Orthomolecular Minds

Whether or not a man's genes may predispose him to criminal tendencies, Chemist Linus Pauling believes that they may have a lot to do with his mental state. This has been proved for a few relatively uncommon conditions such as phenylketonuria (PKU), in which a defective gene leaves the baby unable to metabolize phenylalanine. The resulting metabolic upset damages the brain and causes mental retardation. But Dr. Pauling would go much farther. In Science, he suggests that because of genetic as well as environmental differences, some people may need more of certain vitamins or other essential nutrients than others. If they have a deficiency, it may selectively affect the brain, producing what he calls a sort of "cerebral scurvy" or "cerebral pellagra."

Dr. Pauling, 67, now on the faculty of the University of California at San Diego, won the 1954 Nobel Prize in chemistry for his monumental work on the chemical bonding of atoms into molecules. Lately, he has won more attention (and a second Nobel Prize) as an antiwar crusader. But Pauling remains a chemist at heart, and has long been fascinated by that most elusive of chemical puzzles, the workings of the brain.

Mental Malnutrition. The importance of many vitamins to human health, although commercially overexploited, is well documented. What has been too often overlooked, Pauling complains, is that most of the vitamin-deficiency diseases, such as scurvy, pellagra and pernicious anemia, give early warning of their onset. Months or even years before the physical signs appear, there are changes in mental processes. To Pauling, this suggests simply that the brain is more sensitive than most other organs to even a mild deficiency. He would broaden the range of "essential nutrilites" to include vitamins, amino acids and fatty acids, and probably a host of other substances. He would also widen the range of emotional illnesses for which biochemical causes, or at least components, should be sought.

Pauling believes that varying needs for essential brain nutrients, the result of genetic differences, may lead to insufficient production of a normal metabolic product, or to its inadequate utilization, or to a too rapid rate of destruction. "I believe," says Pauling, "that mental disease is for the most part caused by abnormal reaction rates, as determined by genetic constitution and diet, and by abnormal molecular concentrations of essential substances. Significant improvement in the mental health of many persons might be achieved by the provision of the optimum molecular concentrations of substances normally present in the human body."

Just what these optimum concentrations may be for any individual, Pauling does not pretend to know. It will take a massive research effort over many years to find out, and to find out whether such mental illnesses as schizophrenia can be prevented or effectively treated as a result. But Pauling already has a resounding name for his brain child: "orthomolecular psychiatry," or giving the brain the right molecules in the right amounts.

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