Brave New Brain Conquering Mental Illness in the Era of the Genome

by Andreasen, Nancy C.

• ISBN13: 9780195145090
• ISBN10: 0195145097
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2001-06-28
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

Nancy Andreasen, a leading neuroscientist who is also Editor-in-Chief of the prestigious American Journal of Psychiatry as well as the winner of the illustrious National Medal of Science, offers here a state-of-the-art look at what we know about the human brain and the human genome--and shows how these two vast branches of knowledge are coming together in a boldly ambitious effort to conquer mental illness. Scientists today know more about the brain than ever before, thanks to new imaging techniques and to discoveries in neuroscience and molecular biology. Andreasen gives us an engaging and readable description of how it all works, from the billions of neurons to the tiny thalamus to the moral monitor in our prefrontal cortex. She also shows the progress made in mapping the human genome, whose 30,000 to 40,000 genes are almost all active in the brain. In perhaps the most fascinating section of the book, we read gripping stories of the people who develop mental illness, the friends and relatives who share their suffering, the physicians who treat them, and the scientists who study them so that better treatments can be found. This section covers four major disorders--schizophrenia, manic depression, anxiety disorders, and dementia--revealing what causes them, what happens to the mind and brain, and how the illnesses are treated. Finally, the book shows how the powerful tools of genetics and neuroscience will be combined during the next decades to build healthier brains and minds. Andreasen's bestselling The Broken Brain broke new ground in the public understanding of mental illness. Now, by revealing how combining genome mapping with brain mapping can unlock the mysteries of mental illness, she again offers general readers a remarkably fresh perspective on these devastating diseases--their nature, treatment, and possible future prevention.

Author Biography

Nancy C. Andreasen, M.D., Ph.D., is Andrew H. Woods Chair of Psychiatry at The University of Iowa College of Medicine. The Editor-in-Chief of The American Journal of Psychiatry and a member of the task force that developed both the DSM III and DSM IV, she has won numerous awards, has written ten other books and hundreds of articles. Her previous book for general readers, The Broken Brain, was the first to describe the importance of neurobiology to understanding mental illness. She lives in Iowa City and Santa Fe.

Table of Contents

Preface	ix
Part I BROKEN BRAINS AND TROUBLED MINDS
Brave New Brain
Confronting the Burden of Mental Illness	3	(6)
A Waking Nightmare
Mental Illness and Ordinary People	9	(16)
Broken Brains, Troubled Minds
Being Blinded by False Dichotomies	25	(16)
Part II MIND MEETS MOLECULE
The Brain
The Mind's Dynamic Orchestra	41	(46)
Mapping the Genome
The Blueprint of Life ... and Death	87	(43)
Mapping the Mind
Using Neuroimaging to Observe How the Brain Thinks	130	(33)
Part III THE BURDEN OF MENTAL ILLNESS
Understanding What Mental Illnesses Are
The Past Is Prologue to Progress	163	(23)
Schizophrenia
A Mind Divided	186	(29)
Mood Disorders
Riding the Emotional Roller Coaster	215	(38)
Dementias
A Death in Life	253	(25)
Anxiety Disorders
The Stress Regulator Goes Wild	278	(39)
Part IV BRAVE NEW BRAIN
O Brave New World
Conquering Mental Illness in the Era of the Genome	317	(28)
References and Suggested Readings	345	(10)
Index	355