Alec Coppen – författare

The field of research in 5-hydroxytryptamine has exploded into furious activity over the past decade and nowhere have the implications been more far reaching than in psychiatry. Thanks largely to the introduction of radioligand binding techniques, a bewildering variety of 5-hydroxytryptamine receptors has been revealed, and powerful new families of centrally-active drugs have emerged. The importance of these new discoveries for psychiatric practice can hardly be exaggerated. To mention but one example, our understanding, and with it the treatment, of obsessive-compulsive disorder has been transformed in a very few years. The excitement continues, and almost daily, some important new insight, usually drug led, alters our whole perception of psychiatric illness. Due to this activity, the CINP chose 5-hydroxytryptamine and Psychiatry as the topic for its first President's Workshop.The CINP is an international neuropharmacological organization renowned for its massive, comprehensive, and prestigious biennial congress. It recently decided to complement these with a different type of gathering, a small brain-storming meeting, dominated by a free-flowing discussion. The record of this first President's Workshop is recorded here. The contributors were all hand-picked, and are active researchers with a distinguished track record. They have all contributed substantially to the burgeoning 5-hydroxytryptamine field. The free-ranging style of this volume and the many good ideas presented cannot fail to be of major interest to all who wish to keep abreast of this rapidly moving area of research.

The European College of Neuropsychopharmacology (ECNP) is a scientific and educational association which represents a variety of disciplines. The first ECNP congress took place in Copenhagen, May 1985, where a working group of European scientists within the field of psychopharmacology was elected to prepare a constituent ECNP congress in Brussels, 1987. Among the most active members of this group was Max Hamilton. At the second ECNP congress in Brussels Max Hamilton was elected as the first honorary member of the ECNP. When we received the message of his death we decided at once to arrange a Max Hamilton memorial symposium at the third ECNP congress, May 1989, in Gothenburg, Sweden. This monograph contains the proceedings of the Max Hamilton symposium which was chaired by the editors. The opening lecture of the third ECNP congress was a Max Hamilton lecture: "A life devoted to science in psychiatry" which was presented by Sir Martin Roth. It seemed obvious to include Sir Martin''s lecture as the opening article of this monograph. Although G .E. Berrios was unable to participate in the ECNP congress we have found it logical to include his manuscript on "The Hamilton Depression Scale and the Numerical Description of the Symptoms of Depression" as another personal contribution to Max Hamilton and his rating scales.