| Abram Hoffer | |
|---|---|
| Born | November 11, 1917 |
| Died | May 27, 2009 |
| Citizenship | Canadian |
| Nationality | Canadian |
| Fields | Schizophrenia, Nutrition, Alcoholism |
| Known for | Promotion of megavitamin therapy as a treatment for schizophrenia and for alcoholism |
Abram Hoffer (November 11, 1917 – May 27, 2009) was a Canadian biochemist, physician and psychiatrist. Hoffer developed a theory that nutrition and vitamins may be effective treatments for schizophrenia. This general approach is called orthomolecular psychiatry (and orthomolecular medicine when addressing non-psychological issues). Although not generally accepted within the mainstream medical community, the body of supporting evidence for its core concepts continues to expand through numerous studies on the benefits and relatively low risks of nutrition-based therapies.
Orthomolecular medicine focuses on vitamins, minerals, and amino acids as replacements for, or adjuncts to, pharmaceutical therapies. The use of megavitamins – large doses of vitamins – is sometimes applied.
Hoffer is also known for his "adrenochrome hypothesis" of schizo affective disorders and protocols for remediation based on natural compounds such as vitamins, minerals and specific fats.[1] Hoffer also first developed the clinical use of niacin in hypercholesterolemia (high cholesterol levels) and other dyslipidemias.
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Hoffer was born in southern Saskatchewan, Canada, in 1917, the last of four children. Originally interested in agriculture, in 1940 Hoffer earned a Masters degree agricultural chemistry from University of Saskatchewan in Saskatoon. He then took up a scholarship for post-graduate work with the University of Minnesota, followed by work developing assays for niacin levels at a wheat products laboratory in Winnipeg. Hoffer earned a PhD in biochemistry in 1944, and with an interest in nutrition went on to study medicine at the University of Manitoba in 1945, earning his MD in 1949. He married Rose Miller in 1942, and his son Bill Hoffer was born in 1944 followed by two more children, John and Miriam, in 1947 and 1949. Though initially planning to become a general practitioner, Hoffer became interested in psychiatry during his internship at the Saskatoon City Hospital. Hoffer joined the Regina Psychiatric Services Branch, Department of Public Health in 1951,[2] and was the Director of Psychiatric Research until entering private practice in 1967.[3] He also founded the International Society for Orthomolecular Medicine with Hugh D. Riordan[4]. Critical of psychiatry for its emphasis on psychosomatic psychoanalysis and for what he considered a lack of adequate definition and measurement, Hoffer felt that biochemistry and human physiology may be used instead. He hypothesised that schizophrenics may lack the ability to remove a hallucinogenic metabolite adrenochrome from their brains and speculated that he could decrease the concentration of adrenochrome in the brain by using vitamin C to reduce adrenochrome to adrenaline and using niacin as a methyl acceptor to prevent the conversion of noradrenaline into adrenaline. Hoffer called his theory the "adrenochrome hypothesis".[5]
According to Hoffer and others, by the mid-1960s psychiatry was emphasising the use of neuroleptic drugs. Hoffer and other researchers were snubbed and became the victims of a conspiracy, with their reports rejected by scientific journals.[6] In 1967, Hoffer resigned some of his academic and administrative positions, entered into private psychiatric practice in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan and created the Journal of Schizophrenia as a means of publishing articles rejected by some mainstream journals. The journal was called the Journal of Orthomolecular Medicine in 1986.[6] In 1976, Hoffer relocated to Victoria, British Columbia and continued with his private psychiatric practice until his retirement in 2005. Hoffer continued to provide nutritional consultations and served as editor of the Journal of Orthomolecular Medicine.[3] He was also President of the Orthomolecular Vitamin Information Centre in Victoria, BC.[7]
Hoffer died May 27, 2009 in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada.[8]
Working with Humphry Osmond (who coined the term "psychedelic"), Hoffer and other scientists sought to find medicinal uses for hallucinogenic drugs.[9] Hoffer, Osmond and others treated alcoholics with LSD. Canadian scientists reported a fifty percent success rate in one study, although Hoffer speculated that it was more likely the psychedelic experience of LSD, rather than simulated delirium tremens, that convinced the alcoholics to stop drinking.[10]
While working at the Regina General Hospital in the 1950s, Hoffer and James Stephen examined the effects of large doses of niacin on various diseases, including schizophrenia;[11] Hoffer theorized that adrenalin, when oxidized to adrenochrome was an endogenous neurotoxin that could cause schizophrenia.[12] At the same time, another Canadian working in Saskatoon, pathologist Rudolf Altschul, was exploring the use of high doses of niacin to lower cholesterol in rabbits and patients with degenerative vascular disease. The three combined their work, and in 1955 produced a paper entitled "Influence of nicotinic acid on serum cholesterol in man" that reported high-dose niacin significantly lowered cholesterol in both high cholesterol patients as well as low cholesterol control subjects.[13] The results were replicated by researchers at the Mayo Clinic and in Germany the following year. High dose niacin has since become a treatment option for individuals with high blood cholesterol and related blood lipid abnormalities.
At such high doses niacin acts like a drug rather than a vitamin and may have side effects of intense flushing of the face and torso and, rarely, liver toxicity.[11] Hoffer continued to promote niacin as a treatment for schizophrenia, though this approach was not accepted by mainstream medicine. Subsequent research suggested that Hoffer's adrenochrome theory had merit as people with schizophrenia have defects in the genes that produce glutathione S-transferase, which eliminates the byproducts of catecholamines from the brain.[12]
Hoffer's claims regarding schizophrenia and his theories of orthomolecular medicine are questioned by some.[14] In 1973, the American Psychiatric Association reported methodological flaws in Hoffer's work on niacin as a schizophrenia treatment and referred to follow-up studies that did not confirm any benefits of the treatment.[15] Multiple additional studies in the United States,[16] Canada,[17] and Australia[18] similarly failed to find benefits of megavitamin therapy to treat schizophrenia. The term "orthomolecular medicine" was labeled a misnomer as early as 1973[15]. Its practices are currently considered by some as inadequate as a treatment for schizophrenia.[19]
Hoffer predicted in the 1950s that it would take at least forty years for his methods to become accepted. In a 2006 interview, Hoffer stated that while he felt that current mainstream psychiatric care was "terrible", his theories and treatments were starting to become more accepted. "[W]e’re at a transition point. If I live another four or five years, I’ll see it."[3] While his research on vitamins and schizophrenia has not been popular with some, the findings that niacin therapy helps reduce cholesterol has been generally agreed upon and frequently demonstrated in multiple independent studies and his contribution here has been significant.[20]