Author: Edward Shorter
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0197574459
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 449
Book Description
The Age of Psychopharmacology began with a brilliant rise in the 1950s, when for the first time science entered the study of drugs that affect the brain and mind. But, esteemed historian Edward Shorter argues that there has been a recent fall, as the field has seen its drug offerings impoverished and its diagnoses distorted by the "Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders." The new drugs, such as Prozac, have been less effective than the old. The new diagnoses, such as "major depression," have strayed increasingly from the real disorders of most patients. Behind this disaster has been the invasion of the field by the pharmaceutical industry. This invasion has paid off commercially but not scientifically: There have been no new classes of psychiatry drugs in the last thirty years. Given that psychiatry's diagnoses and therapeutics have largely failed, the field has greatly declined from earlier days. Based on extensive research discovered in litigation, Shorter provides a historical perspective of change and decline over time, concluding that the story of the psychopharmacology is a story of a public health disaster.
The Rise and Fall of the Age of Psychopharmacology
Author: Edward Shorter
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0197574459
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 449
Book Description
The Age of Psychopharmacology began with a brilliant rise in the 1950s, when for the first time science entered the study of drugs that affect the brain and mind. But, esteemed historian Edward Shorter argues that there has been a recent fall, as the field has seen its drug offerings impoverished and its diagnoses distorted by the "Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders." The new drugs, such as Prozac, have been less effective than the old. The new diagnoses, such as "major depression," have strayed increasingly from the real disorders of most patients. Behind this disaster has been the invasion of the field by the pharmaceutical industry. This invasion has paid off commercially but not scientifically: There have been no new classes of psychiatry drugs in the last thirty years. Given that psychiatry's diagnoses and therapeutics have largely failed, the field has greatly declined from earlier days. Based on extensive research discovered in litigation, Shorter provides a historical perspective of change and decline over time, concluding that the story of the psychopharmacology is a story of a public health disaster.
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0197574459
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 449
Book Description
The Age of Psychopharmacology began with a brilliant rise in the 1950s, when for the first time science entered the study of drugs that affect the brain and mind. But, esteemed historian Edward Shorter argues that there has been a recent fall, as the field has seen its drug offerings impoverished and its diagnoses distorted by the "Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders." The new drugs, such as Prozac, have been less effective than the old. The new diagnoses, such as "major depression," have strayed increasingly from the real disorders of most patients. Behind this disaster has been the invasion of the field by the pharmaceutical industry. This invasion has paid off commercially but not scientifically: There have been no new classes of psychiatry drugs in the last thirty years. Given that psychiatry's diagnoses and therapeutics have largely failed, the field has greatly declined from earlier days. Based on extensive research discovered in litigation, Shorter provides a historical perspective of change and decline over time, concluding that the story of the psychopharmacology is a story of a public health disaster.
Lithium: A Doctor, a Drug, and a Breakthrough
Author: Walter A. Brown
Publisher: Liveright Publishing
ISBN: 1631492004
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 272
Book Description
The remarkable untold story of a miracle drug, the forgotten pioneer who discovered it, and the fight to bring lithium to the masses. The DNA double helix, penicillin, the X-ray, insulin—these are routinely cited as some of the most important medical discoveries of the twentieth century. And yet, the 1949 discovery of lithium as a cure for bipolar disorder is perhaps one of the most important—yet largely unsung—breakthroughs of the modern era. In Lithium, Walter Brown, a practicing psychiatrist and professor at Brown, reveals two unlikely success stories: that of John Cade, the physician whose discovery would come to save an untold number of lives and launch a pharmacological revolution, and that of a miraculous metal rescued from decades of stigmatization. From insulin comas and lobotomy to incarceration to exile, Brown chronicles the troubling history of the diagnosis and (often ineffective) treatment of bipolar disorder through the centuries, before the publication of a groundbreaking research paper in 1949. Cade’s “Lithium Salts in the Treatment of Psychotic Excitement” described, for the first time, lithium’s astonishing efficacy at both treating and preventing the recurrence of manic-depressive episodes, and would eventually transform the lives of patients, pharmaceutical researchers, and practicing physicians worldwide. And yet, as Brown shows, it would be decades before lithium would overcome widespread stigmatization as a dangerous substance, and the resistance from the pharmaceutical industry, which had little incentive to promote a naturally occurring drug that could not be patented. With a vivid portrait of the story’s unlikely hero, John Cade, Brown also describes a devoted naturalist who, unlike many modern medical researchers, did not benefit from prestigious research training or big funding sources (Cade’s “laboratory” was the unused pantry of an isolated mental hospital). As Brown shows, however, these humble conditions were the secret to his historic success: Cade was free to follow his own restless curiosity, rather than answer to an external funding source. As Lithium makes tragically clear, medical research—at least in America—has transformed in such a way that serendipitous discoveries like Cade’s are unlikely to occur ever again. Recently described by the New York Times as the “Cinderella” of psychiatric drugs, lithium has saved countless of lives and billions of dollars in healthcare costs. In this revelatory biography of a drug and the man who fought for its discovery, Brown crafts a captivating picture of modern medical history—revealing just how close we came to passing over this extraordinary cure.
Publisher: Liveright Publishing
ISBN: 1631492004
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 272
Book Description
The remarkable untold story of a miracle drug, the forgotten pioneer who discovered it, and the fight to bring lithium to the masses. The DNA double helix, penicillin, the X-ray, insulin—these are routinely cited as some of the most important medical discoveries of the twentieth century. And yet, the 1949 discovery of lithium as a cure for bipolar disorder is perhaps one of the most important—yet largely unsung—breakthroughs of the modern era. In Lithium, Walter Brown, a practicing psychiatrist and professor at Brown, reveals two unlikely success stories: that of John Cade, the physician whose discovery would come to save an untold number of lives and launch a pharmacological revolution, and that of a miraculous metal rescued from decades of stigmatization. From insulin comas and lobotomy to incarceration to exile, Brown chronicles the troubling history of the diagnosis and (often ineffective) treatment of bipolar disorder through the centuries, before the publication of a groundbreaking research paper in 1949. Cade’s “Lithium Salts in the Treatment of Psychotic Excitement” described, for the first time, lithium’s astonishing efficacy at both treating and preventing the recurrence of manic-depressive episodes, and would eventually transform the lives of patients, pharmaceutical researchers, and practicing physicians worldwide. And yet, as Brown shows, it would be decades before lithium would overcome widespread stigmatization as a dangerous substance, and the resistance from the pharmaceutical industry, which had little incentive to promote a naturally occurring drug that could not be patented. With a vivid portrait of the story’s unlikely hero, John Cade, Brown also describes a devoted naturalist who, unlike many modern medical researchers, did not benefit from prestigious research training or big funding sources (Cade’s “laboratory” was the unused pantry of an isolated mental hospital). As Brown shows, however, these humble conditions were the secret to his historic success: Cade was free to follow his own restless curiosity, rather than answer to an external funding source. As Lithium makes tragically clear, medical research—at least in America—has transformed in such a way that serendipitous discoveries like Cade’s are unlikely to occur ever again. Recently described by the New York Times as the “Cinderella” of psychiatric drugs, lithium has saved countless of lives and billions of dollars in healthcare costs. In this revelatory biography of a drug and the man who fought for its discovery, Brown crafts a captivating picture of modern medical history—revealing just how close we came to passing over this extraordinary cure.
Neuropsychopharmacology
Author: Jahangir Moini
Publisher: Elsevier
ISBN: 0323959733
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 600
Book Description
Neuropsychopharmacology reviews the principles of pharmacology with a focus on the central nervous system and autonomic nervous system. Beyond autonomic and central nervous system pharmacology, this volume uniquely discusses psychiatric disorders and the pharmacological interventions that are available for conditions including depression, schizophrenia and anxiety disorders. With a focus on these specific body systems, readers will see end-of-chapter questions that offer real-world case studies, as well as multiple-choice questions for further learning. Beneficial features and content also include two extensive examination tests, which each contain 100 questions for better learning or to be used in teaching, and a glossary. Helpful appendices cover high-alert medications and toxicology effects on the nervous system. Each chapter will contain classifications of medications, pharmacokinetics, mechanism of action, clinical indications and toxicities. - Describes pharmacology principles pertaining to the central and autonomic nervous system - Identifies pharmacological interventions for psychiatric disorders including current evidence-based interventions for depression, schizophrenia and anxiety disorders - Features chapter outlines, end-of-chapter questions, real-world case studies and examinations for deeper learning or teaching
Publisher: Elsevier
ISBN: 0323959733
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 600
Book Description
Neuropsychopharmacology reviews the principles of pharmacology with a focus on the central nervous system and autonomic nervous system. Beyond autonomic and central nervous system pharmacology, this volume uniquely discusses psychiatric disorders and the pharmacological interventions that are available for conditions including depression, schizophrenia and anxiety disorders. With a focus on these specific body systems, readers will see end-of-chapter questions that offer real-world case studies, as well as multiple-choice questions for further learning. Beneficial features and content also include two extensive examination tests, which each contain 100 questions for better learning or to be used in teaching, and a glossary. Helpful appendices cover high-alert medications and toxicology effects on the nervous system. Each chapter will contain classifications of medications, pharmacokinetics, mechanism of action, clinical indications and toxicities. - Describes pharmacology principles pertaining to the central and autonomic nervous system - Identifies pharmacological interventions for psychiatric disorders including current evidence-based interventions for depression, schizophrenia and anxiety disorders - Features chapter outlines, end-of-chapter questions, real-world case studies and examinations for deeper learning or teaching
Fundamentals of Psychopharmacology
Author: Brian E. Leonard
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 0470842377
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 536
Book Description
Treatment with drugs is fundamental to modern therapy of psychiatric disorders. The number of disorders responsive to drug treatment is increasing, reflecting the extensive synthesis of novel compounds and the greater understanding of the aetiology of the disorders. This third edition provides new and updated material, including an additional chapter on clinical trials and their importance in assessing the efficacy and safety of psychotropic drugs. As molecular biology and imaging techniques are of increasing importance to basic and clinical neuroscience, these areas have also been extended to illustrate their relevance to our understanding of psychopharmacology. This book is essential reading for undergraduates in pharmacology and the neurosciences, postgraduate neuropharmacologists, psychiatrists in training and in practice and medical researchers. Reviews of the Second Edition "...this text is eminently readable, well researched, and probably the best of its kind. The book is well worth buying and anyone who claims to know anything about psychopharmacology will be expected to have a heavily annotated copy." Irish Journal of Psychological Medicine "...[this is] a very good book, especially suited to those interested in psychopharmacologic research and psychiatric residency in training." Journal of Chemical Neuroanatomy
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 0470842377
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 536
Book Description
Treatment with drugs is fundamental to modern therapy of psychiatric disorders. The number of disorders responsive to drug treatment is increasing, reflecting the extensive synthesis of novel compounds and the greater understanding of the aetiology of the disorders. This third edition provides new and updated material, including an additional chapter on clinical trials and their importance in assessing the efficacy and safety of psychotropic drugs. As molecular biology and imaging techniques are of increasing importance to basic and clinical neuroscience, these areas have also been extended to illustrate their relevance to our understanding of psychopharmacology. This book is essential reading for undergraduates in pharmacology and the neurosciences, postgraduate neuropharmacologists, psychiatrists in training and in practice and medical researchers. Reviews of the Second Edition "...this text is eminently readable, well researched, and probably the best of its kind. The book is well worth buying and anyone who claims to know anything about psychopharmacology will be expected to have a heavily annotated copy." Irish Journal of Psychological Medicine "...[this is] a very good book, especially suited to those interested in psychopharmacologic research and psychiatric residency in training." Journal of Chemical Neuroanatomy
Ordinarily Well
Author: Peter D. Kramer
Publisher: Macmillan + ORM
ISBN: 0374708967
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 322
Book Description
Do antidepressants work, or are they glorified dummy pills? How can we tell? In Ordinarily Well, the celebrated psychiatrist and author Peter D. Kramer examines the growing controversy about the popular medications. A practicing doctor who trained as a psychotherapist and worked with pioneers in psychopharmacology, Kramer combines moving accounts of his patients’ dilemmas with an eye-opening history of drug research to cast antidepressants in a new light. Kramer homes in on the moment of clinical decision making: Prescribe or not? What evidence should doctors bring to bear? Using the wide range of reference that readers have come to expect in his books, he traces and critiques the growth of skepticism toward antidepressants. He examines industry-sponsored research, highlighting its shortcomings. He unpacks the “inside baseball” of psychiatry—statistics—and shows how findings can be skewed toward desired conclusions. Kramer never loses sight of patients. He writes with empathy about his clinical encounters over decades as he weighed treatments, analyzed trial results, and observed medications’ influence on his patients’ symptoms, behavior, careers, families, and quality of life. He updates his prior writing about the nature of depression as a destructive illness and the effect of antidepressants on traits like low self-worth. Crucially, he shows how antidepressants act in practice: less often as miracle cures than as useful, and welcome, tools for helping troubled people achieve an underrated goal—becoming ordinarily well.
Publisher: Macmillan + ORM
ISBN: 0374708967
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 322
Book Description
Do antidepressants work, or are they glorified dummy pills? How can we tell? In Ordinarily Well, the celebrated psychiatrist and author Peter D. Kramer examines the growing controversy about the popular medications. A practicing doctor who trained as a psychotherapist and worked with pioneers in psychopharmacology, Kramer combines moving accounts of his patients’ dilemmas with an eye-opening history of drug research to cast antidepressants in a new light. Kramer homes in on the moment of clinical decision making: Prescribe or not? What evidence should doctors bring to bear? Using the wide range of reference that readers have come to expect in his books, he traces and critiques the growth of skepticism toward antidepressants. He examines industry-sponsored research, highlighting its shortcomings. He unpacks the “inside baseball” of psychiatry—statistics—and shows how findings can be skewed toward desired conclusions. Kramer never loses sight of patients. He writes with empathy about his clinical encounters over decades as he weighed treatments, analyzed trial results, and observed medications’ influence on his patients’ symptoms, behavior, careers, families, and quality of life. He updates his prior writing about the nature of depression as a destructive illness and the effect of antidepressants on traits like low self-worth. Crucially, he shows how antidepressants act in practice: less often as miracle cures than as useful, and welcome, tools for helping troubled people achieve an underrated goal—becoming ordinarily well.
How Everyone Became Depressed
Author: Edward Shorter
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0199978255
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 269
Book Description
About one American in five receives a diagnosis of major depression over the course of a lifetime. That's despite the fact that many such patients have no mood disorder; they're not sad, but suffer from anxiety, fatigue, insomnia, or a tendency to obsess about the whole business. "There is a term for what they have," writes Edward Shorter, "and it's a good old-fashioned term that has gone out of use. They have nerves." In How Everyone Became Depressed, Edward Shorter, a distinguished professor of psychiatry and the history of medicine argues for a return to the old fashioned concept of nervous illness. These are, he writes, diseases of the entire body, not the mind, and as was recognized as early as the 1600s. Shorter traces the evolution of the concept of "nerves" and the "nervous breakdown" in western medical thought. He points to a great paradigm shift in the first third of the twentieth century, driven especially by Freud, that transferred behavioral disorders from neurology to psychiatry, spotlighting the mind, not the body. The catch-all term "depression" now applies to virtually everything, "a jumble of non-disease entities, created by political infighting within psychiatry, by competitive struggles in the pharmaceutical industry, and by the whimsy of the regulators." Depression is a real and very serious illness, he argues; it should not be diagnosed so promiscuously, and certainly not without regard to the rest of the body. Meloncholia, he writes, "the quintessence of the nervous breakdown, reaches deep into the endocrine system, which governs the thyroid and adrenal glands among other organs." In a learned yet provocative challenge to psychiatry, Shorter argues that the continuing misuse of "depression" represents nothing less than "the failure of the scientific imagination."
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0199978255
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 269
Book Description
About one American in five receives a diagnosis of major depression over the course of a lifetime. That's despite the fact that many such patients have no mood disorder; they're not sad, but suffer from anxiety, fatigue, insomnia, or a tendency to obsess about the whole business. "There is a term for what they have," writes Edward Shorter, "and it's a good old-fashioned term that has gone out of use. They have nerves." In How Everyone Became Depressed, Edward Shorter, a distinguished professor of psychiatry and the history of medicine argues for a return to the old fashioned concept of nervous illness. These are, he writes, diseases of the entire body, not the mind, and as was recognized as early as the 1600s. Shorter traces the evolution of the concept of "nerves" and the "nervous breakdown" in western medical thought. He points to a great paradigm shift in the first third of the twentieth century, driven especially by Freud, that transferred behavioral disorders from neurology to psychiatry, spotlighting the mind, not the body. The catch-all term "depression" now applies to virtually everything, "a jumble of non-disease entities, created by political infighting within psychiatry, by competitive struggles in the pharmaceutical industry, and by the whimsy of the regulators." Depression is a real and very serious illness, he argues; it should not be diagnosed so promiscuously, and certainly not without regard to the rest of the body. Meloncholia, he writes, "the quintessence of the nervous breakdown, reaches deep into the endocrine system, which governs the thyroid and adrenal glands among other organs." In a learned yet provocative challenge to psychiatry, Shorter argues that the continuing misuse of "depression" represents nothing less than "the failure of the scientific imagination."
From Psychopharmacology to Neuropsychopharmacology in the 1980s and the Story of CINP, as Told in Autobiography
Author: Thomas A. Ban
Publisher: Collegium Internationale Neuro-Psychopharmacologic
ISBN:
Category : Neuropsychopharmacology
Languages : en
Pages : 416
Book Description
This series covers in autobiographical accounts the first fifty years in the history of neuropsychopharmacology. The autobiographies in Volume I, (The Rise of Psychopharmacology and the Story of CINP) are from psychopharmacologists who began their professional careers in the 1950s and 1960s; in Volume II (The Triumph of Psychopharmacology and the Story of CINP), from those who started in the 1970s; in Volume III (From Psychopharmacology to Neuropsychopharmacology in the 1980s and the Story of CINP), who started in the 1980s; and in Volume IV (Reflections on Twentieth-Century Psychopharmacology), who started in the 1990s. At the core of each volume are personal accounts in which the contributions of the scientists, are at the center of the reflections, but also include several sections in which the reflections are focused on the mainstream of events, particular areas of research, individuals and organizations. The series was the extension of an effort by CINP's History Committee, during the chairmanship of Tom Ban, to document both the history of the College and the enire field. It was co-edited by Ban, David Healy and Edward Shorter. Its publication was supported by the College primarily from non-restricted publication grants received from Pierre Fabre, Janssen Pharmaceutica and Research Foundation,Inc., and Janssen Phamaceutica International in Collaboration with Organon International.
Publisher: Collegium Internationale Neuro-Psychopharmacologic
ISBN:
Category : Neuropsychopharmacology
Languages : en
Pages : 416
Book Description
This series covers in autobiographical accounts the first fifty years in the history of neuropsychopharmacology. The autobiographies in Volume I, (The Rise of Psychopharmacology and the Story of CINP) are from psychopharmacologists who began their professional careers in the 1950s and 1960s; in Volume II (The Triumph of Psychopharmacology and the Story of CINP), from those who started in the 1970s; in Volume III (From Psychopharmacology to Neuropsychopharmacology in the 1980s and the Story of CINP), who started in the 1980s; and in Volume IV (Reflections on Twentieth-Century Psychopharmacology), who started in the 1990s. At the core of each volume are personal accounts in which the contributions of the scientists, are at the center of the reflections, but also include several sections in which the reflections are focused on the mainstream of events, particular areas of research, individuals and organizations. The series was the extension of an effort by CINP's History Committee, during the chairmanship of Tom Ban, to document both the history of the College and the enire field. It was co-edited by Ban, David Healy and Edward Shorter. Its publication was supported by the College primarily from non-restricted publication grants received from Pierre Fabre, Janssen Pharmaceutica and Research Foundation,Inc., and Janssen Phamaceutica International in Collaboration with Organon International.
Seminars in Clinical Psychopharmacology
Author: Peter M. Haddad
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781911623465
Category :
Languages : en
Pages :
Book Description
"The 2nd edition of this book was edited by David King and published in 2004. Since then there have been major advances in psychopharmacology in terms of new medications coming to the market, increased understanding of the mechanisms of drug action and new data on the efficacy, tolerability, safety and clinical effectiveness of a range of medications. Partly as a result, clinical guidelines for many psychiatric disorders have altered. As such, a new edition of this textbook was essential and we were delighted when the College approached us to edit the 3rd edition. This was a major endeavor that was only possible with the commitment and expertise of the authors"--
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781911623465
Category :
Languages : en
Pages :
Book Description
"The 2nd edition of this book was edited by David King and published in 2004. Since then there have been major advances in psychopharmacology in terms of new medications coming to the market, increased understanding of the mechanisms of drug action and new data on the efficacy, tolerability, safety and clinical effectiveness of a range of medications. Partly as a result, clinical guidelines for many psychiatric disorders have altered. As such, a new edition of this textbook was essential and we were delighted when the College approached us to edit the 3rd edition. This was a major endeavor that was only possible with the commitment and expertise of the authors"--
Medical Ethics, Prediction, and Prognosis
Author: Mariacarla Gadebusch Bondio
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1351802585
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 280
Book Description
Recent scientific developments, in particular advances in pharmacogenetics and molecular genetics, have given rise to numerous predictive procedures for detecting predispositions to diseases in patients. This knowledge, however, does not necessarily promise benign results for either patients or health care professionals. The aim of this volume is to analyse issues related to prediction and prognosis as a burgeoning field of medicine, which is revolutionizing the way we understand and approach diagnosis and treatment. Combining epistemic and ethical reflection with medical expertise on contemporary practice and research, an interdisciplinary group of international experts critically examine anticipatory medicine from various perspectives, including history of medicine, bioethics, theories of science, and health economics. The highly complex issues involved in medical prediction call for a far-reaching debate on the value and scope of foreknowledge. For example, which responsibilities and burdens arise when still healthy people learn of their predisposition to diseases? How should health care insurance reflect risky life styles? Is the increasing medicalization of life connected with prevention ethically sustainable and financially possible in the developing world? These and other related issues are the subject of this timely and important book, which not only serves as an introduction to the area, but also proposes many feasible solutions to the problems outlined.
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1351802585
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 280
Book Description
Recent scientific developments, in particular advances in pharmacogenetics and molecular genetics, have given rise to numerous predictive procedures for detecting predispositions to diseases in patients. This knowledge, however, does not necessarily promise benign results for either patients or health care professionals. The aim of this volume is to analyse issues related to prediction and prognosis as a burgeoning field of medicine, which is revolutionizing the way we understand and approach diagnosis and treatment. Combining epistemic and ethical reflection with medical expertise on contemporary practice and research, an interdisciplinary group of international experts critically examine anticipatory medicine from various perspectives, including history of medicine, bioethics, theories of science, and health economics. The highly complex issues involved in medical prediction call for a far-reaching debate on the value and scope of foreknowledge. For example, which responsibilities and burdens arise when still healthy people learn of their predisposition to diseases? How should health care insurance reflect risky life styles? Is the increasing medicalization of life connected with prevention ethically sustainable and financially possible in the developing world? These and other related issues are the subject of this timely and important book, which not only serves as an introduction to the area, but also proposes many feasible solutions to the problems outlined.
Mania
Author: David Healy
Publisher: JHU Press
ISBN: 0801899966
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 321
Book Description
This provocative history of bipolar disorder illuminates how perceptions of illness, if not the illnesses themselves, are mutable over time. Beginning with the origins of the concept of mania—and the term maniac—in ancient Greek and Roman civilizations, renowned psychiatrist David Healy examines how concepts of mental afflictions evolved as scientific breakthroughs established connections between brain function and mental illness. Healy recounts the changing definitions of mania through the centuries, explores the effects of new terminology and growing public awareness of the disease on culture and society, and examines the rise of psychotropic treatments and pharmacological marketing over the past four decades. Along the way, Healy clears much of the confusion surrounding bipolar disorder even as he raises crucial questions about how, why, and by whom the disease is diagnosed. Drawing heavily on primary sources and supplemented with interviews and insight gained over Healy's long career, this lucid and engaging overview of mania sheds new light on one of humankind's most vexing ailments.
Publisher: JHU Press
ISBN: 0801899966
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 321
Book Description
This provocative history of bipolar disorder illuminates how perceptions of illness, if not the illnesses themselves, are mutable over time. Beginning with the origins of the concept of mania—and the term maniac—in ancient Greek and Roman civilizations, renowned psychiatrist David Healy examines how concepts of mental afflictions evolved as scientific breakthroughs established connections between brain function and mental illness. Healy recounts the changing definitions of mania through the centuries, explores the effects of new terminology and growing public awareness of the disease on culture and society, and examines the rise of psychotropic treatments and pharmacological marketing over the past four decades. Along the way, Healy clears much of the confusion surrounding bipolar disorder even as he raises crucial questions about how, why, and by whom the disease is diagnosed. Drawing heavily on primary sources and supplemented with interviews and insight gained over Healy's long career, this lucid and engaging overview of mania sheds new light on one of humankind's most vexing ailments.