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.

David Healy follows his widely praised study, The Antidepressant Era, with an even more ambitious and dramatic story: the discovery and development of antipsychotic medication. Healy argues that the discovery of chlorpromazine (more generally known as Thorazine) is as significant in the history of medicine as the discovery of penicillin, reminding readers of the worldwide prevalence of insanity within living memory. But Healy tells not of the triumph of science but of a stream of fruitful accidents, of technological discovery leading neuroscientific research, of fierce professional competition and the backlash of the antipsychiatry movement of the 1960s. A chemical treatment was developed for one purpose, and as long as some theoretical rationale could be found, doctors administered it to the insane patients in their care to see if it would help. Sometimes it did, dramatically. Why these treatments worked, Healy argues provocatively, was, and often still is, a mystery. Nonetheless, such discoveries made and unmade academic reputations and inspired intense politicking for the Nobel Prize. Once pharmaceutical companies recognized the commercial potential of antipsychotic medications, financial as well as clinical pressures drove the development of ever more aggressively marketed medications. With verve and immense learning, Healy tells a story with surprising implications in a book that will become the leading scholarly work on its compelling subject.

Psychotropic agents have been effective for the treatment of the emotional, and cognitive symptoms of serious psychiatric disorders. At the same time, the availability of such agents raises questions about the appropriate use of what might be termed 'smart pills', 'happy pills', or 'pep pills'. This volume argues that developments in modern psychopharmacology raise a range of important philosophical questions, and may ultimately change the way we think about ourselves. It provides a framework for addressing important philosophical issues in psychiatry and psychopharmacology. The approach is a naturalistic one, drawing on theory and data from modern cognitive-affective neuroscience and attempts to address objective and subjective aspects of psychiatric disorders, to integrate our knowledge of mechanisms and meanings, and to provide a balanced view of the good and the bad of psychotropics.

"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"--

The Psychopharmacologists 3 completes a trio of interview-based books about the process of therapeutic innovation in clinical psychiatry. David Healy's method is to interview key individuals involved in the discovery and deployment of drugs that have proved useful to psychiatry, and to draw them together within a model of the mechanism and clinical discovery that he uses as an overall framework. These are historical accounts but highly relevant to the clinical psychiatrist of today, emphasising the importance of research, and of the marketing strategies of pharmaceutical companies in formulating disease entities as well as treatments for them.

Psychiatry: Past, Present, and Prospect brings together perspectives from a group of highly respected psychiatrists, each with decades of experience in clinical practice. The topics covered range from scientific discoveries of all kinds, advances in treatment, and conceptual breakthroughs. The highlights are countered by the field's negative sides: perennial indecisiveness about the boundaries of psychiatry; the limitations of a narrow approach to human suffering; the retreat from the hope of a de-institutionalised, community-based psychiatry; the divide between biological treatments and psychotherapy; the technical and ethical complexities of psychiatric research; and the low priority given to psychiatry, especially but far from exclusively in less developed countries. The result is a text full of collected wisdom which will promote the curiosity of mental health professionals about key developments in psychiatry over the past half century; sensitize the next generation of mental health professionals to the role they might play in advancing the state of knowledge about mental illness and its treatment during the course of their careers; and serve as a valuable archival resource for scholars. This collection of viewpoints from very experienced leaders in the field of psychiatry will prove fascinating reading for psychiatrists and allied mental health professionals, such as psychologists, psychiatric social workers, psychiatric nurses and occupational therapists, both trained and in training. It will also offer the interested laity a balanced account of psychiatry's evolution since the 1950s, and its likely prospects in the 21st century.

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.