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Psychiatric Aspects of Parkinson's Disease ecnp matters NEWSLETTER NO. 4, December 2002 Looking back at Barcelona Page 3 ECNP Consensus Meeting 2002: Expectations certainly met Long-term treatment in psychi- atric and neurological diseases In the June 2002 issue of ecnp matters the Scientific Programme Committee focused with enthusiasm on certain aspects of the 15th ECNP Congress. Were Page 4-6 15th ECNP Congress those expectations met? Barcelona - October 5 - 9, 2002 David J. Nutt, chair SPC 15th ECNP Congress Page 7 rack system very impressive turnout to this new ses- Calendar ECNP events TBy common consensus the new sion, with many more delegates than track systems would seem to be a great the individual presenters could have success. Participants were guided expected to reach in an ordinary set- Page 8 through the extensive programme by ting. General Assembly Barcelona classifying the presentations into one of The quality of the presentations (after the following: some slight teething problems with the – treatment track audiovisual system) was uniformly high – clinical research track and the quality of the discussions con- – interface track firmed that this quality was well appre- – preclinical track ciated. I got the impression that the – educational track. young hot topic presenters really I received a number of unsolicited pos- enjoyed the privilege of being at the itive comments about the logical struc- ECNP Congress and some of them cer- talk through some of the issues raised announcing a lot of new cutting edge ture, the value of such a thematic tainly were very active at the congress in the particular sessions. We are wait- data. The presentations on the whole organization of presentations, and the party! ing for formal feedback of the sessions were extraordinarily well attended - clear and explicit way in which the but I am fairly sure that the idea of the right through to the very last morning tracks can be followed in the pro- Scientific cafés scientific café was received well and and the general ordinance was an gramme. I am sure that we will be using Another initiative designed to promote that we will continue with them in the enthusiastic sharing of scientific ideas a similar format in future meetings. the preclinical sessions was the bonus future. and facts. of a scientific café, giving delegates the Hot topic session opportunity to meet the speakers in an Scientific programme A new development to stimulate (the informal setting. This activity did seem In my preview of the 15th ECNP attendance of) preclinical symposia is to get off to a good start, prompted Congress I promised delegates an out- the hot topic session in which young undoubtedly by the pleasant weather standing scientific event. Looking back promising preclinical neuroscientists and the ability to congregate in the gar- I think that overall the quality of pre- See page 4 – 6 for more reports on the give short presentations. There was a dens outside the conference centre and sentations was uniformly high, 15th ECNP Congress. Arvid Carlsson: pounds such as serotonin that had been discovered in the brain shortly before. So they had measured serotonin after “The Nobel Prize did change administering reserpine and the level of serotonin was down to almost zero. It my life!” was very dramatic to find that an endoge- nous, physiologically active compound Nobel Prize winner Arvid Carlsson is not yet thinking of taking it easy. At disappears after a drug has been given. the verge of his 80th birthday he is still running his company in I proposed to Brodie to look at the effect Gothenburg in southern Sweden, making the most of the money and of reserpine on some closely related respect the award brought along to develop and research drugs to help peo- compounds, the catecholamines such as ple with mental and neurological disorders. An interview with a man ECNP adrenaline. He did not see anything in can be proud to have recently voted honorary member. this. But I was very fortunate to be given this opportunity. So I went home and was lucky again by finding Professor Nils-Åke Hillarp at the University of Kirsten Bett, editor ecnp matters Lund. Together we did indeed discover interview hen you started out as a scien- research paper by the American Space that led me to many more exciting expe- that the effect of reserpine on the cate- W tist, was there a specific disor- Programme credited our study to be the riences, starting in the Laboratory of cholamines was the same as the effect der you wanted to help cure? first of this kind. Chemical Pharmacology of the National on serotonin; it led to the depletion of “No, everything that has happened to I, then, temporarily abandoned CNS for Heart Institute in Maryland, in the United catecholamines! When we continued this me has been a coincidence. Even getting something entirely different. Again, it States. investigation we found that after admin- into neuropsychopharmacology in the was my professor who talked me into When I went there in 1955, Bernard istering reserpine stimulation of the sym- first place. When I started to study med- doing research on calcium tablets, using Brodie (1907-1989) was head of the la- pathetic nerves did not lead to the usual icine in 1941, I more or less had made radioactive tracers that had just become boratory. I was welcome to work at blood pressure response, apparently up my mind to become a scientist. My available. This study ended up as my Brodie´s lab if I did not mind not getting because the neurotransmitter noradrena- first course was in anatomy; after my doctoral thesis that dealt with calcium paid because he had no money… Still, line had gone. exams I was offered a position as an metabolism, using radioactive calcium to this was the best career move ever as I The rabbits treated with reserpine were amanuensis. So I started out in anatomy find out how the formation of bone got to be in the forefront of major devel- deeply sedated and cataleptic. Catalepsy until the professor of pharmacology takes place.” opments! Bernard Brodie was a real is a state of immobility predicting what came along. He asked me to be his character! He was nicknamed Steve after in humans is known of as Parkinson’s amanuensis and it sounded more fun It must be very exciting to take part Steve Brodie, a famous sensation seeker disease. You could say the rabbits were than anatomy. So that is why I became a in the discovery of something major in the States. Bernard himself was also a ‘Parkinsonistic’, which we did not realize pharmacologist. as you experienced later on in your bit of a sensation seeker; he had been a at the time of the experiment. We intra- The professor gave me a topic related to career? fairly successful boxer before he got into venously injected into these animals a the central nervous system (CNS) as it “It is indeed very exciting. What hap- organic chemistry in which he reached precursor of noradrenaline which is dealt with drugs capable of awakening pened a few years after defending my great success. He was one of the pio- called dopa and after about ten minutes people who had taken an overdose of a doctoral thesis was that I applied for a neers in biochemical pharmacology, the rabbits were up and running again. It hypnotic. These central analeptics are professorship but ended as number 2. especially in the area of drug metabo- was amazing. Of course we very quickly not much used now. My colleague Folke Actually my friend Folke Serin got the lism. This was the fifties: the time of dis- published these results but later on Serin, who is still a very good friend, and position, which is quite right as he is my covering antipsychotic agents. when we analysed the brains, we dis- I published a paper in 1950 on our dis- senior by five years. The reason, how- Brodie had just experienced a tremen- covered that the expectation that the covery that the effect of the drugs ever, that I was turned down was that dous breakthrough by using a new noradrenaline was back proved false. It depended on the time of day. The drugs they were not impressed with my instrument: the spectrophotofluorimeter. was still zero, which was very disap- hit the rodents the hardest at night when research and advised me to leave the This instrument made it possible for the pointing… However we kept at it and they were the most active. The funny focus of calcium metabolism if I wanted first time to measure very low levels of thing was that many decades later a to remain a pharmacologist. So I did and drugs, metabolites and endogenous com- continued on next page 1 continued from front page million Swedish Krona - to a pension fund. This was actually before October decided to focus on dopamine, an inter- 9. But a lot of problems remained. mediate between dopa and noradrena- Accommodation was starting to become line - at that time considered to be an extremely difficult issue until October absolutely uninteresting in terms of 9. After that we could choose from three physiological activity on itself. First, we different offers…” had to develop a method to measure dopamine because there was none avail- Could you elaborate on the activities able at that time. We then discovered of Carlsson Research Company? that dopamine normally occurs in fairly “We have chemists synthesizing mole- large amounts in the brain, that it disap- cules and pharmacologists testing these peared after reserpine treatment and that molecules. The idea of the Carlsson the response to dopa could be related to Research Company is to develop new the reappearance of dopamine in the molecules and to characterize them brain.
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