Orthomolecular Therapy: Its History and Applicability to Psychiatric Disorders.

Orthomolecular therapy has had much support and much opposition, and yet there remain a number of professionals and parents who continue the quest for its effective application in the amelioration of psychiatric disorders. The popular press has again been the forum for heated debate between those who debunk its possibilities and those who attest to its operative use. Because the parents of mentally retarded and mentally ill children are particularly vulnerable to the raising or dashing of their hopes against claims being made either way, this paper provides an overview and history of orthomolecular therapy, its application to both mental illness and mental retardation, as well as toxicity considerations relative to megavitamin treatment, in the hope that such information will provide mental health professionals with concise an swers to the challenging questions currently being asked by their patients

Vitamin Supplements and Purported Learning Enhancement in Mentally Retarded Children.

Dr. Ruth Harrell and her colleagues conducted a study in 1981 in which the administration of high dosages of vitamins were determined to dramatically improve the intellectual functioning of mentally retarded children. This paper documents the efforts of its authors to replicate the Harrell et al. research and, although no significant differences were found between active treatment groups and control groups at study\u27s end, a thorough comparison is made between the two research efforts