Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

Our brains are the most complex machines known to humankind, but they have an Achilles heel: the very molecules that allow us to exist can also sabotage our minds. Here are gripping accounts of unruly molecules and the diseases that form in their wake.

A college student cannot remember if she has eaten breakfast. By dinner, she is strapped to a hospital bed, convinced she is battling zombies. A man planning to propose marriage instead becomes violently enraged, gripped by body spasms so severe that he nearly bites off his own tongue. One after another, poor farmers in South Carolina drop dead from a mysterious epidemic of dementia.

With an intoxicating blend of history and intrigue, Sara Manning Peskin invites readers to play medical detective, tracing each diagnosis from the patient to an ailing nervous system. Along the way, Peskin entertains with tales of the sometimes outlandish, often criticized, and forever devoted scientists who discovered it all.

Peskin never loses sight of the human impact of these conditions. Alzheimer's Disease is more than the gradual loss of a loved one; it can be a family's multigenerational curse. The proteins that abound in every cell of our bodies are not simply strings of oxygen, hydrogen, nitrogen, and carbon; they are the building blocks of our personalities and relationships. A Molecule Away from Madness is an unputdownable journey into the deepest mysteries of our brains.

Table of contents provided by Syndetics

• Introduction (p. 1)
• Part 1 DNA Mutants (p. 9)
• Chapter 1 In Suspension (p. 17)
• Chapter 2 La Bobera de la Familia (p. 32)
• Chapter 3 Has Anyone Seen My Father? (p. 53)
• Part 2 Rebellious Proteins (p. 69)
• Chapter 4 A Zombie Apocalypse (p. 76)
• Chapter 5 The Muscle Man (p. 91)
• Chapter 6 Deadly Laughter (p. 105)
• Part 3 Brain Invaders and Evaders (p. 127)
• Chapter 7 Like Lucifer (p. 135)
• Chapter 8 An Honest Liar (p. 147)
• Chapter 8 Filth Parties (p. 161)
• Epilogue (p. 180)
• Acknowledgments (p. 185)
• Glossary (p. 187)
• Notes (p. 191)
• Index (p. 207)

Reviews provided by Syndetics

Library Journal Review

As a cognitive neurologist, Peskin (Univ. of Pennsylvania) sees her role as connecting a patient's narrative to "the molecules causing the problem." In this first book, she tells the stories of patients (some her own, others from history) who have been upended by "mutants, rebels, invaders, and evaders"--molecules that hijack the brain and cause diseases that can lead to personality and movement disorders, hallucinations, seizures, memory loss, even death. These illnesses include Huntington's disease, Pick's disease, Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, multiple neuritis, Alzheimer's and early-onset Alzheimer's, pellagra, and the now-extinct kuru. By exploring the molecular and genetic underpinnings of these diseases, researchers have been able to understand them far better and successfully treat some patients. More needs to be done, including improvements in diagnosis, but Peskin believes that advances are within reach, and that Huntington's and Alzheimer's can be prevented or even cured within our lifetimes. VERDICT A captivating and convincing study that should bring hope and confidence to general readers as well as general practitioners, and to the millions living with neurodegenerative illness and their families. An exemplary work in the relatively new field of narrative medicine.--Marcia G. Welsh

Publishers Weekly Review

Neurologist Peskin debuts with an impressive account of the search for cures for a number of neurologic diseases including dementia and psychosis. In vivid prose, Peskin brings to life the scientists who have contributed to the current "molecular" understanding of such conditions as memory loss and sudden personality shifts. There's Friedrich Miescher, who isolated DNA in the mid--19th century, and Nancy Wexler, who located the gene that causes Huntington's disease in 1979. Elaborating on recent medical advances, Peskin explains how genetic mutations, autoimmune responses, and vitamin deficiencies have been linked to brain maladies, and describes the intense emotional and physical sufferings of patients and their families: one mother "kept watch over her daughter, hoping one of the always answerless doctors would burst into the room and announce the reason for Lauren's illness." Anecdotes run the gamut from depressing to enlightening, the latter exemplified by the story of how Abraham Lincoln's mood swings were linked to mercury poisoning. The case studies can be heavy, but Peskin finds cause for optimism in modern medicine: "People who would previously have been untreatable--and even undiagnosable--have now become curable. Their minds and lives are saved." There's much to savor in this powerful survey. (Feb.)

CHOICE Review

Peskin (Univ. of Pennsylvania), an academic neurologist who also writes for the New York Times, has written a hugely entertaining and informative book describing the fragile brain and the long history of research into causes and treatments of brain dysfunction, seamlessly integrating stories of neurology patients with historical accounts of the people who have worked tirelessly to understand and cure such ailments. In both dimensions, Peskin's focus is on the people--the patients and the scientists, in all their uniqueness and sometimes quirky lives. Explaining Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, Peskin describes with equal compassion the personal details of a patient who suddenly experienced the Creutzfeldt-Jakob symptoms and died less than one month from his retirement, and the scientist Santiago Ramón y Cajal (1852-1934), who identified the neuron as the functional unit of the nervous system in the late 19th century. Readers also learn that as a youth, Cajal spent time in a local jail for blowing up his neighbor's property with a homemade canon. The book is full of such entertaining vignettes, which help to personalize Peskin's fascinating descriptions of the disorders and the science behind understanding them. This is a page-turner that any reader will enjoy while learning about some of the most monumental neuroscientific advances in the modern era. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduates. Graduate students, faculty and professionals. General readers. --Clark Allen Lindgren, Grinnell College

Booklist Review

"Our brains have an Achilles' heel," neurologist Peskin proclaims. And at that nub of vulnerability contains naughty molecules that can "co-opt the mind" by adversely affecting personality, memory, and thinking. She identifies three categories of havoc-causing, occasionally mind-disintegrating molecules: genetic mutations, problematic proteins, and invaders-evaders. Huntington's disease and familial early-onset Alzheimer's disease are due to deleterious DNA mutations. The troublesome proteins group includes prion disease and autoimmune disorders that trigger an antibody attack on the brain. Prions cause mad cow disease and Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (an inevitably fatal neurodegenerative disease). Invaders are harmful toxins and drugs; evaders are necessary but missing molecules, as in thiamine or niacin vitamin deficiencies. Peskin includes emotionally charged stories of patients with these conditions, illustrating the misery inflicted by these diseases on individuals and those who love them. For example, a young woman suddenly becomes confused, convinced she's living in the fictional world of TV's The Walking Dead. In conclusion, cognitive neurology, medical history, and clinical anecdotes are effectively enlisted in Peskin's outlook for a bright future for the treatment of dementia and other brain disorders.

Kirkus Book Review

A neurologist looks at how "the very molecules that make our brains work can also co-opt our personalities and destroy our ability to think." Peskin has been a firsthand witness to the suffering of Alzheimer's patients she has been powerless to cure. In this book, she delves into the three known molecular causes of cognitive decline. The first includes DNA mutations, like those present in Huntington's disease. Nancy Wexler, a Huntington's sufferer and medical scientist, was one researcher who worked tirelessly to discover the exact nucleotide sequence of the Huntington's gene. This breakthrough led to an experimental drug that, as of 2018, proved 85% successful in short-circuiting the mechanisms responsible for setting Huntington's in motion in those predisposed to the disease. Peskin then examines how protein molecules that the body creates to defend against infection can attack brain cells, as in the case of a young woman thought to be having a psychotic break. Doctors instead discovered that protein antibodies her own body created were responsible for her cognitive dysfunction. Outside of the body, a group of small molecules Peskin calls "invaders" (which include "environmental toxins, illicit drugs, and pharmaceuticals that are not normally part of the human body") can also wreak havoc, of the kind periodically experienced by Abraham Lincoln. Peskin speculates that his periodic bouts of aggression resulted from ingesting "blue mass," a mercury-based medication. The author further suggests that the key to succeeding against all cognitive disabilities in the future will be to understand the particular kind of molecular abnormality afflicting a given patient rather than assume that brain diseases like dementia function the same way in different people. This readable and well-researched book will undoubtedly satisfy those seeking the nature of neurological dysfunction and the most current research being done in this field, with added appeal for anyone with a loved one suffering from brain disease. Fascinating popular science. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.