A tribute to Abram Hoffer, Ph. D, M.D

8/3/2019 A tribute to Abram Hoffer, Ph. D, M.D.

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Abram Hoffer, Ph.D. M.D.

~November 11, 1917 May 27, 2009

Three Fold Inspirational

1) Clinical Expertise

2) Academic Integrity

3) Moral Courage

Humanitarian Compassion


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Clinical Expertise


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The Standard of Care

in Psychiatry2010


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Medications treat the symptoms

of mental disorders.

They cannot cure the disorder,

but they make people feel betterso they can function.

http://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/publications/mental-health-

medications/complete-index.shtml#pub3


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Between 1981 and 2000, total

prescriptions for allantidepressants

increased by 353% from

3.2 to 14.5 million.

Hemels M, Koren G, Einarson T. Increased use of antidepressants in Canada:

1981-2000. The

Annals of Pharmacotherapy. 2002; 36:1375-1379

Estimate:

1 in 10 Americans use SSRI medications


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Year: 2000 Anti-Depressants

Stimulants Both

USA 2.7% 4.3% 33.7%

Holland 0.5% 1.2% 8.5%

Germany 0.2% 0.7% 5.9%

Prescribing Practices


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Rebecca Riley

Age 4


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Rebecca Riley

Diagnosed at age 2

ADHD

Bipolar

Insomnia


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A medical malpractice suit filed yesterday asserts

that a Tufts Medical Center psychiatrist who

diagnosed the girl as bipolar when she was 28months old and then treated her for two years with

a regimen of powerful drugs is to blame for her

death.

The parents of 4-year-old Rebecca Riley are

awaiting trial on charges that they killed her in

December 2006 with an overdose of psychiatric

drugs.

Shelley Murphy, Boston Globe Staff, April 4, 2008


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"The care we provided was

appropriate and within responsibleprofessional standards. The

appropriate care of our patients is our

greatest duty. Dr. Kifuji has

outstanding credentials and is

respected within her field.

Tufts-New England Medical Center, standing behind

their employee, Dr. Kifuji


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Dr. Kifuji has stopped practicing, pending a ruling

by the state medical board.But her lawyer has said she was

just practicingmainstream psychiatry.

It's now estimated that nearly one million children(in USA) like Rebecca Riley have been diagnosed

with bipolar disorder, or manic depression.


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The Standard of Care in Child Psychiatry

circa 2004

- Valproic acid, (anti-seizure drug used off-label in

children to calm aggression);

- Clonidine, use for insomnia.

- Seroquel for bipolar disorder (not approved for

children under the age of 16)

-No consideration of the role of diet, food allergies, sleephygiene, exercise, orthomolecules, social service

support for young parents;


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Rebecca Riley

RIP

2002-2006


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Psychiatry is more fun

when the patients get well.BSW

I enjoy my practice of psychiatry

quite well, thank you very much!

her former psychiatrist


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Initial Severity and Antidepressant Benefits:

A Meta-Analysis of Data Submitted to the

Food and Drug Administration.

Author Irving Kirsch Dept. of Psychology Univ. Hull, UK

Background: Meta-analyses of

antidepressant medications have reported

only modest benefits over placebo treatment

and when unpublished trial data are

included, the benefit falls below accepted

criteria for clinical significance.


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Drug-placebo differences in antidepressant

efficacy increase as a function of baseline

severity, but are relatively small even for

severely depressed patients. The relationship

between initial severity and antidepressant

efficacy is attributable to decreasedresponsiveness to placebo among severely

depressed patients, rather than to increased

responsiveness to medications.

Funding:The Authors received no specific funding for this study.


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Good news:

The British National Health Service has de-listed (won't pay

for) all SSRI antidepressants and has allocated the funds to train20,000 therapists who do cognitive therapy, EMDR etc. to be made

available for moderate to severe depression instead of the drugs.

Wow!

The basis for this decision is the PLoS article submitted to the

FDA in February, showing that SSRIs are no better than placebo

as far as the intended effect is concerned, while the side-effects are

of course horrendous and include suicide, cancer and diabetes.

Just in case you haven't seen this,

Helke Ferrie (private correspondence: March 24th 2008)


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The power of wordsBy naming things we have dominion over them

Consider the varied clinical

(and financial implications!)

of these two terms:

nervous breakdownvs.

psychotic illness


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The Wisdom of the Colloquial

You are driving me crazy.

I am beside myself.

You push me to the breaking point.


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What is a nervous breakdown?

a temporary state of

incapacitation due to excessive

stress coupled with inadequate

coping ability.


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I have heard of a man lost in the woodsand dying of famine and exhaustion at

the foot of a tree, whose loneliness was

relieved by the grotesque visions withwhich, owing to bodily weakness, his

diseased imagination surrounded him,

and which he believed to be real.

Thoreau Walden Solitude


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Dr. Abram Hoffers

Adrenochrome Theoryoffers the best explanation of this bio-

chemical breaking point

see

http://orthomolecular.org/library/jom/archive_list/index.shtmlfor numerous related publications

Hoffer, Osmond, Smythies et al 1951-present
http://orthomolecular.org/library/jom/archive_list/index.shtmlhttp://orthomolecular.org/library/jom/archive_list/index.shtmlhttp://orthomolecular.org/library/jom/archive_list/index.shtml


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Well,you dont say!!


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How to behold the patient


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Destigmatize

EngageHumor

Relationship

Treat people like you want them to become

and you help them attain that behavior.

Goethe


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Dr. Hoffers therapeutic comment

to patients.

I wish I hadyour gene pool!


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Dr. Hoffers therapeutic question

to patients.

What will you dowhen you get well?


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Academic Integrity


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The

Adrenochrome Hypothesis:

Clinical Applications


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Which is better?

Ferrari Jeep


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The Two Categories of Patients in my Practice

Psychiatric -

High performancebut better stay on road,

use high octane fuel

get regular maintenance!

Somatic -

Can stay up all night partying,over imbibe, shake it off

and do it again the next night.

No mechanic required.


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What I tell my patients.

You are not mentally ill.

You are intoxicated.


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Distress vs. Disease

Intoxication vs. Illness

Being Drunk vs. Being a Drunk


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Example of a rational

treatment protocol: the cast.


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But it is NOT rational

treatment if the patient is

still in a cast 6 years later!

.Well, we never know

when you might breakyour leg again, so we

surgeons decided to keep

you in this cast for the

rest of your life. Better tobe safe than sorry!


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Therapeutic Insight

based uponthe Adrenochrome Hypothesis:

We allhave a breaking point.(effort to de-stigmatize)

The problem is correctable.(the role of hope)


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The Stories Around the Adrenochrome Hypothesis

1938 Green and Richter demonstrate that cytochrome oxidase can

convert epinepherine to adrenochrome.

1951 Hoffer, Osmond, Smythies et al begin lifelong collaboration

1958 Hoffer reports presence of adrenochrome in human plasma,

1958 Szara fails to confirm Hoffers finding

Julius Axelrod collaborates with Seymore Kety (Nobel prize).

1951- present Hoffers patients continue to get well and pay taxesand continues to publish papers which are ignored

See http://orthomolecular.org/library/jom/archive_list/index.shtml

for listing of JOM articles 1967-present! New generations of orthomolecular psychiatrists carry on the

politically and economically incorrect work of offering patientssafe, effective, and cost-effective care.
http://orthomolecular.org/library/jom/archive_list/index.shtmlhttp://orthomolecular.org/library/jom/archive_list/index.shtml


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The adrenochrome hypothesis

has been a very helpful map thatyou and I have followed and you

we know that it has been very

effective in directing promising

investigations and many clinical

successes.

personal correspondence 2-09


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"High-affinity Niacin Receptor HM74A

is Decreased in the Anterior Cingulate"

Brain Research Bulletin, 2008.Dr Christine Miller.

"In conclusion, one important implicationof the data we present here is that the

early clinical studies by Abram Hoffer

reported in a notable degree of successthrough treatment of un-medicated

patients with niacin.".


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Hoffer Comment:

This means that there is something wrong

with the receptors of niacin, the door into the

neurons. This is why so much niacin has to be

given to force its way in.

This paper will direct attention away from

drugs and to the family of vitamin B3

substances. The drought of interest in thiswork is at last over and we are at the

beginning of a new and rational psychiatry.


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Well,imagine that!

It only took

57 years!!


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Take Home message

When stressed past ones breaking point, (defined biochemically by the

intoxicating accumulation of adrenochrome), whether from life in

general or a torturer in specific, people experience predictable

worsening stages of disorientation, depersonalization, and distress.

In clinical settings this is termed psychosis, mania,

schizophrenia and more accurately, nervous breakdown.

In political settings (when being tortured), this is termed willingness to

confess.

In both instances, the biochemistry renders the content implausible to

the point of being an unreliable version of reality, since the subject is

intoxicated past his ability to speak the truth.


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Moral Inspiration


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Nobel Laureates Misbehavin

In 1975 at the age of 37, David Baltimore shared the Nobel Prizefor Physiology or Medicine with Howard Temin and Renato

Dulbecco. The citation reads, "for their discoveries concerning the

interaction between tumour viruses and the genetic material of the

cell." At the time, Baltimore's greatest contribution to virology

was his discovery of reverse transcriptase (RTase)

Baltimore is best known for his role in an

affair of alleged scientific misconduct.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Baltimore

D B d


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Dear Brad:

I knew ____A____ (a future Nobel Laureate) very well and consider

him a third rate scientist and a crook and a thief. Once I sent NIMH

some adrenochrome as they did not know how to make it. I sent it toanother scientist, Udenfriend, who was not on speaking terms with __A___

and when ___A___asked him for a few milligrams, he refused to give it to

him, This did not deter ___A___ and he sneaked into Udenfriends lab and

stole some. This was gaily announced by ___B____ (another future Nobel

Laureate) at the meeting I attended and he thought it was a hilarious. Hedid his best to destroy our hypothesis by showing that it was impossible for

any adrenochrome to be made except maybe a slight amount by the

salivary glands. He shared his Nobel because NIMH placed great pressure

on the Nobel Committee in Sweden, NIMH desperately need a winner and

he was their choice even though third rate.

I heard a few years ago that NIMH was very fearful that Osmond and I

would get the Nobel and they decided to destroy us.

Abram (Hoffer, personal correspondence 4-1-08)

I am convinced, as an old hand at this game, that schizophrenia


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, g , p

is not a unique disease, that it is caused by many biochemical

abnormalities and the real answers, if we ever get them, will lie

in nutritional treatment. I have never seen a single patient on

drugs ever get well even though they are helped and theirsymptoms are not as troublesome . The drugs are all palliative,

never curative. There is recent evidence from Johns Hopkins

that in schizophrenia brains at autopsy there is a defect in the

structure of their niacin receptors and this will explain whymany of them need so much to get into the neurons in their

heads. This paper was submitted for publication by a very

dedicated research worker from this university. But the

companies will not touch this as there is no patent on vitamins

and they want a drug which they patent and earn billions, not a

cheap simple vitamin than anyone can sell and which does not

kill any one.

Abram Hoffer 3-08 Personal Correspondence


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Why are we here tonight?

Why do we not abide by the

standard of care?


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Imagine it is the year: 1951


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Dont take for granted your

supportive colleagues.


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Congratulations to

YOU

for being here tonight


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If I wanted

to be popular,

I wouldntbe doing research.

Abram Hoffer, Ph.D. M.D.

Perished while publishing,

treating and teaching!

Glorious legacy lives on.

Documents

A tribute to Abram Hoffer, Ph. D, M.D