In the past few years several controversial papers concerning the presence of a blood "factor" in schizophrenia have been published.1-4 Since mental health is one of the foremost problems of our time, these reports have received a great deal of attention, not only from the scientific community, but from the general public as well. Attempts to confirm some of these observations by independent laboratories have not met with success,5,6 and the significance of a blood "factor" to the schizophrenic process is still questionable, if not doubtful.
Among the papers which have suggested a relationship between a serum "factor" and schizophrenia are several from the laboratory of Frohman, Gottlieb et al.2,7,8 This group reported that serum from schizophrenic individuals has a protein "`factor" which alters the glycolysis of glucose by chicken erythrocytes. Serum from schizophrenic individuals caused increased lactate production