Genes, Medicine, Moods

Book excerpt: One can have a successful professional career, and a meaningful, personal life while struggling all the while with a common mental illness: bipolar disorder. This memoir describes the author's widely recognized research in the field of inherited metabolic disorders in children, his pivotal role as Dean of the Yale University School of Medicine and as Chief Scientific Officer of the Bristol-Myers Squibb Company, his contributions to public affairs, and his efforts as a teacher of medical, graduate, undergraduate, and high school students. These stories are interwoven with that of his personal encounter with bipolar disorder--one that has gone on for 60 years, and once nearly ended his life in a Prozac-precipitated suicide attempt. This is a narrative of hope and resilience, not one of desolation and despair.