A Molecule Away from Madness: Tales of the Hijacked Brain

by Sara Manning Peskin

Overview

Riveting stories of the brain on the brink, from an acclaimed cognitive neurologist.

Our brains are the most complex machines known to humankind, but they have an Achilles heel: the very molecules that allow us to exist can also sabotage our minds. Here are gripping accounts of unruly molecules and the diseases that form in their wake.

A college student cannot remember if she has eaten breakfast. By dinner, she is strapped to a hospital bed, convinced she is battling zombies. A man planning to propose marriage instead becomes violently enraged, gripped by body spasms so severe that he nearly bites off his own tongue. One after another, poor farmers in South Carolina drop dead from a mysterious epidemic of dementia.

With an intoxicating blend of history and intrigue, Sara Manning Peskin invites readers to play medical detective, tracing each diagnosis from the patient to an ailing nervous system. Along the way, Peskin entertains with tales of the sometimes outlandish, often criticized, and forever devoted scientists who discovered it all.

Peskin never loses sight of the human impact of these conditions. Alzheimer’s Disease is more than the gradual loss of a loved one; it can be a family’s multigenerational curse. The proteins that abound in every cell of our bodies are not simply strings of oxygen, hydrogen, nitrogen, and carbon; they are the building blocks of our personalities and relationships. A Molecule Away from Madness is an unputdownable journey into the deepest mysteries of our brains.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781324002383
Publisher:	Norton, W. W. & Company, Inc.
Publication date:	02/08/2022
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	224
Sales rank:	51,244
File size:	2 MB

About the Author

Sara Manning Peskin is an assistant professor of clinical neurology at the University of Pennsylvania. Her writing has appeared in the New York Times, Boston Globe Magazine, and the Philadelphia Inquirer. She lives in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Sara Manning Peskin is an assistant professor of clinical neurology at the University of Pennsylvania. Her writing has appeared in the New York Times, Boston Globe Magazine, and the Philadelphia Inquirer. She lives in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Table of Contents

Introduction 1

Part 1 DNA Mutants 9

Chapter 1 In Suspension 17

Chapter 2 La Bobera de la Familia 32

Chapter 3 Has Anyone Seen My Father? 53

Part 2 Rebellious Proteins 69

Chapter 4 A Zombie Apocalypse 76

Chapter 5 The Muscle Man 91

Chapter 6 Deadly Laughter 105

Part 3 Brain Invaders and Evaders 127

Chapter 7 Like Lucifer 135

Chapter 8 An Honest Liar 147

Chapter 8 Filth Parties 161

Epilogue 180

Acknowledgments 185

Glossary 187

Notes 191

Index 207

Editorial Reviews

11/29/2021

Neurologist Peskin debuts with an impressive account of the search for cures for a number of neurologic diseases including dementia and psychosis. In vivid prose, Peskin brings to life the scientists who have contributed to the current “molecular” understanding of such conditions as memory loss and sudden personality shifts. There’s Friedrich Miescher, who isolated DNA in the mid–19th century, and Nancy Wexler, who located the gene that causes Huntington’s disease in 1979. Elaborating on recent medical advances, Peskin explains how genetic mutations, autoimmune responses, and vitamin deficiencies have been linked to brain maladies, and describes the intense emotional and physical sufferings of patients and their families: one mother “kept watch over her daughter, hoping one of the always answerless doctors would burst into the room and announce the reason for Lauren’s illness.” Anecdotes run the gamut from depressing to enlightening, the latter exemplified by the story of how Abraham Lincoln’s mood swings were linked to mercury poisoning. The case studies can be heavy, but Peskin finds cause for optimism in modern medicine: “People who would previously have been untreatable—and even undiagnosable—have now become curable. Their minds and lives are saved.” There’s much to savor in this powerful survey. (Feb.)

Publishers Weekly

"Sara Manning Peskin is remarkably skillful at breaking down complex neuroscience into easily digestible components and explaining the mysteries of the brain with profound elegance. Rarely has a writer been able to depict the devastating consequences of neurologic illness through such poignant patient stories. Like Oliver Sacks before her, she is sure to inspire a generation of future neurologists, neuroscientists, and students of the brain."

Orly Avitzur

"Peskin writes...with a grace and humanity that recall Oliver Sacks. [She is] a dazzling stylist and a compassionate observer."

Annie Murphy Paul

"Peskin provides the reader with an acute and evocative demonstration of the fragility and interchangeability of mental, emotional and behavioral states, and shows how they may be affected by the misbehavior of the molecules defining them."

Wall Street Journal - Adrian Woolfson

"Gripping accounts…scaffolded in clear explanations of their causes, and neuroscientific opportunities towards possible cures."

Harvard Magazine

"I recommend Sara Manning Peskin’s book for anyone whose life has been touched by mental illness—and that’s all of us."

Daniel Handler

"Sara Manning Peskin’s elegant, empathic portrait of the vulnerable brain is both absolutely terrifying and wonderfully optimistic."

Sylvia Nasar

"Cognitive neurology, medical history, and clinical anecdotes are effectively enlisted in Peskin's outlook for a bright future for the treatment of dementia and other brain disorders."

Booklist - Tony Miksanek

★ 01/01/2022

As a cognitive neurologist, Peskin (Univ. of Pennsylvania) sees her role as connecting a patient's narrative to "the molecules causing the problem." In this first book, she tells the stories of patients (some her own, others from history) who have been upended by "mutants, rebels, invaders, and evaders"—molecules that hijack the brain and cause diseases that can lead to personality and movement disorders, hallucinations, seizures, memory loss, even death. These illnesses include Huntington's disease, Pick's disease, Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, multiple neuritis, Alzheimer's and early-onset Alzheimer's, pellagra, and the now-extinct kuru. By exploring the molecular and genetic underpinnings of these diseases, researchers have been able to understand them far better and successfully treat some patients. More needs to be done, including improvements in diagnosis, but Peskin believes that advances are within reach, and that Huntington's and Alzheimer's can be prevented or even cured within our lifetimes. VERDICT A captivating and convincing study that should bring hope and confidence to general readers as well as general practitioners, and to the millions living with neurodegenerative illness and their families. An exemplary work in the relatively new field of narrative medicine.—Marcia G. Welsh

Library Journal

2021-11-03
A neurologist looks at how “the very molecules that make our brains work can also co-opt our personalities and destroy our ability to think.”

Peskin has been a firsthand witness to the suffering of Alzheimer’s patients she has been powerless to cure. In this book, she delves into the three known molecular causes of cognitive decline. The first includes DNA mutations, like those present in Huntington’s disease. Nancy Wexler, a Huntington’s sufferer and medical scientist, was one researcher who worked tirelessly to discover the exact nucleotide sequence of the Huntington’s gene. This breakthrough led to an experimental drug that, as of 2018, proved 85% successful in short-circuiting the mechanisms responsible for setting Huntington’s in motion in those predisposed to the disease. Peskin then examines how protein molecules that the body creates to defend against infection can attack brain cells, as in the case of a young woman thought to be having a psychotic break. Doctors instead discovered that protein antibodies her own body created were responsible for her cognitive dysfunction. Outside of the body, a group of small molecules Peskin calls “invaders” (which include “environmental toxins, illicit drugs, and pharmaceuticals that are not normally part of the human body”) can also wreak havoc, of the kind periodically experienced by Abraham Lincoln. Peskin speculates that his periodic bouts of aggression resulted from ingesting “blue mass,” a mercury-based medication. The author further suggests that the key to succeeding against all cognitive disabilities in the future will be to understand the particular kind of molecular abnormality afflicting a given patient rather than assume that brain diseases like dementia function the same way in different people. This readable and well-researched book will undoubtedly satisfy those seeking the nature of neurological dysfunction and the most current research being done in this field, with added appeal for anyone with a loved one suffering from brain disease.

Fascinating popular science.

Kirkus Reviews