Website Review
There are several websites that are very good in this area including Archives of General Psychiatry, Pharmacology Central, Lycaeum, etc. Pharmacology Central has been praised on other pages in this site. Lycaeum presents a lot of Shulgin's work, including a diagram of DMPEA, the infamous substance reported by Elnora van Winkle to cause the "toxic mind". Shulgin has a different point of view than van Winkle, but this author (Olson) feels that van Winkle is correct.
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The figure shown is from the Rutgers website which contains an entire book on neuropharmacology. The authors of the book are named at the top of the figure, which is from chapter 7. Chapter 7 is about schizophrenia, which is one of the terrible diseases which this author (Olson) thinks can be cured, or at least greatly benefited. Dopamine is in the pathway from tyrosine to norepinephrine.
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This is the infamous DMPEA 2-dimensional structure, taken from Lycaceum. This is not part of the Rutgers website, which I am reviewing, but this substance is one of the reasons that the Rutgers site is so valuable. DMPEA is doubly methylated, which is why it is fat soluble. This fat solubility makes it potent because it can enter cell membranes, which are made out of fat. Amino acids, on the other hand, require active transport to cross the cell membranes.
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This figure is from Chapter 3, which is about drugs. Of course, the whole book is about drugs. This diagram illustrates the fact that lipid-soluble drugs are able to enter the cell membrane easier. This is why methylated substances are more potent than non-methylated substances. Methylation makes a substance more fat soluble. Mescaline is methylated 3 times. In fact, mescaline very closely resembles DMPEA.
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Again we are reviewing Chapter 3. This diagram shows the blood brain barrier, which hinders certain drugs from reaching the brain. This barrier is useful because there are amines in certain foods, including cheeses. The glial cells enforce the famous blood-brain barrier.
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Shown here is a catecholamine synapse. The enzymes MAO and COMT degrade dopamine. MAO inactivates it, as well as other monoamines. COMT inactivates the dopamine function, but leads to the possible production of DMPEA. Thus COMT could make Parkinson's disease worse by inactivating dopamine and also could make schizophrenia worse by producing a neurotoxin.
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This is another figure from the brilliant book by Hamilton & Timmons. These authors allow the reproduction of their figures as long as the figures are not sold. Again we are in Chapter 7, which is about schizophrenia.
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This data strongly confirms previous theories by Kraepelin, Pauling, and others who felt that schizophrenia has a strong genetic component. This casts very serious doubt on the theories of Freud and others. Dr. E. Fuller Torrey has favored a virus theory. The genetic data appears to disprove both the virus theory and the bacterial (schizoccus) theory (favored by Papez & Bateman). A brilliant Russian scientist, Malis, favored the virus theory. Linus Pauling theorized that schizophrenia is a biochemical genetic error. In reality it is probably a family of genetic errors, much like mental retardation.
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This excellent and important figure shows how both amphetamine and cocaine act on the dopamine synapse. Both are drugs of abuse.
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This figure is from Chapter 6. Norepinephrine pathways are shown. At one time there was an obscure, but good, norepinephrine theory for schizophrenia. According to this theory, alpha-methyl norepinephrine was found in a schizophrenic. This would be an endogenous substance very similar to amphetamine. This theory was never adequately funded, however. No contradictory data was ever published on this theory, which was originated by Dr. Friend.
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Shown here is a dangerous drug side effect of MAO inhibitors. It seems that there is an interaction between these drugs and certain foods, including cheeses and wine. Thus people on these drugs need to avoid certain foods. Otherwise dangerous rises in blood pressure can occur. Because of these problems the MAO inhibitors are not prescribed as much as they used to be. They have fallen from psychiatric fashion.
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