Julius Axelrod

A chemist and pharmacologist, in the 1940s Axelrod was asked to figure out why a popular headache remedy caused terrible side effects in some users. He not only isolated the problem, he determined which ingredient was effective for treating headaches: acetaminophen (also known as paracetamol), now the active ingredient in Tylenol. He also studied how the liver metabolized drugs, and discovered the hormone melatonin. But he's best known for his work on a team of scientists who studied how neurotransmitters -- brain chemicals -- worked to affect mood, leading directly to refined anti-depressant drugs called selective serotonin re-uptake inhibitors (such as Prozac, Zoloft and Paxil); he shared a Nobel Prize for Medicine for the work. "His contributions to pharmacology, especially in terms of how drugs act in the brain, were extraordinary," says Dr. Solomon Snyder, director of the neuroscience department at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. "In fact, the work for which he got the Nobel Prize was just a tiny percentage of his scientific output." Dr. Axelrod died at home December 29. He was 92. From This is True for 26 December 2004 Suggestions for further reading: Feeling Good: The New Mood Therapy Revised and Updated by David D. Burns Amazon Price: $7.99 Customer Review: MY DOCTOR RECOMMENDED THIS BOOK AND I'M JUST IN THE FIRST HALF AND ALREADY IMPRESSED. THIS MAY BE THE THING THAT GETS ME OVER THE HUMP, OFF MEDS, AND GOODBYE REPEDITIVE DEPRESSIONS! I HONESTLY HAVE HOPE OF SEEING THE LIGHT AT THE END OF THE TUNNEL. ...   An Unquiet Mind: A Memoir of Moods and Madness by Kay Redfield Jamison Amazon Price: $10.20 Customer Review: This author discusses a difficult topic which has many unrelated symptoms. She pulls it all together through her own difficult life long struggle and makes it a valuable resource for understanding this confusing mental health issue. Also, she further...   Change Your Brain, Change Your Life: The Breakthrough Program for Conquering ... by Daniel G. Amen Amazon Price: $9.36 Customer Review: Dr. Amen was a guest on KQED recently. I found him to be very interesting with an engaging demeanor. Unfortunately, his self-narrated audio book, which was purchased from Amazon, didn't meet my expectations for a new approach to conquering: anxiety,...   Dialectical Behavior Therapy Skills Workbook: Practical DBT Exercises for Lea... by Matthew McKay, Jeffrey C. Wood, Jeffrey Brantley Amazon Price: $15.61 Customer Review: I bought this upon the request of my psychotherapist wife. Personally I can't offer any evaluation of contents, and my wife has not mentioned the book since I gave it to her. The best I can offer is that she said it would be helpful to her in ...   The Bipolar Disorder Survival Guide: What You and Your Family Need to Know by David J. Miklowitz Amazon Price: $13.57 Customer Review: This book helped me to learn about the disorder and how to live with it and work with it. It is a practical book for sufferers of the disorder. Highly recommended.   Newsfeed display by CaRP

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