A brief history of psychopharmacology

Abstract

The Oxford English Dictionary defines psychopharmacology as 'the scientific study of the effect of drugs on the mind and behaviour' (Oxford English Dictionary Online, 2018). The earliest reference to the term was in 1548 when Reinhard Lorichius published the prayer book Psychopharmakon, hoc est Medicina Animae (Lehmann, 1993; Wolman, 1977). Lorichius coined the term 'psychopharmakon' to refer to spiritual medicine that could reduce human suffering. The word psychopharmacology was first used in a scientific paper in 1920 by a pharmacologist working at Johns Hopkins University who wrote a short paper entitled Contributions to psychopharmacology (Macht, 1920).