Elusive Cures - by Nicole C Rust (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

A neuroscientist's bold proposal for tackling one of the greatest challenges of our time--brain and mental illnesses

Brain research has been accelerating rapidly in recent decades, but the translation of our many discoveries into treatments and cures for brain disorders has not happened as many expected. We do not have cures for the vast majority of brain illnesses, from Alzheimer's to depression, and many medications we do have to treat the brain are derived from drugs produced in the 1950s--before we knew much about the brain at all. Tackling brain disorders is clearly one of the biggest challenges facing humanity today. What will it take to overcome it? Nicole Rust takes readers along on her personal journey to answer this question.

Drawing on her decades of experience on the front lines of neuroscience research, Rust reflects on how far we have come in our quest to unlock the secrets of the brain and what remains to be discovered. She shows us that treating a brain disorder is more like redirecting a hurricane than fixing a domino chain of cause and effect, arguing that only once we embrace the idea of the brain as a complex system do we have any hope of finding cures. Rust profiles the pioneering ideas about the brain that are driving research at the cutting edge to illuminate exactly how much we know about disorders such as Parkinson's, epilepsy, addiction, schizophrenia, and anxiety--and what it will take to eradicate these scourges.

Elusive Cures sheds light on one of the most daunting challenges ever confronted by science while offering hope for revolutionary new treatments and cures for the brain.

Review Quotes

"Elusive Cures should be required reading for all neuroscience students. . . . Essential."-- "Choice"

"[A] fascinating book."---Andrew Robinson, Nature

"A compelling case that understanding the brain as a complex and constantly changing system instead of a 'thing' improves the chances of understanding the relationship between 'mental disorders' and 'brain disorders, ' the role of neural networks, and finding cures. Accessible to lay readers, informed by the latest research, and filled with concrete examples, Elusive Cures is immensely useful to a subject that is relevant to all of us."---Glenn C. Altschuler, Psychology Today

"An ambitious study of the search for cures to Huntington's, Parkinson's, schizophrenia, depression, Alzheimer's, and ALS. . . . pepper[ed] with fascinating anecdotes . . . . The result is a cogent and impassioned account."-- "Publishers Weekly"

"An insider's account of how contemporary neuroscience is tackling the failures of the bench-to-bed pipeline and how neuroscience is moving away from the molecular-genetic framework to a new grand plan that understands the brain as a complex, dynamic, computational system. Rust is a brilliant, accomplished, thoughtful, and philosophically and clinically informed neuroscientist. . . . the end result is an accessible book that is deeply intelligent and informative."---Awais Aftab, Psychiatry at the Margins

"What I most enjoyed and admired about the book was Rust's willingness to get dirty in the intellectual trenches. It's easy for a reader to say, as I have, that some of the proposed solutions don't quite bite, but the author is dealing with overwhelmingly difficult questions that most of us spend a lot of time sidestepping. There is no sidestepping here."---Vincent Walsh, Current Biology

"Winner of the Silver Nautilus Book Prize, Science and Cosmology Category"

"Written at an accessible level, this thorough summation explains neuroscience research and possible pathways forward to students, patients, caregivers, and educators."-- "Library Journal"

About the Author

Nicole C. Rust is the Rose Family Endowed Term Professor of Psychology at the University of Pennsylvania. Recipient of the Troland Award from the National Academy of Sciences, she is a contributing editor at The Transmitter, a leading brain research news magazine.