Medicine has struggled to remedy the many and varied disorders of the brain. But the discoveries ahead will change minds and lives
Save time by listening to our audio articles as you multitaskWhen minds change, so do brains—and the opposite is also true. Things which change brains and central nervous systems, or the behaviour of specific types of neurons and supporting cells within those structures, can also change minds, for better or worse. When brains age, or are damaged, or are diverted with recreational drugs, minds alter, too. Sometimes entire personalities shift.
The science informing both fields is at the same time advanced and also quite primitive. The brain is so complex that scientific understanding of it can seem decades behind that of other organs.
In the second half of the 20th century doctors discovered a range of psychiatric drugs. But each of the three major classes of psychiatric drugs—antidepressants, antipsychotics and anxiolytics—were discovered by chance. Scientific accounts of how they worked were absent, sketchy or wrong. A decade ago no mechanistically novel drug had reached the market in more than three decades. There was talk of psychopharmacology being in crisis.
These advances are bringing innovative approaches to targeting diseases of the brain. Optimism is also coming from successful new treatments for disorders such as depression, epilepsy, migraine, postnatal depression and spinal muscular atrophy .
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