Elusive Cures: Why Neuroscience Hasn’t Solved Brain Disorders—and How We Can Change That

Rust, a University of Pennsylvania psychology professor, debuts with an ambitious study of the search for cures to Huntington’s, Parkinson’s, schizophrenia, depression, Alzheimer’s, and ALS. Frustrated with the lack of progress in treating these and other neurological disorders, Rust argues that modern ideas about the brain fail to recognize that it’s a complex adaptive system rather than a dominolike chain of cause and effect. In her telling, finding the offending domino and removing or changing it won’t result in effective treatments. Elsewhere, she notes that science’s lack of progress comes despite significant advances in genetics and medical technology; in her telling, clinical trials for treatments “failed for reasons we don’t understand” and the “absence of leads to chase” led pharmaceutical companies to abandon the slow-moving search. Ultimately, she calls for a new “Grand Plan” for research, in which scientists would “stop dreaming of magic bullets and embrace complexity.” Rust dives deep into the complex science involved, peppers the narrative with fascinating anecdotes (Ritalin was named for the wife of the chemist who first synthesized it), and finds insight in William Styron’s 1989 memoir about depression. The result is a cogent and impassioned account. (June)