmacologist)

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Carl Curt Pfeiffer, M.D., Ph.D. (1908 – 1988) was a physician and pharmacologist who specialized in researching the causes of schizophrenia, allergies and other diseases. He was Chair of the Pharmacology Department at Emory University and is considered one of the founders of orthomolecular psychiatry.[1]

He made major contributions to the understanding of trace element and mineral metabolism in the schizophrenias,[2] (at the time it not as common to differentiate between schizophrenia and what is now known as bipolar disorder) and investigated the therapeutic uses of amino acids in various illnesses.[3] Pfeiffer and co-workers discovered that about a third of all the patients they examined had very high basophil counts, very high blood histamine levels and anomalies in their trace metal levels.[4][5] Pfeiffer collaborated with Abram Hoffer.[6] For many years Dr. Pfeiffer helped run the Princeton Brain-Bio Center, now known as the Earth House, which is dedicated to the orthomolecular treatment of psychiatric ailments.[1]

Pfeiffer's research was published in prestigious journals such as the Journal of the AMA, Proceedings of the NY Academy of Science, Science, Biological Psychiatry, and the Journal of Orthomolecular Medicine.[7] His conclusions, and those of other researchers in the field of orthomolecular psychiatry are described in great detail in Natural Healing for Schizophrenia by Eva Edelman.[8]

The Pfeiffer Treatment Center in Warrenville, Illinois, which treats patients with psychiatric ailments according to the precepts of orthomolecular psychiatry, and has done extensive research into the neurobiology of criminal behavior, is named in his honor.

Contents

[edit] Controversy

In the 1970's, it was revealed that between 1955 and 1964 Pfeiffer conducted experiments in mind and behavior control under Project MK-ULTRA for the Central Intelligence Agency. Supposedly with the "full, informed consent" of the subjects (debated), he administered the drug LSD to prisoners in Atlanta and Bordentown, N.J., under a program financed indirectly by the C.I.A..[9]

[edit] Bibliography

By Carl Pfeiffer:

  • Pfeiffer C (1988). Nutrition and Mental Illness : An Orthomolecular Approach to Balancing Body Chemistry. Healing Arts Press. ISBN 0-89281-226-5. 
  • Pfeiffer C (January 1976). Mental and Elemental Nutrients: A Physician's Guide to Nutrition and Health Care. Keats Pub. ISBN 0-87983-114-6. 
  • Pfeiffer, Carl C. Ph.D., M.D. and Scott LaMola, B.S. Zinc and Manganese in the Schizophrenias First published in Journal of Orthomolecular Psychiatry, Vol. 12, No. 3, 1983

[edit] External links

  • The Earth House - Dr. Pfeiffer's "Princeton Brain Biocenter" has since been renamed the "Earth House."

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b Pfeiffer CC. Nutrition and Mental Illness: An Orthomolecular Approach to Balancing Body Chemistry. Healing Arts Press., 1988.
  2. ^ Pfeiffer CC, Braverman ER. Zinc, the brain and behavior, Biol Psychiatry. 1982 Apr;17(4):513-32.
  3. ^ Braverman ER,Pfeiffer CC, Blum K, Smayda R. The Healing Nutrients Within: Facts, Findings, and New Research on Amino Acids, Basic Health Publications, 2003
  4. ^ Pfeiffer CC et al. Blood histamine levels, basophil counts, and trace metals in the schizophrenias, Psychopharmacol Bull. 1971 Jul;7(3):37.
  5. ^ Pfeiffer CC. Extreme basophil counts and blood histamine levels in schizophrenic outpatients as compared to normals, Res Commun Chem Pathol Pharmacol. 1972 Jul;4(1):51-9.
  6. ^ [1] Hoffer A, A Brief History of the Discovery of Kryptopyrrolle: A Diagnostic Test for a Subgroup of the Schizophrenias, Journal of Orthomolecular Medicine Vol. 16, 1st Quarter 2001.
  7. ^ "Medline Search for Pfeiffer CC,
  8. ^ Edelman, E, Natural Healing for Schizophrenia, Borage Books, 3rd edition, 2001
  9. ^ Obituary - NYT - April 1988