Molecules and Mental Illness (Scientific American Library Paperback)

About the Book In the past few decades we have learned a great deal about proteins and nucleic acids, the molecular building blocks of all biological systems. This knowledge is being applied in many branches of medicine. The goal of this book is to show its impact on our view of mental illness and its treatment. Until recently, few people have been thinking about the connections between molecules and mental illness, because to do this requires familiarity with two very different intellectual and professional traditions. Myopportunity to combine them came during my postdoctoral training at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) between 1960 and 1963. When I arrived at NIH, I had completed medical school and was thinking of embarking on a career in psychiatry. But I also wanted to learn more about fundamental biology by working in a laboratory. At NIH I met Gordon Tomkins, who was deeply committed to relating basic science to medicine and had founded a department to achieve this goal. Gordon was bursting with knowledge and enthusiasm about the infant field of molecular biology and was convinced that it would ultimately explain almost everything (which, to me, meant even psychiatry). To provide a taste of molecular biology, Gordon arranged for me to become the second postdoctoral fellow in the then tiny laboratory of Mar-shall Nirenberg. I began there immediately before Marshall`s discovery that a synthetic nucleic acid, called poly U, could act as an artificial genetic message. Within months I became an industrious student of poly U, while Marshall went on to work with other synthetic nucleic acids, ultimately deciphering the genetic code by which nucleic acid sequences are translated into the language of proteins. It was obvious to me, and to everyone else, that Marshall`s work was monumental; and within a few years it was honored with a Nobel prize. The experience was an extraordinarily exciting introduction to the laboratory, and supported Gordon`s belief that, if you study things at the molecular level, anything is possible. I was hooked. After a year in Gordon`s laboratory in which I began to use molecular techniques to study the mechanism for storing memories in the brain, I went on to psychiatric training and have worked in both psychiatry and basic biological sciences ever since. Although the integration of these fields has progressed more slowly than I would have liked, the pace is picking up. This book is designed to provide enough essential information about biology and psychiatry for readers unfamiliar with both fields to appreciate how they are coming together. In writing this book I have been greatly aided by the advice of many colleagues and friends and have enjoyed the benefit of working with an extraordinary group of professionals at Scientific American Library. Two people I wish to single out for special thanks are my editor, Sonia Deviatory, and my assistant Anne Poirier, who each made invaluable contributions. My daughters

The text is too enjoyable!! I was hooked! I am a medical graduate interested in Psychiatry and Genetics. This book is now my "bible"! THANK YOU SIR Barondes...thank you for giving me more passion for the field and inspiration for contributing to science in the future. If the Gods are on my side I will meet you someday. Salaam. Hussain

Dr. Barondes makes an incredibly complex subject easy to understand. He packs a great deal of information into a few, well illustrated pages. The book starts in the history of neurology, then explains the structure of neurons and goes on to describe the different brain chemicals and how they work on a molecular level.Because of its clarity, this book would make an excellent textbook for teaching neurochemistry and its interactions with the mind.