What is the future of neuroscience given that most of what neuroscientists do is look for drugs to cure disorders. Do you believe that that advances in neuroscience can inform the treatment of mental disorders, such as anxiety disorders? Discuss.

Yes.

I don't know a huge amount about neuroscience, I pretty much scraped a decent mark in my neuroscience module and did only slightly better in bio-psychology/pharmacology. And it was a while ago. But I miss writing answers when someone ends a question with "Discuss." so hey...

But from what I remember, it can inform all sorts of things. For a start whatever you think of using medication for psychological disorders, they will probably continue to be used. If we had for example a more detailed and correct understanding of the neuropsychology/biology of depression we could almost certainly develop better anti-depressant drugs without most of the side effects we have now (considering mono-amine theory was developed over the years from an accidental discovery, and due to this other theories of depression that could be found if we actually new more about the neuroscience involved may be more useful, and aid to the development of far better drugs for the cases in which drugs are needed).

Also neuroscience can inform things which don't involve us medicating. For example the dopamine and its role in addiction was found through neuropsychological investigation. And rather than just helping us develop more drugs its informed the way we approach addiction, and the way we develop programs and therapies (eg. we find dopamine released when we experience cues from the environment that we relate to drug use, so we now know that if we avoid these cues we have a far better chance of beating the system and giving up the drug).

To me it seems natural that if you know more about the neurology/neuroscience behind a disorder the more we know about the related chemicals/systems etc. and the better we will be able to understand those suffering from the disorders and therefore help them in a way that will most benefit them as a person.
I dunno if that what you mean with this thread but anyway....

i don't know much about science, but i know what i like

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marzipan marzipan marzipan marzipan

i was hoping more people would reply to this thread. are you a medical student, or?

I am a psychology student with minimal knowledge on the topic. I guess what I do not get is whether neuroscience reduces our development to the influences of the genes and their impact on our brain. That is, do they discount the importance of environment and experience on influencing brain development? I'm trying to critique an article and respond whether or not neurosciences inform and advance our cognitive development or not. I sort of struggle taking a position. Do you know anything about this topic?