A quest for antipsychotic drug actions in the brain: personal experiences from 50 years of neuropsychiatric research at Karolinska Institutet.
The exploration of physiological and molecular actions of psychoactive drugs in the brain represents a fundamental approach to the understanding of emerging psychological phenomena. The author gives a personal account of his medical training and research career at Karolinska Institutet over the past 50 years. The paper aims at illustrating how a broad medical education and the integration of basic and clinical neuroscience research is a fruitful ground for the development of new methods and knowledge in this complicated field. Important aspects for an optimal research environment are recruitment of well-educated students, a high intellectual identity of teachers and active researchers, international input and collaboration in addition to good physical resources. In depth exploration of specific signaling pathways as well as an integrative analysis of genes, molecules and systems using multivariate modeling, and bioinformatics, brain mechanisms behind mental phenomena may be understood at a basic level and will ultimately be used for the alleviation and treatment of mental disorders.
Sedvall
Göran
G
Karolinska Institutet, Department of Clinical Neuroscience, Stockholm, Sweden. goran.sedvall@ki.se
D000818:Animals; D014150:Antipsychotic Agents / Q000266:history* / Q000494:pharmacology; D035843:Biomedical Research / Q000193:education*; D004195:Disease Models, Animal; D004341:Drug Evaluation; D004353:Drug Evaluation, Preclinical / Q000266:history* / Q000379:methods; D004501:Education, Medical / Q000266:history*; D049673:History, 20th Century; D049674:History, 21st Century; D006801:Humans; D007396:Internship and Residency; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000503:physiopathology; D009315:National Institute of Mental Health (U.S.); D009484:Neuropsychology / Q000193:education* / Q000379:methods; D013548:Sweden; D014481:United States
D014150:Antipsychotic Agents