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.

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. In 1959 he became a professor at the University of Gothenburg.

In 1957 Katharine Montagu demonstrated the presence of dopamine in the human brain; later that same year Carlsson also demonstrated that dopamine was a neurotransmitter in the brain and not just a precursor for norepinephrine.{{cite journal| first1=Arvid | last1=Carlsson| first2=Margit | last2=Lindqvist| first3=Tor | last3=Magnusson| title=3,4-Dihydroxyphenylalanine and 5-hydroxytryptophan as reserpine antagonists| journal=Nature| volume=180| issue=4596| pages=1200|date=November 1957| pmid=13483658| doi=10.1038/1801200a0| bibcode=1957Natur.180.1200C| s2cid=28141709| doi-access=free}}{{cite journal |author=Abbott A |title=Neuroscience: the molecular wake-up call |journal=Nature |volume=447 |issue=7143 |pages=368–70 |year=2007 |pmid=17522649 |doi=10.1038/447368a|bibcode=2007Natur.447..368A |s2cid=4425376 }} 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.

Carlson collaborated with the drug company Astra AB (now AstraZeneca) during the 1970s and the 1980s.{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KwlzEFWw2J8C&pg=PA53|title=The History of Neuroscience in Autobiography|first=Larry R. | last=Squire|date=1998|publisher=Elsevier|isbn=978-0-08-053405-3|page=53}} He and his colleagues were able to derive the first marketed selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI), zimelidine, from brompheniramine. Zimelidine was later withdrawn from the market due to rare cases of Guillain–Barré syndrome,{{Cite web|url=http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20060604/msgs/654587.html|title=History: Discovery of the SSRIs (long) {{!}} Psycho-Babble|website=www.dr-bob.org|access-date=22 June 2016}} but Carlson's research paved the way for fluoxetine (Prozac), one of the most widely used prescription medicines in the world.

Carlsson was still an active researcher and speaker when he was over 90 years old and, together with his daughter Lena, he worked{{Cite web|url=http://www.gu.se/english/research/publication/?publicationId=165289|title=Publications card|date=25 November 2010|website=University of Gothenburg|access-date=22 June 2016|archive-date=8 August 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160808101106/http://www.gu.se/english/research/publication/?publicationId=165289|url-status=dead}} on OSU6162, a dopamine stabilizer which alleviates symptoms of post-stroke fatigue.{{Cite web|url=http://www.brainmessenger.se/index_eng.htm|title=Arvid Carlsson and Lena Carlsson|website=www.BrainMessenger.se|access-date=22 June 2016}}

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 won many other awards including Israel's Wolf Prize in Medicine (1979), the Japan Prize (1994), and Italy's Feltrinelli Prize (1999).{{Cite web|url=http://www.lincei.it/premi/assegnati_feltrinelli.php|title=Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei - Premi e borse di studio - Premi "Antonio Feltrinelli" finora conferiti|website=Accademia dei Lincei|language=it|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140728111117/http://www.lincei.it/premi/assegnati_feltrinelli.php|archive-date=28 July 2014|access-date=3 July 2018|url-status=dead}} He was elected as a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in 1975. He was awarded an honorary Doctor of Science from the University of Southern California in 2007.{{Cite web |title=Past Recipients – Honorary Degrees |url=https://honorarydegrees.usc.edu/past-recipients/ |access-date=2024-05-08 |website=honorarydegrees.usc.edu}}

Carlsson married Ulla-Lisa Christoffersson in 1945 and they had three sons and two daughters. His daughter Maria was his lab manager and his daughter Lena was one of his collaborators.

He opposed the fluoridation of drinking water in Sweden.[http://www.svd.se/nyheter/inrikes/artikel_498843.svd Fluoride in drinking water can cause cancer, Svenska Dagbladet (in Swedish)]{{cite journal |vauthors=Torell P, Forsman B |title=[Arvid Carlsson's fluoride ponderings 1978] |language=sv |journal=Tandlakartidningen |volume=71 |issue=3 |pages=142–57 |date=February 1979 |pmid=287207 }}Bryson C. (2004) The Fluoride Deception. Seven Stories Press. p. [https://archive.org/details/fluoridedeceptio00brys p. 240]. {{ISBN|1583225269}}. He was a vocal opponent of homeopathy and worked to prevent homeopathic preparations from being classified as medication in Sweden.

Carlsson died on 29 June 2018, at the age of 95.{{Cite news|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/obituaries/arvid-carlsson-nobel-laureate-who-uncovered-a-treatment-for-parkinsons-dies-at-95/2018/07/02/c13d9aee-7e00-11e8-b660-4d0f9f0351f1_story.html|title=Arvid Carlsson, Nobel laureate who uncovered a treatment for Parkinson's, dies at 95|last=Smith|first=Harrison|date=2 July 2018|newspaper=Washington Post|access-date=3 July 2018}}

1. Preclamol
2. FLA-57
3. Rotigotine
4. HW-165
5. UH-232
6. Nomelidine
7. Zimelidine
8. 8-OH-DPAT
9. 7-OH-DPAT
10. DS-121

{{Reflist}}

{{Commons category|Arvid Carlsson}}

• {{Nobelprize}} including the Nobel Lecture 8 December 2000 A Half-Century of Neurotransmitter Research: Impact on Neurology and Psychiatry
• [http://www.sahlgrenska.gu.se/english/ The Sahlgrenska Academy at the University of Gothenburg]

{{Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine Laureates 1976-2000}}

{{Swedish Nobel Laureates}}

{{Wolf Prize in Medicine}}

{{2000 Nobel Prize winners}}

{{Japan Prize}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Carlsson, Arvid}}

Category:1923 births

Category:2018 deaths

Category:Swedish neuroscientists

Category:Swedish pharmacologists

Category:Nobel laureates in Physiology or Medicine

Category:People connected to Lund University

Category:Wolf Prize in Medicine laureates

Category:Swedish Nobel laureates

Category:Academic staff of the University of Gothenburg

Category:Members of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences

Category:People from Uppsala

Category:20th-century Swedish scientists

Category:21st-century Swedish scientists

Category:Members of the National Academy of Medicine

Category:University of Gothenburg alumni