A previous publication from this laboratory1 showed that the urine of schizophrenic patients contains abnormally large amounts of chromogenic substances that can be precipitated by lead acetate. The control subjects comprised normal persons, patients with various organic diseases, and patients with mental diseases other than schizophrenia. The amounts excreted by schizophrenic patients appeared to vary with the clinical state. The previous publication1 suggested that some of these substances were aminochromes, i.e., substances chemically related to adrenolutin. Studies on the chromatographic properties of the chromogenic lead-acetate-precipitable substances have been made; these studies are the subject of the present report.
Material and Methods
Male and female nurses and medical students who ate the same diet as the patients were used as control subjects. Twelve-hour urine specimens were collected from 7 p.m. to 7 a.m. in gallon jugs that contained 10 ml. of concentrated acetic