There were no overall effects from antioxidant vitamins , inositol or dietary minerals on psychiatric symptoms .
There is preliminary evidence that certain vitamin and mineral supplements may reduce psychiatric symptoms in some people with schizophrenia .
BACKGROUND When used as an adjunctive with antipsychotics , certain vitamins and minerals may be effective for improving symptomatic outcomes of schizophrenia , by restoring nutritional deficits , reducing oxidative stress , or modulating neurological pathways .
Lack of effect of inositol treatment in chronic schizophrenia
The phosphatidylinositol ( PI ) cycle represents a key signal-transduction system for many neurotransmitters in the brain ( Berridge et al 1982 ) . Inositol is present in high concentration in brain tissue ( Sherman et al 1985 ) and reduction of inositol levels by lithium ( Li ) treatment may be related to Ll 's mechanism of action ( Berridge et al 1982 ) . Indeed , addition of inositol to Ll-treated rats reverses several of iithium 's behavioral effects in vivo ( Kofman and Belmaker 1990 ) as well as many of its biological effects in vitro ( Busa and Gimlich 1989 ) . As a second-messenger system for numerous neurotransmitters , the PI cycle may well be involved in psychiatric disorders other than manic-depressive illness ( Kaiya et al 1989 ) . Recently , we found that  inositol-lphosphatase  was elevated in red blood cells of chronic schizophrenic patients ( Zilberman-Kaufman et al 1992 ) . This suggested to us that inositol might be lacking in such patients and that the increased enzyme activity represented an attempted physiological compensation . We therefore decided on a clinical trial of inositol therapy in schizophrenia .  lnositol passes the blood-brain barrier poorly ( Spector 1988 ) . The behavioral effects noted in rats were done with intracerebroventricular ( ICV ) inositol ( Kofman and Belmaker 1990 ) . However , Belmaker et al ( 1992 ) showed that large doses of inositol IP reversed Ll-pilocarpine seizures as effectively as small doses given ICV . As in the history of L-Dopa therapy ( Marks 1974 ) , it may be that simple compounds can have psychoactive effects only when given at high doses
There were no overall effects from antioxidant vitamins , inositol or dietary minerals on psychiatric symptoms .
There is preliminary evidence that certain vitamin and mineral supplements may reduce psychiatric symptoms in some people with schizophrenia .
BACKGROUND When used as an adjunctive with antipsychotics , certain vitamins and minerals may be effective for improving symptomatic outcomes of schizophrenia , by restoring nutritional deficits , reducing oxidative stress , or modulating neurological pathways .