The "Pink Spot," 3,4-Dimethoxyphenylethylamine, Common Tea, and Schizophrenia
JAMES R. STABENAU M.D.1,
CYRUS R. CREVELING PH.D.2, , and
JOHN DALY PH.D.3
1 Professor and head, department of psychiatry, University of Connecticut School of Medicine, Hartford, Conn. 06112
2 Research pharmacologist, laboratory of chemistry, National Institute of Arthritis and Metabolic Diseases, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Md.
3 Chief, section on pharmacodynamics, laboratory of chemistry, National Institute of Arthritis and Metabolic Diseases, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Md.
Several studies of schizophrenic and normal patients suggested a plant food dietary source for urinary 3, 4-DMPEA. The authors' study of three nonschizophrenics found this urinary amine (positively identified by mass spectrometry) present during free diet plus tea ingestion and not present during controlled diet except when tea was being ingested. They conclude that urinary 3, 4-DMPEA has an exogenous plant source and that its presence is not primarily related to schizophrenia.
