The discoveries of Arvid Carlsson have been crucial for our understanding of brain function. They have also led to the development of new drugs for both neurological and psychiatric diseases. At the age of 88 Arvid is still knee deep in his research in Gothenburg.

"For Einstein it took 20 years and for me it took 40 years. That explains how much more complicated my story is than his," jokes Arvid. He was awarded a Nobel Prize in the year 2000 for his discovery that dopamine is an important message carrier in the brain and that it has great importance for our ability to control movements.

Arvid made the discovery in the late 1950s. It was groundbreaking, controversial and initially ignored by international researchers. This was because dopamine at the time was regarded as a passive substance and not an important neurotransmitter as shown by Arvid. But after some years and with piling evidence the importance of dopamine and its role in the brain could not be dismissed.

"They say dopamine is a Cinderella among neurotransmitters because it started out as a Cinderella and finally it came into glory. It took a long time to understand its importance."

With his early work on dopamine Arvid soon discovered that he was right in the middle of Parkinson's disease. His research led to the realisation of its cause - low dopamine levels in certain parts of the brain. He was working with a molecule L-dopa, which could temporarily restore dopamine deficiencies. In later clinical studies disabled patients that were given L-dopa actually got up and started to walk. Even now it is the basis for the most effective treatment available for Parkinson's disease.

Arvid's work with Parkinson's also led to an interest in translational research. He wanted to take his research all the way to the patients. Throughout his long career he has worked almost exclusively on dopamine and another neurotransmitter called serotonin. Arvid says they are closely related in terms of activity, but their relationship is relatively unknown.

"When it comes to the brain being out of order, for various reasons such as trauma and stroke, you can be sure that dopamine and serotonin are around."

Today Arvid and the company A Carlsson Research are based at Sahlgrenska Science Park in Gothenburg. He may be 88 years-old and a professor emeritus since 1989, but he remains active in pharmaceutical research.

"I would say it is certainly more than half-time. I would have preferred a little less, but you are either in it or you are out."

Together with his small research team, including his daughter Maria, Arvid focuses on drugs that stabilise dopamine and serotonin levels in the brain. His concept is simple: bring down what is high and bring up what is low.

"The molecules we are working on now are doing this kind of thing both on certain dopamine receptors and certain serotonin receptors. So they are stabilising both the dopamine and serotonin systems."

These stabilisers, Arvid believes, have the potential to help a wide range of neurological and psychological disorders.

"The disease spread could be very different kinds of disorders. Some of them traumatic, others lesions, and others not organic such as depression and mania."

Arvid and his team have recently completed a number of clinical studies in collaboration with the Sahlgrenska Academy. In particular one study involving sufferers of mental fatigue, a condition with no effective treatment, was "remarkably successful".

"Mental fatigue shows up in many different conditions. Their brain stops and they can't do anything. They feel so tired. It's not the body, it's the mind."

The double-blind study included 12 patients with mental fatigue due to stroke and trauma. Most of the patients overcome their fatigue after only a few days of medication.

"We gave our stabiliser to them and they improved dramatically. One patient actually said ‘I have woken up. I am back'. This was very encouraging. Along that track we are now trying to expand."

In 2012 there will be more clinical studies with mental fatigue patients, as well as sufferers of closely related conditions. If all goes well Arvid's stabilising drug could hit the market in 2016 at the earliest.

Arvid Carlsson became Professor of Pharmacology at the University of Gothenburg in 1959. He has since been based in Gothenburg.

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