Nov Dec 2006 Kunye

From The Editor

Darkness Visible

T

hus were the eternally punishing fires of hell described by the great English writer, John Milton (1608-1674), himself blind by age forty-six from glaucoma. What paradoxes! A fire without light that allows one to see the darkness, all seen by a blind man! What literary genius! Much like the genius of scientific discovery, rendering the previously unseen, visible. But what exactly did this sightless man see so brilliantly in his great brain and then dictate to his daughter to transcribe? I submit that he saw perhaps what almost 500 million people worldwide see, and feel, as they suffer from their lifelong debilitation from diseases of the central nervous system, the subject of this issue’s cover file. I am sure that the late, esteemed American writer, William Styron, would have agreed. His epic memoir depicting his descent into depression was entitled Darkness Visible: A Memoir of Madness. As for Milton’s vision? See for yourself.

As one great furnace flamed; yet from those flames No light; but rather darkness visible Served only to discover sights of woe, Regions of sorrow, doleful shades, where peace And rest can never dwell, hope never comes That comes to all, but torture without end still urges… (John Milton, Paradise Lost, Book 1, 62-67) These words also describe the motivating power that rises from the soul of the medical profession, the spiritual impulses to comfort, to heal, to solve. The great abstract painter, Wassily Kandinsky, wrote of the spirituality inherent in the artistic process. I would extend his thinking to include the process of scientific inquiry, more particularly, the never-ending quest by medical science to alleviate human suffering.

nervous system. Hundreds of millions are afflicted. Many, if not most, suffer a life-long debilitation where “peace and rest can never dwell.” The range of these diseases, “the regions of sorrow,” is vast: depression, schizophrenia, Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases, Muscular Dystrophy, Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (Lou Gehrig’s Disease), sexual dysfunction, reactive disorders due to trauma, humiliation, rape, and sexual abuse, family dysfunction, suicide. Sadly, the list is much longer. Sadly, the emotional vulnerability of children continues to pose enormous problems. The pressure to get educated, to compete, to succeed is borne by such young shoulders, as is child abuse, and impulsive suicide. And there remains the difficulty of children obtaining adequate healthcare. All physicians agree that early diagnosis, even at birth, followed by early treatment prevents longterm degeneration from neuromuscular disease. We must solve the health-care delivery problem. Great progress is being made in the laboratory. Many of these diseases have a genetic origin. You will read of the hopeful research based on the epic decoding of the human genome. If the last century was the age of flight, and outer space, and the telescope, this one seems to be the inverse with the microscope focusing on the smallest, most private of inner spaces, the human cell. How profoundly exciting this is! Of course, there remains much to be done. But recent great strides in scientific discovery have already enlightened regions of investigation that had been forever dark. And so the quest proceeds. Chemistry, biotechnology, genetics, genomics, all collaborating to replace darkness with insight, despair with promise, suffering with remediation. One feels it in one’s bones. One sees it in the pages that follow.

The cover file herein expounds on the efforts, progress, and difficulties inherent in the remediation of diseases of the central

James Ryan Turkish Pharmaceutical Business Review • OCTOBER - DECEMBER 2006 • Volume 1 - Issue 4

ISSN: 1306 - 2018

Editor in Chief: ‹brahim Erdo¤an, MD • Editors: James Ryan - Hardy Griffin - Hülya Kapucu • Junior Editor: Nora Artino¤lu Graphic Design: Rekmar Reklam ve Marka ‹letiflim Hizmetleri • Photographers: Tezcan K›ld›ran - Savafl Keskiner Contributors: Tijen Acarkan, M.D. • Deniz Ateflok

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