Psychopharmaceutical agent

Hellebore root has been the psychopharmaceutical agent par excellence at various times. It is a plant of the Ranunculaceae family, the roots of which, as we now know, contain several glycosides, some of them rather toxic. White hellebore was traditionally used as an emetic (Vomitivum) and black hellebore as a laxative (Purgativum) in both cases the guiding principle was that a mental illness has a physical cause that can be treated by physical effects,... 

Figure 8.4b). Some of the early antihistamines were found to exert antidepressant and antipsychotic properties. These led to modem psychopharmaceuticals. The immunosuppressant activity of the fungal agent cyclosporine also was exploited for therapeutic utility. 

The precursors of modem psychopharmaceuticals. Le. opium, hellebore and rauwolfia, cannot be considered in isolation but only by reference to their contemporary healing arts. Mental illnesses and their possible treatment have confronted people with the same questions at all times where do the irrational ideas and impulses of the insane come from their moods, notions, anxiety and illogical behavior Have these people sinned so that God has now cast an evil spirit into them as a punishment What is this evil spirit a spirit of nature, the ghost of an ancestor, a devil Or is it the patient s sick body that produces the delusions without an outside agent an unknown disease, a poison from within ... 

Chapter /, Modem Psychopharmaceuticals, written by Dr Hossein Fatemi, and Chapter 5, Psychopharmaceuticals and the Treatment of Mental Disorders, provide succinct, up to date, and well-referenced information on how to use the major classes of psychotropic drugs. The latter chapter discusses in a frank and balanced manner the ambivalence towards the use of pharmacologic agents in mental disorders felt by some, and the limitations on the achievements of current drugs as ideal therapies for schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and major depression in particular. Clearly, much has been accomplished, but many needs, especially for prevention of relapse, removal of specific types of symptoms, and restoraton of work and social function, remain to be accomplished by drug and psychosocial therapies. 

No such honest skepticism in our government agencies. Both the FDA and NIMH are now agents of the psychopharmaceutical complex. They do virtually everything in their power to promote biologically oriented psychiatry and the products of the psychopharmaceutical industry. 

The universal AMD gradients (60) have found wide application, particularly for the analysis of crop protection agents in surface water (61-63), plant extract (64), psychopharmaceutic drugs (65) and steroids (66). 

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