Brain Chemistry

Locked in the silence and darkness of your skull, your brain fashions the rich narratives of your reality and your identity. Join renowned neuroscientist David Eagleman for a journey into the questions at the mysterious heart of our existence. What is reality? Who are “you”? How do you make decisions? Why does your brain need other people? How is technology poised to change what it means to be human?

Psychiatry has made great advances in the past 50 years but needs a new direction. Today's emphasis on psychiatric drugs will not stand the test of time. Recent advances in epigenetics and the molecular biology of the brain have provided a roadmap for the development of effective, natural, drug-free therapies that do not produce serious side effects. Psychiatric medications have served society well over the last 50 years, but the need for drug therapies will fade away as science advances.

Six little hormones pretty much determine your mood at every moment of your life. If one is out of balance, it can not only cause you to be depressed, it could also cause mayhem for the rest of your health. Learn what you can do about it.

Psychedelic drugs being used to treat anxiety and depression? Yes, at a select Nevada hospice where legally-sanctioned LSD is employed as a compassionate treatment for terminally-ill patients. But when a variant (or analogue) of standard LSD is introduced at the facility, unexpected consequences emerge. Plot threads interweave between the hospice and the university that furnishes the drug and between two patients with inoperable brain tumors: Garrett Wayley, a chemistry grad student, and Nick Farris, a San Diego police detective. When their brain tumors mysteriously improve after LSD ...