ethical concerns in the age of an advanced psychopharmacology

Controlling, modulating or influencing mental activity, thoughts, beliefs and even human behavior has been an everlasting challenge in medicine and psychology. The nature and the environment have granted humanity different options to try to regulate sleep and wake. As demonstrated by history, Papaver somniferum and wine have had their say on sleep induction since antiquity (1). Overcoming grief, stress and anxiety have also been among the targets, especially for traumatized persons. Nepenthe was the Homeric anti-sorrow drug, obviously not related to the panoply of antidepressants that are so widely used in the modern times (2). The unending debate on mind-soul duality has had obvious philosophical implications but contributed very little to treatment of psychiatric patients (3, 4). Before the advent of antipsychotics, controlling agitated patients without the use of (maybe) inhuman mechanical contention was hardly achievable, although many attempts were made to do so (5, 6).