KOPIN 275Left to right: Julius Axelrod, Rita Kopin, Irwin Kopin, and Georg Hertting, 1965
Donated to the Office of NIH History by Dr. Irwin Kopin
derived from coffee! The Mennonites did not drink coffee, whereas the
single normal subject whose urine contained the compound did drink
coffee. Conversely, all the schizophrenics, except this one younger patient
whose urine did not contain the compound, drank coffee. There were a
number of other similar reports of “spots” appearing in the chromato
grams of urine from schizophrenic subjects that were not present in
urine from normal subjects. These also were subsequently found to be
of dietary origin.
Another example of the pitfalls encountered in psychiatric research
at that time was a report that after an oral loading dose of tryptophan,
schizophrenic patients failed to have the normal increase in urinary
concentration of 5-HIAA. I repeated the study, but collected 24-hour
urine specimens. I also found that the urinary concentrations of 5-HIAA
were lower in the schizophrenic subjects, but this was the result of the en
thusiasm of the nursing staff in urging schizophrenic patients to drink
excessive quantities of water to ensure adequate urine flow to facilitate
collection of urine specimens, whereas this was not necessary in the
normal subjects. The 5-HIAA concentrations were lower in the urine of