There has been a spurt of new drugs for diabetes and cancer treatment in recent years. Those with neuropsychiatric diseases, however, have been left behind as advances in psychiatric pharmacology have not kept pace.
Attendant: “It happens but it takes time.”
Manny (to his wife): “Rose…?”
Attendant: “She’s not listening now.”
—The Wrong Man, Alfred Hitchcock
YES, it’s taking time. Over half a century has passed since this 1956 film, where a gloomy protagonist leaves his wife Rose behind in the asylum, staring vacantly out of the window—her bare room an allegory for the white funk of her mind. In all these years, countless scenes like this one would have unfolded on screen and in real life—only superficialities separating them, and a mind-numbing sameness marking their essence. Why so? Most branches of medicine are miles away from where they stood in the 1950s, in depth of understanding, diagnostic perfection and targeted intervention. But with mental illness, it’s as if science is still staring vacantly, like Rose, at a formless white fog outside the window.
The contrast is striking. AI is upon us, machines are beginning to self-learn, information systems modelled on the human brain’s neural pathways have changed the world. But the mysteries of the human mind are as impenetrable as ever. We don’t fully know how it gets things right. So to zero in on what has gone wrong—and then to fix it—is like shooting in the dark. That’s why Dr David J. Anderson, a neurobiologist working at the California Institute of Technology, summed up the situation, during a recent interview in India, with these stark words: “There hasn’t been a fundamentally new neuropsychiatric drug in the last 50 years”.
Diese Geschichte stammt aus der March 05, 2018-Ausgabe von Outlook.
Starten Sie Ihre 7-tägige kostenlose Testversion von Magzter GOLD, um auf Tausende kuratierte Premium-Storys sowie über 8.000 Zeitschriften und Zeitungen zuzugreifen.
Bereits Abonnent ? Anmelden
Diese Geschichte stammt aus der March 05, 2018-Ausgabe von Outlook.
Starten Sie Ihre 7-tägige kostenlose Testversion von Magzter GOLD, um auf Tausende kuratierte Premium-Storys sowie über 8.000 Zeitschriften und Zeitungen zuzugreifen.
Bereits Abonnent? Anmelden
No Singular Self
Sudarshan Shetty's work questions the singularity of identity
Mass Killing
Genocide or not, stop the massacre of Palestinians
Passing on the Gavel
The higher judiciary must locate its own charter in the Constitution. There should not be any ambiguity
India Reads Korea
Books, comics and webtoons by Korean writers and creators-Indian enthusiasts welcome them all
The K-kraze
A chronology of how the Korean cultural wave(s) managed to sweep global audiences
Tapping Everyday Intimacies
Korean filmmaker Hong Sang-soo departs from his outsized national cinema with low-budget, chatty dramedies
Tooth and Nail
The influence of Korean cinema on Bollywood aesthetics isn't matched by engagement with its deeper themes as scene after scene of seemingly vacuous violence testify, shorn of their original context
Beyond Enemy Lines
The recent crop of films on North-South Korea relations reflects a deep-seated yearning for the reunification of Korea
Ramyeon Mogole?
How the Korean aesthetic took over the Indian market and mindspace
Old Ties, Modern Dreams
K-culture in Tamil Nadu is a very serious pursuit for many