AS the director of the human brain bank at the National Institute of Mental Health, I am surrounded by brains, some floating in jars of formalin and others icebound in freezers. As part of my work, I cut these brains into tiny pieces and study their molecular and genetic structure. My specialty is schizophrenia, a devastating disease that often makes it difficult for the patient to discern what is

Many people have a strong fear of “chemicals” that belies the evidence. It’s called chemonoia – and it may be damaging their health.

1,000 points randomly distributed inside a square, showing apparent clusters and empty spaces The clustering illusion is the tendency to erroneously consider the inevitable "streaks" or "clusters" arising in small samples from random distributions to be non-random. The illusion is caused by a human tendency to underpredict the amount of variability likely to appear in a small sample of random or p

Imagine looking at your newborn baby and being convinced they are the son of God. You may think this recent plotline in EastEnders sounds far-fetched. But it's actually a common symptom of post-partum psychosis, a condition that affects one in 500 mothers. "It's like being in a vivid nightmare only you don't wake up," says psychiatrist Dr Alain Gregoire, at the Winchester Mother and Baby Unit. "Yo

清原和博・元プロ野球選手が2月2日、覚せい剤取締法違反の疑いで、現行犯逮捕された。世間に大きな衝撃を与えたこの事件。メディアによる報道はいまだ収まる気配にない。 法を犯したとはいえ、薬物依存はれっきとした精神疾患でもある。薬物依存者に対して懲罰的な発想が根強いが、果たしてそれで本質的な解決につながるのか。 薬物依存症研究の第一人者である、独立行政法人国立精神・神経医療研究センター精神保健医療研究所薬物依存研究部長の松本俊彦氏に、病の実態や横たわる課題の数々について尋ねた。 （聞き手は庄子 育子） 心が薬物にハイジャックされている状態 清原氏逮捕時の様子をあるテレビ局が独占的に捉えていましたが、薄着であるにもかかわらずかなり汗をかいているなど、少し異様な感じがしました。臨床的にはどんな状態であったと捉えられますか？ 松本俊彦（まつもと・としひこ） 国立研究開発法人 国立精神・神経医療研究セン

Whether to enliven a commute, relax in the evening or drown out the buzz of a neighbor’s recreational drone, Americans listen to music nearly four hours a day. In international surveys, people consistently rank music as one of life’s supreme sources of pleasure and emotional power. We marry to music, graduate to music, mourn to music. Every culture ever studied has been found to make music, and am

最近元野球選手の清原氏が覚醒剤で逮捕され、新たな覚醒剤使用者を摘発しようと躍起になっているなどという話を聞きました。覚醒剤、怖いですよね。 そもそも覚醒剤なんてどこで出回ってるのかすらわからないような代物ですが、実は私は一時期覚醒剤を服用していました。今回は一時的に覚醒剤生活を送っていたときの話です。 「覚醒剤」と聞いて、こいつ覚醒剤所持してたぞ。逮捕だﾙﾊﾟｰﾝなどと言ってくる人が多そうなのはちょっと怖いのですが、上記で書いたとおり私は覚醒剤を"服用"していました。医師から処方された覚醒剤を経口摂取していたわけです。キヨみたく注射器で打っているわけじゃないですよ。いや信じてほんとに。 睡眠障害により覚醒剤を処方された話 そもそもなぜ覚醒剤を服用していたかという話。 会社に入って半年くらい、夜しっかり寝ている*1にもかかわらず日中の眠気が一向に治まらないことから、睡眠病院へ行くことに。1泊

A golden snub-nosed monkey. The peculiar sleeping patterns of humans may have contributed to the power of our minds, a study says.Credit...Cyril Ruoso/Minden Pictures Over the past few million years, the ancestors of modern humans became dramatically different from other primates. Our forebears began walking upright, and they lost much of their body hair; they gained precision-grip fingers and dev

An image from a fluorescent microscope showing C4 proteins, in green, located at the synapses in a culture of human neurons.Credit...Heather de Rivera/McCarroll Lab/Harvard, via Associated Press Scientists reported on Wednesday that they had taken a significant step toward understanding the cause of schizophrenia, in a landmark study that provides the first rigorously tested insight into the biolo

It's common to have communication problems after a severe stroke. But Graham Pawley is an unusual case in that he can understand everything but say virtually nothing back. He has to get by with "yes" and "no". Communicating with Graham is a bit like playing that game where you have to keep asking yes and no questions until someone gets the right answer. I'm sitting on the sofa in Graham's flat loo

Some autistic adults have spent much of their lives with the wrong diagnosis, consigned to psychiatric institutions or drugged for disorders they never had. Last year, Scott Hartman moved into his own apartment for the first time. He quickly learned to balance his budget, squirreling away money to buy a Blu-ray player or Xbox games. He started taking long walks to his favorite fast-food joints: Ha

Saga Noren from the Scandinavian TV crime drama The Bridge has become an unlikely hero. Widely diagnosed by viewers as being on the autistic spectrum, she is lauded not just because she is a leading character with the condition, but - more unusually - because she is a woman with it. She is blunt, doesn't understand jokes and struggles to build relationships. She strips down to her underwear to get

性障害専門医療センター・福井裕輝医師インタビュー（前編） 性犯罪者の9割は「やめたい」と思っている　精神科医が語る、加害者への治療が必要な理由 「『なかったこと』にされる性暴力 被害者支援団体の代表に聞く、レイプをめぐる社会の問題点」、「レイプは“いたずら”じゃない―自らの被害を映画にした女性監督が語る、罪の意識を持たない性犯罪者」など、ウートピではこれまで性犯罪被害者の目線から性犯罪の問題を考えてきた。レイプや強制わいせつなどの性犯罪は言うまでもなく被害者へのケアが必要だ。一方で、指摘されつつあるのが加害者へのカウンセリングや治療の必要性。性犯罪加害者には一定の常習性があると考えられ（※）、治療を行うことは犯罪の再発防止につながる。 被害者・加害者両方と接する中で加害者治療の必要に気付き、性障害専門医療センターを設立するなど活動を続けてきた福井裕輝医師に、加害者治療の必要性と、その内容・

These four misconceptions about autism are damaging and in desperate need of debunking, says Steve Silberman.

In many countries, the standard way of treating autistic children is with behavioural therapy - stimulating and rewarding them to develop the skills they need to function in society - but France still puts its faith in psychoanalysis. And an increasing number of parents are now demanding change. For autism campaigners, it is one of the most serious health scandals of our times. How for decades Fra

"When I think about my fiancee, there's no image" Niel Kenmuir on living with aphantasia Close your eyes and imagine walking along a sandy beach and then gazing over the horizon as the Sun rises. How clear is the image that springs to mind? Most people can readily conjure images inside their head - known as their mind's eye. But this year scientists have described a condition, aphantasia, in which