Suicide - Gather.com : Gather.com Introduction "However, GSK researchers submitting data on Paxil to the US Food and Drug Administration in the late 1980s and early 1990s included suicides and suicide attempts from the washout period in the results for the placebo arms of trials, but not from the Paxil arms. Glenmullen alleges that these extra "placebo" suicides negated suicides attributed to Paxil in the trials, making the drug appear safer than it really was. He says that if the washout results had been excluded, the data would have showed that Paxil increased eightfold the risk of suicidal behaviour in adults." Giles, Jim (Ref. 1)  Suicide can be a symptom of both depression and schizophrenia. It can also be a symptom ofbipolar disorder. Ref. 5 discusses depression. This reference is available free full text at Pubmed Central. They blame the disease on stress. Treatments have been largely trail & error as with schizophrenia. The chemical imbalances are not understood by the drug companies, unfortunately. Depression  There are genetic theories (6). There are also theories of abnormal tryptophan metabolis m. There are nutritional treatments for depression (10). Pellagra  This is a vitamin deficiency disease with psychiatric symptoms . It is discussed in Ref. 11. Mania  Dietary tryptophan depletion has been proposed as a treatment for mania (12). Irritable Bowel Syndrome with Psychiatric Symptoms  According to Ref. 13, tryptophan catabolism is high in IBS (Irritable Bowel Syndrome). This was measured in the kynurenine pathway, which is the main pathway of tryptophan degredation. This is an important study, in my opinion. Serotonin is an important neurotransmitter in the bowel (as well as in the brain). "Those with severe IBS symptoms had increased Kyn:Trp (P < 0.005) compared to those with less severe symptoms and controls, and were over twice as likely to have depression or anxiety compared to those with less severe IBS (RR = 2.2, 95% CI 1.2-3.9)." Fitzgerald et al (13)  This reminds me of celiac disease, where both gastrointestin al symptoms and psychiatric symptoms are seen. However, in celiac disease the offending amino acid is glutamine. Celiac disease is treated by a diet very low in glutamine, which is found in wheat gluten and in dairy products. Milkhas all the essential amino acids plus glutamine, which is not essential.
