An Orthomolecular Study of Psychotic Children

One of the functions of the Institute for Child Behavior Research in San Diego is to serve as an information clearinghouse for parents and professionals around the world who are interested in research on the cause and treatment of severe behavior disorders in children. Each year the Institute receives letters and phone calls from thousands of people from all over the world asking for information and telling us what has and has not worked to help their child or the children with whom they are concerned. An amazing variety of ideas has been tried out ranging from music and shadow-therapy through psychotherapy and operant conditioning, to colonic i r r i g a t i o n s , spinal adjustments, and rage reduction therapy." It doesn't take long to develop a skeptical attitude about most of these breakthroughs." In the mid 1960s, I began to hear from various parents who had started to experiment on their Own mentally ill children, using quite large amounts of certain harmless, watersoluble vitamins. These unhappy people would write to me about the bitter disappointment and discouragement they had experienced with the usual treatment methods, such as psychotherapy and psychoanalysis,