The acid test for schizophrenia

A review of the autobiography of Dr Abram Hoffer, Psychiatrist

Research by Dr. Abram Hoffer discovered that Schizoprenia was curable 75% of the time simply by using Vitamin B3 (also known as Niacin). For some reason he met vigorous opposition from the psychiatric establishment, who prefered their own more expensive medications, and other forms of treatment, all of which were far less successful than this simple low cost treatment.

From 1952-60, Hoffer (as chairman), Osmond and four other members of the Committee on Schizophrenic Research (at the University of Saskatchewan) proceeded to perform the world's first double-blind studies in psychiatry -- six in all -- showing that B3, given orally, could "cure" 75 per cent of acute schizophrenics within two years.

The B3 research involved many beneficial offshoots, Hoffer says: epileptics' EEGs returning to normal, alcoholics, including Alcoholics Anonymous founder Bill W., no longer craving drink.

The story of how Hoffer's Saskatchewan research team found a treatment for acute schizophrenia, and the establishment's virulent opposition, which continues to this day, can be found in the 88-year-old's memoir, Adventures in Psychiatry.

Unfotunately, he also researched the similarity of the effects of LSD to schizophrenia, and was raked over the coals, in no small part due to the escapades of Timothy Leary.