My journey into Pharmacology

The psychopharmacological era began on January 19 1952 when chlorpromazine was given for the first time to a psychiatric patient at Val-de-Grace the famed military hospital in Paris. From Val-de-Grace chlorpromazine therapy in psychiatry raced through the mental hospital of France within one year; the “psychopharmacological revolution” was well underway throughout continental Europe. The first American publication on chlorpromazine appeared in February 1954 and one year later the first Australian and Russian publications were also in print. Following the introduction of chlorpromazine in to clinical practice many psychoactive drugs with distinct pharmacodynamic properties were synthesized and tested for their usefulness in schizophrenia. Thus a new discipline of Psychopharmacology was soon to emerge. In the following decades the science moved from just drugs to receptor based discovery of psychotropic agents. The discovery of brain dopamine receptors paved the way for modern psycho-neuropharmacology. Perhaps this is one area in clinical management where neuroscientists and clinicians worked closely in resolving the pathophysiology of schizophreneia.