Abstract
Almost half a century ago, a series of remarkable therapeutic developments occurred and were soon recognised as milestones in the history of medicine. The introduction of lithium, chlorpromazine, imipramine and the monoamine oxidase inhibitors, within a few years of each other, radically altered the prospects for treating serious psychiatric disorders. Until then, electroconvulsive therapy had been the only definitive treatment available. Research on pharmacological agents that alleviate disturbances of mood, cognition and behaviour, was given an impetus that led to quantum expansion in the ensuing years. It has become customary to recount the history of neuropsychopharmacology from that time. Although this is an understandable bias, it ignores much fundamental research in neurophysiology, neurochemistry and pharmacology and clinical experimentation with psychoactive agents that laid the foundations for what was to follow. Nevertheless, neuropsychopharmacology is still a very young discipline. This manifests not only in chronology but in the ferment, rapid shifts in priorities and fluidity of fundamental concepts that are hallmarks of youth. The critical observer cannot but concede the likelihood that tenets held basic to conte...Continue Reading