Below you’ll find topic areas for articles from the archives of the Journal of Orthomolecular Medicine, including research papers, Case Reports and Editorials.
To learn more about orthomolecular health or search the archives of the Journal of Orthomolecular Medicine, visit www.orthomed.org or JOM archives .
Topic I: Principles of Orthomolecular Medicine and Orthomolecular Psychiatry
I. Principles That Identify Orthomolecular Medicine: A Unique Medical Specialty
Richard A. Kunin, M.D.
In 1969 Linus Pauling coined the word "Orthomolecular" to denote the use of naturally occurring substances, particularly nutrients, in maintaining health and treating disease. At that time megadose niacin therapy for schizophrenia and dietary treatment of "hypoglycemia7 were the major focus of the movement. Since then Orthomolecular psychiatry and medicine have emerged as a distinct and important specialty area in medical practice.
II. Orthomolecular Psychiatry: Varying the concentrations of substances normally present in the human body may control mental disease
Linus Pauling, Ph.D.
The methods principally used now for treating patients with mental disease are psychotherapy (psychoanalysis and related efforts to provide insight and to decrease environmental stress), chemotherapy (mainly with the use of powerful synthetic drugs, such as chlorpromazine, or powerful natural products from plants, such as reserpine), and convulsive or shock therapy (electroconvulsive therapy, insulin coma therapy, pentylenetetrazol shock therapy). I have reached the conclusion, through arguments summarized in the following paragraphs, that another general method of treatment, which may be called orthomolecular therapy, may be found to be of great value, and may turn out to be the best method of treatment for many patients.
III. On the Orthomolecular Environment of the Mind: Orthomolecular Theory
Linus, Pauling, Ph.D.
"Varying the concentrations of substances normally present in the human body may control mental disease." - Linus Pauling
The author defines orthomolecular psychiatry as the achievement and preservation of good mental health by the provision of the optimum molecular environment for the mind, especially the optimum concentrations of substances normally present in the human body, such as the vitamins. He states that there is sound evidence for the theory that increased intake of such vitamins as ascorbic acid, niacin pyridoxine, and cyanocobalamin is useful in treating schizophrenia. The negative conclusions of APA Task Force Report 7, Megavitamin and Orthomolecular Therapy in Psychiatry, he says, result not only from faulty arguments and from a bias against megavitamin therapy but also from a failure to deal fully with orthomolecular therapy in psychiatry- Three psychiatrists comment on Dr. Pauling's presentation.
IV. Orthomolecular Medicine Revisited
Ray C. Wunderlich, Jr., M.D.
Orthomolecular treatment of clinical conditions amounts to only a small percentage of total medical care rendered in North America. Persons with health disorders who seek treatment from their physicians are likely to receive a wide variety of drugs. "The use of pharmaceutical agents has not only become a reflex for most allopathic physicians, it has become a standard upon which judgements are made about "proper doctoring". In recent years, however, a concerned citizenry, uneasy, perhaps, about the ready use of powerful drugs, has increasingly sought alternatives to drug therapy for medical disorders, Largely as a result of population pressure; nutritional education, prudent eating, and physical fitness are fast becoming first-line measures within and without the medical fraternity.
Topic II: Supplementation
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