title: Drugs in context: a historical perspective on theories of psychopharmaceutical efficacy.
abstract: This article demonstrates that psychoanalysis and socially oriented psychiatry were crucial to the understanding and adoption of the first effective psychopharmaceuticals in North American psychiatry. In the 1950s and the early 1960s, psychoanalysts, socially oriented psychiatrists, and biologists collaborated, debated, and organized interdisciplinary conferences to situate the biochemistry of new psychopharmaceuticals, such as chlorpromazine, in the broader psychosocial context of patients' lives. Psychoanalytical and sociological perspectives not only helped American psychiatrists explain the mechanism of drug action in research but also established the professional authority of psychiatrists over the new pharmaceuticals. As modern pharmacology narrows its focus to microscopic targets in the body, I argue that this early drug research illustrates the present-day need for holistic and interdisciplinary approaches to drug response that acknowledge the psychosocial significance of psychiatric medication in the lives of individuals.
authors.affiliation: Yale Program in the History of Science and Medicine, Yale School of Medicine, New Haven, CT.
authors.forename: Marco A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Ramos
mesh_terms: D014150:Antipsychotic Agents / Q000266:history / Q000627:therapeutic use; D049673:History, 20th Century; D049674:History, 21st Century; D006801:Humans; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000266:history*; D013811:Psychotherapeutic Processes; D011619:Psychotropic Drugs / Q000266:history* / Q000627:therapeutic use; D016896:Treatment Outcome
chemical_list: D014150:Antipsychotic Agents; D011619:Psychotropic Drugs