Vitamins as Pharmacologic Agents

Publisher Summary This chapter describes the role of fat soluble and water soluble vitamin as pharmacologic agents. Any vitamin may be expected to restore to normal, functional changes which result from the deficiency of that vitamin. It is not easy to determine whether therapeutic results obtained by administration of a vitamin in diseases not following the pattern of a typical deficiency are ascribable to properties other than those necessary for the function as a vitamin. The pure toxic effects of vitamins are those of pyridoxine, which in excessive doses produces clonic-tonic convulsions or of riboflavin. Riboflavin, on repeated intravenous injection of large doses, is precipitated in the glomeruli, thus mechanically interfering with urinary excretion. Certain effects of vitamins cannot be observed by simple inspection or application of the commonly used pharmacologic technics. The pharmacologic effects of vitamins which constitute a restoration to normal of a typical vitamin deficiency are discussed in the chapter. The diagnostic value of vitamin administration is the response to B complex vitamins in cases of “subclinical” deficiency diseases is illustrated. The high specificity of vitamins is demonstrated in experimentally produced pathologic conditions, which resemble those observed in vitamin deficiencies.