Arvid Carlsson

Carlsson was born on 25 January 1923 in Uppsala, Sweden, one of four siblings. His family moved to Lund after his father became a history professor at Lund University. Although his two older siblings followed their father's career path, he instead chose to study medicine at Lund, beginning in 1941. In 1944, he participated in the task of examining prisoners of Nazi concentration camps, whom Swedish aristocrat Folke Bernadotte had managed to bring to Sweden, which was neutral during World War II. He received his MD and PhD in pharmacology in 1951. == Career ==

In 1951, Carlsson became an associate professor at Lund University. He spent five months as a research fellow for the pharmacologist Bernard Beryl Brodie at the National Heart Institute in Bethesda, Maryland, United States, and the change in his research focus to psychopharmacology eventually led to his Nobel Prize. Carlsson went on to develop a method for measuring the amount of dopamine in brain tissues. He found that dopamine levels in the basal ganglia, a brain area important for movement, were particularly high. He then showed that giving animals the drug reserpine caused a decrease in dopamine levels and a loss of movement control. These effects were similar to the symptoms of Parkinson's disease. By administering to these animals L-Dopa, which is the precursor of dopamine, he could alleviate the symptoms. These findings led other doctors to try using L-Dopa in patients with Parkinson's disease, and it was found to alleviate some of the symptoms in the early stages of the disease. L-Dopa is still the basis for most commonly used means of treating Parkinson's disease. He and his colleagues were able to derive the first marketed selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI), zimelidine, from brompheniramine. but Carlson's research paved the way for fluoxetine (Prozac), one of the most widely used prescription medicines in the world. on OSU6162, a dopamine stabilizer which alleviates symptoms of post-stroke fatigue. == Honours and awards ==

Carlsson's research on the brain's chemical signals and the resulting treatment for Parkinson's disease earned him the 2000 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, which he shared with Paul Greengard and Eric R. Kandel. He was elected as a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in 1975. and an honorary Doctor of Science from the University of Southern California in 2007. == Personal life ==

Carlsson married Ulla-Lisa Christoffersson in 1945 and they had three sons and two daughters. His daughter Maria was his lab manager He was a vocal opponent of homeopathy and worked to prevent homeopathic preparations from being classified as medication in Sweden. ==Drugs==

• 7-OH-DPAT • 8-OH-DPAT • Coprine & Benzcoprine • DS-121 • HW-165 • FLA-57 • Preclamol • Rotigotine • UH-232 • Zimelidine & Nomelidine ==References==