Nutritional Psychiatry

The management of mental illness over the past 100 years has seen many paradigm shifts.
Around 1950, Charpentier synthesised chlorpromazine, which was demonstrated to possess

antipsychotic activity within a year. A few years later, Paul Jansen and colleagues synthe-
sised haloperidol. These developments revolutionised the management of psychotic ill-
nesses. Iproniazid, which was used to treat tuberculosis, was noted to elevate mood. It was

the first monoamine oxidase inhibitor used to treat depression. It was quickly followed by
the synthesis of imipramine, the tricyclic antidepressant. It is reasonable to conclude that
the 1950s was the decade of pharmacological advancement. However, there has been very
little in the way of pharmacological developments within the past 20 years.

The closure of long-stay psychiatric institutions represented another significant para-
digm shift with the recognition that such institutions had profound negative effects on

patients. These closures represented the dawn of appropriate social interventions in the
management of patients with severe mental illnesses.