The madness pill : one doctor's quest to understand schizophrenia / Justin Garson.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Garson, Justin, Author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Snyder, Solomon H., 1938-.

Snyder, Solomon H.

Psychiatrists--United States--History--20th century.

Psychiatrists.

Schizophrenia--Treatment--United States--History--20th century.

Schizophrenia.

Antipsychotic drugs--United States--History--20th century.

Antipsychotic drugs.

Schizophrenia--Treatment--History.

Genre:

Biographies.

Interviews.

interviews.

Physical Description:

233 pages ; 22 cm

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

New York : St. Martin's Press, 2026.

Summary:

"A rollicking history of the life and work of an unheralded genius: Dr. Solomon Snyder, whose experiments with mind-altering drugs helped change the way we think about the causes and treatments of schizophrenia. In the 1950s, the field of psychiatry had nothing to show for itself. While polio was being cured, antibiotics were being discovered, and cancer research was developing, the mental health world had no wins. Asylums were full and nobody had figured out how to fix insanity-specifically schizophrenia, the severest mental illness. Scientists became convinced that if they could engineer a pill to create madness, then they could cure it. Centered around Solomon Snyder, the psychiatrist who ultimately did identify the madness pill, and the community of doctors and researchers he worked with, THE MADNESS PILL recounts the drug-fueled quest to cure schizophrenia. A wunderkind who started medical school at 19, Snyder worked steadily for decades to replicate the illness, ultimately finding in 1970 that amphetamines could trigger a schizophrenia-like state by flooding the brain with dopamine. Five years later, he went on to discover the dopamine receptor and proved that antipsychotic drugs work by disabling dopamine neurons. Snyder's dopamine hypothesis inspired a generation of researchers to part ways with psychoanalysis and look for the biological basis of schizophrenia and other mental disorders. Using first-hand research and interviews, THE MADNESS PILL is at once a raucous history and insightful portrait of a remarkable scientist who turned psychiatry into a respected science by transforming how mental illness is treated"-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

A mandolin

Six schizophrenic patients

Tasting madness

Four monkeys

Acid panic

Speed trials

Frenzied rats

Radioactive heroin

A disease of dopamine

New world.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9781250337962

1250337968

OCLC:

1584385695

Publisher Number:

CIPO000363517