Bøger af Wallace B. Mendelson

Black and White Edition: In order to provide a paperback with a relatively lower price, this edition contains black and white illustrations. The regular full color paperback and eBook editions of this book are also available in the Kindle store. In 1856, William Henry Perkin, an 18 year old chemistry student in London, was attempting to synthesize quinine, when instead he ended up with a dark sticky substance in the bottom of his test tube. When cleaning it out with alcohol, he produced a bright purple liquid, which became aniline purple, the first synthetic fabric dye, and inadvertently launched an industry. Within the next few years, about 30 companies appeared, using synthetic organic chemistry to make dyes, and later over the years paints, cosmetics, agricultural chemicals, food coloring-and medicines. Among these were medicines for psychiatry and infectious diseases, particularly malaria, which at the time was devastating the development of a worldwide empire. These efforts were not in isolation, but intertwined, culminating in the appearance in the 1950s of a failed antimalarial, chlorpromazine (Thorazine), which revolutionized care of psychotic patients. Sulfa drugs, derived from a red azo dye, became the building blocks on one of the trails to the first antidepressants. A penicillin preservative became meprobamate, the first blockbuster tranquilizer. Later, benzodiazepine tranquilizers were created from fabric dyes their inventor had previously discarded as a student. The role of dye-derived synthetic drugs continues to this day, as indigo and related dyes are being developed for treating infections and cancer. Methylene blue, discovered 150 years ago, is now being studied for possible use in Alzheimer's disease. This story is as old as seventeenth century missionaries discovering medicinal leaves in the high Andes, and as new as today's headlines. In this book, Dr. Mendelson uses his 40 years of experience in pharmacology to describe the little-known history of the intertwined efforts to find treatments for psychiatric illnesses and infectious diseases.

From Ivy: We are sleeping less and less: statistics show that insomnia has reached pandemic proportions, and costs healthcare providers billions. Most of us spend a third of our lives asleep--our bodies insist on sleep; without it, we die. But why we sleep still remains relatively mysterious. The Science of Sleep explains the elements of the sleep state and explores the various sleep disorders and how their available treatments work. By offering an accessible account of sleep science, the book allows the reader to assess their relationship with sleep and craft their own approach to having a restful night with the maximum physical return.

Hypnos (the Greek god of sleep) and Thanatos (death) were the twin sons of Nyx, the goddess of night (Fox, 1964). Chapter 3, for instance, describes the general principles of drug absorption, distribution, and metabolism before dis cussing the pharmacologic properties of each hypnotic.