Publisher's Synopsis
THE SERIES The 10 volumes in this series record a fifty year history of neuropsychopharmacology related by 213 pioneer clinical, academic, industrial and basic scientists in videotaped interviews, conducted by 66 colleagues between 1994 and 2008. These volumes include a preface by the series editor placing its contents in an historical context and linking each volume to the next. Each volume is dedicated to a former President of the ACNP and edited by a distinguished historian or Fellow of the College who provides an introduction to its themes and a biography of each scientist's career. The series provides insights into a half century of discovery and innovation with its rewards and disappointments, progress and setbacks, including future expectations and hopes for the field as a whole and the ACNP as an organization. IN THIS VOLUME In the first eight volumes of this series, interviewees reflect on their contributions to the development of neuropsychopharmacology. Volume Nine (Update) differs from prior volumes in that it includes a second interview from some of the interviewees that complements and updates the information in their first interviews. In Volume Nine, as in Volume Eight, interviewees talk about contributions to diverse areas of research and the Volume as a whole provides prime material for an overview of the changes which have taken place in neuropsychopharmacology since the 1950s. During its first fifty years neuropsychopharmacology was a rapidly moving field. Starting in the late 1950s with the gradual replacement of behavioral pharmacology by neuropharmacology in the study of psychotropic drugs, by the dawn of the 21st century, the neurotransmitter era, the first epoch in the field was coming to an end, and succeeded by a molecular genetic era, opening up a new perspective for developing pharmacological treatments. Dedicated to the memory of Nathan S. Kline, President ACNP, 1967, Volume Nine is edited by Barry Blackwell, a distinguished researcher and educator in the field. Blackwell's report of the "cheese reaction" with monoamine oxidase inhibitors in the 1960s has had a major impact on the development of pharmacological treatment of depression.
