Abstract
THE discussion about “pink spot” its relation to schizophrenia and the identity of the substance(s) giving the typical reaction is still going on1–3. Because of the theoretical and practical importance of the problem we want to report briefly our observations on a series of ninety-six urine samples from patients, mainly women, with various mental diseases at the Neevengården Sykehus, Bergen, Norway. The diagnoses are in accordance with the official list used in Norway and were made solely on the basis of the patients' clinical condition. Forty-six of the cases were classified as schizophrenia, while fifty patients suffered from other mental diseases. The urines were brought to the Department of Clinical Biochemistry, Haukeland Sykehus, where they were analysed, without knowledge of the diagnosis, using the original method described by Friedhoff and van Winkle4. In Table 1 the colours of the spots after staining with ninhydrin and with RF values near that given by Friedhoff and van Winkle5 are listed according to the drugs administered to the patients. It is easy to see that there is a very close correlation between the nature of the spot and the drug administered. There are, indeed, only a few exceptions in which either no spot was found in the expected position or a “pink spot” was found in patients not under treatment.
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CLOSS, K., WAD, N. & OSE, E. The “Pink Spot” in Schizophrenia. Nature 214, 483 (1967). https://doi.org/10.1038/214483b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/214483b0
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