Milestones in Neuropsychiatry

Milestones in Neuropsychiatry

• 1681 – Thomas Willis coined the term “Neurology”
• 1695 – Humphrey Ridley published “The Anatomy of the Brain”
• 1808 – German physician Johann Christian Reil (1759-1813) coined the term “Psychiatrist” based on the greek word meaning “healing the soul”
• 1812 – Benjamin Rush published the first American textbook on psychiatry entitled “Medical Inquiries and Observations upon diseases of the Mind”.
• 1876 – David Ferrier publishes “The Function of the Brain”
• 1900 – “The interpretation of Dream”, published by Sigmund Freud, which also popularised his theory of psychoanalysis
• 1921 – “The American Medico-Psychological Association” was changed to “American Psychiatric Association (APA)”
• 1924 – Hans Berger was the first to record human electroencephalograms (EEG)
• 1938 – Electro Convulsive Therapy (ECT) ie “Shock therapy” was first used
• 1949 – Lithium salts were first used for “bipolar disorder”
• 1951 – Chlorpromazine, first antipsychotic drug was tested
• 1952 – First Edition of “DSM” was published by the American Psychiatric Association.
• 1972 – Computerised Axial Tomography (CT) scan was introduced.
• 1974 – MRI was first patented in the US as “Apparatus and Method for detecting cancer in the tissue” by Dr.Raymond Damadian.
• 1977 – The first set of ethical code was issued by the World Psychiatric Association to govern the conduct of psychiatrists.
• 1982 – National Mental Health Programme (NMHP) was launched in India
• 1989 – FDA approved first atypical antipsychotic drug, “clozapine”
• 1990 – DSM – III, psychiatry’s “bible” marks the shift in clinical psychiatry from a largely freudian approach to a more biological orientation, as well as advent of PTSD, a good example of how psychiatry was becoming politicised in the late 20th century.
• 1994 – DSM – IV was published
• 1999 – The fourth and updated set of ethical code was issued by the World Psychiatric Association
• 2004 – USFDA orders black box warnings on all anti depressant drug containers, stating that the drugs increase the risk of suicidal thinking and behaviour in children
• 2006 – US Supreme Court upholds Oregon’s “Death with Dignity” act allowing doctors to assist suicides by terminally ill individuals under certain conditions
• 2008 – 200th birthday of the word “Psychiatry”
• 2013 – The Fifth edition of the DSM will be published in May