Urinary Excretion of Some Products of Tryptophan Metabolism in Schizophrenic Patients

Abstract

The apparent usefulness of a variety of drugs in the treatment of schizophrenia has rekindled interest in the study of mental disease from a biochemical point of view. Young et al.¹have reported that abnormal diazo-coupling compounds are present in the urine of schizophrenics. Sano²reported that certain indole derivatives can be found more frequently in the urine of schizophrenics than in "normal" subjects. Recently McGeer et al.^3,4have shown that schizophrenics excrete a number of aromatic compounds that appear infrequently in normal urine. Many substances which contain an indole nucleus are potent pharmacological agents. Lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD-25) is a powerful hallucinogen⁵; reserpine is widely used in the treatment of neuropsychiatric disturbances and hypertension. Serotonin, an amine containing the indole nucleus, has diverse pharmacological actions in the central nervous system and acts peripherally as a vasoconstrictor agent. LSD-25 can antagonize some of the effects of