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Nature 455, 889 (16 October 2008) | doi:10.1038/455889a; Published online 15 October 2008

Open Innovation Challenges

Editorial Neuropsychiatric disease

I-han Chou1 & Tanguy Chouard1

Since the time of ancient Egypt, societies have struggled to understand mental illness and to care for those affected by it. But, over the millennia, the idea that mental illness might have a biological cause arose only intermittently, and treatments ranged from the benign (exercise, humour and music) to the barbaric (exorcism, imprisonment and lobotomy).