Response to Dr. Osmond’s Comments

Abstract

Dr. Osmond has taken issue with our tests of the adrenochrome hypothesis on the thesis that injected epinephrine may not behave like endogenous epinephrine and because our studies were made on blood and urine. However, the adrenochrome hypothesis postulated that circulating epinephrine released by the adrenal medulla was oxidized to adrenochrome. Injecting it into the blood would seem to be an appropriate test of the hypothesis. It is rather odd that Dr. Osmond should now discount studies based upon examination of blood and urine since he and Hoffer had earlier claimed that adrenochrome was present in the blood of schizophrenic patients and was excreted in their urine. Altschule, whom Hoffer cites in support of the hypothesis, found adrenochrome in urine.