by Craig Olson
This terrible disease of dopamine metabolism may be a relative of schizophrenia. Psychiatric symptoms are often seen, as well as involuntary movements.
One theory is that a neurotoxin is involved which may kill off dopamine neurons. Support for this theory comes from the well-known fact that many psychiatric drugs produce a man-made form of Parkinson's. These Parkisonian side effects include tardive dyskinesia, a terrible form of involuntary movements, often of the face.
Parkinson himself had the original disease long before psychiatric drugs were invented.
A report in the Journal of Neurochemistry (1996) suggests dimethoxyphenylethylamine, the same substance implicated in schizophrenia, as a possible culprit. It seems that DMPEA was a mitochondrial toxin in this study. It inhibited "mitochondrial respiration and complex I activity".
"Compunds with dimethoxy residues in the phenyl ring were associated with more potent inhibition of complex I than those without".
Other compounds were also studied.
DMPEA is found in certain plants in association with mescaline. These plants are cacti.
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Another terrible disease which may also involve an error in dopamine metabolism is Tourette syndrome. This, like schizophrenia and Parkinson's disease, is a brain disease. Parkinson's disease is known to involve the basal ganglia, a cluster of grey matter areas in the subcortcal portion of the brain. The basal ganglia are high in dopamine.
Tourette syndrome also includes both involuntary movements (tics in Tourette syndrome) and psychiatric symptoms.
In the drawing the motor areas are in red. The visual area is in yellow.
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Tourette was a French neurologist of the 19th century. Unfortunately he was never able to come up with a succesful treatment. The same was true of the British doctor Parkinson.
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This is a neuron with a myelin sheath on the axon. In multiple sclerosis there are problems with the myelin sheaths.
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Like other brain disorders, biochemical errors are involved. In the case of Parkinson's disease, a toxin may be destroying dopamine neurons. It may be like the Frankenstein monster, which turned on its creator, Dr. Victor Frankenstein. Dopamine neurons may be creating a substance which is toxic to the very neurons which created it.
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This drawing shows the functional anatomy of the brain, although some functions are still not understood. The motor areas are understood better than the emotional areas.
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Other terrible movement disorders, and, unfortunately, there are many, include multiple sclerosis are Huntington's chorea. Both have psychiatric symptoms, and both are characterized by neuropathology. Huntington's chorea is a basal ganglia disorder. Multiple sclerosis, which can involve shaking, is a disease in which there is demyelination of the white matter. The mylein sheaths come off of certain neurons, which is disastrous. There have been reports of demyelination in schizophenia.
In this drawing visual sensations are in yellow. The olfactory area (smell) is in purple. This area is very important in lower animals.
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Some of the terrible diseases are man-made. An example of this is the case of drug abuse, which comes in many different forms. This is such a terrible problem that an entire page of this website will be devoted to it. Drug abuse is a curse or worse!
The drawing shows sensory tracts in light blue. Note that the tracts cross over from one side of the brain to the other side of the body. Thus the left side of the brain senses the right side of the body.
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Drugs of abuse can make you psychotic.
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This view of the head shows the midline structures of the brain. Grey matter is involved in both Parkinson's disease and schizophrenia. Heath and Averback both suspected the septal area (which is a midline structure) in schizophrenia.
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