List of Figures ix
Preface xi
1. Daring to think differently 1
Root canal blues
Neuro-immunology and immuno-psychiatry
What does an inflamed mind look like?
The revolution will not be televised
2. The workings of the immune system 20
Inflammation and infection
Fig 1 Immune cells
Fig 2 Inflammation
Location, location, location
Communication: the medium is the message
Fig 3 The immune system
Rapid rebuttal and learning
Auto-immunity: the flip side
3. Hiding in plain sight 43
It's depressing being ill
The cogito, God, and the machine
Fig 4 A lady trying to explain the pineal theory of the human mind and body
Along shadow
Mrs P is not alone
A bona fide blockbuster
The Cartesian blind spot
4. Melancholia after Descartes 69
From black bile to MDD
A cross to bear
Super-shrink
Fig 5 Freud's first draft of the ego
Dancing in the sanatorium
Fig 6 First prophet of pharmaceuticals
The golden age
Fig 7 Scenes of joy at the dawn of anti-depressants
Fig 8 The seer and the synapse
Farcical serotonin
Bereft of biomarkers
5. How? 112
Extraordinary claims demand extraordinary evidence
A stubborn fact
Causes must come first
The Berlin wall in the brain
Fig 9 What I was taught at medical school - and what we now know
Fig 10 Nervous reflex control of inflammation
Inflamed brains
6. Why? 146
What could make you inflamed (and depressed)?
Flaming stressed
Causal chains and cycles
Ultimately, the answer must always be Darwin
Fig 11 Emotional faces and emotional brains
A savannah survival story
7. So what? 176
Medical apartheid
Fig 12 The vicious cycle of stress, inflammation and depression - and ways to break k - an artist's impression
Could it be different already?
Market failure
Beyond blockbusters: better but not bigger than Prozac
Alzheimer's disease and the yin and yang of microglia
Schizophrenia and auto-intoxication
References 221
Acknowledgements 229
Disclaimers 230
Index 231