The British Journal of Psychiatry (2009) 194: 293-295. doi: 10.1192/bjp.bp.108.058479
© 2009 The Royal College of Psychiatrists
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EDITORIALS

Why psychiatry can’t afford to be neurophobic

Ed Bullmore, MRCPsych, FMedSci, Paul Fletcher, MRCPsych, PhD and Peter B. Jones, FRCPsych, FMedSci

University of Cambridge, Department of Psychiatry, Addenbrooke’s Hospital, Cambridge CB2 2QQ, UK

Correspondence: Ed Bullmore, University of Cambridge, Department of Psychiatry, Addenbrooke’s Hospital, Cambridge CB2 2QQ, UK. Email: etb23{at}cam.ac.uk

Declaration of interest

E.B. is employed half-time by the University of Cambridge and half-time by GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), and he holds shares in GSK and the Brain Resource Company.

The original vision of psychiatry was as a medicine – or physic – of the mind. If psychiatry aspires to be a progressive modern medicine of the mind, it should be fully engaged with the science of the brain. We summarise and rebut three countervailing or ‘neurophobic’ propositions and aim to show that not one provides a compelling argument for neurophobia. We suggest that there are several ways in which psychiatry could organise itself professionally to better advance and communicate the theoretical and therapeutic potential of a brain-based medicine of the mind.


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