The Madness Pill: One Doctor's Quest to Understand Schizophrenia

by Justin Garson

A rollicking history of the life and work of an unheralded genius: Dr. Solomon Snyder, whose experiments with mind-altering drugs helped change the way we think about the causes and treatments of schizophrenia.

In the 1950s, the field of psychiatry had nothing to show for itself. While polio was being cured, antibiotics were being discovered, and cancer research was developing, the mental health world had no wins. Asylums were full and nobody had figured out how to fix insanity—specifically schizophrenia, the severest mental illness. Scientists became convinced that if they could engineer a pill to create madness, then they could cure it.

Centered around Solomon Snyder, the psychiatrist who ultimately did identify the madness pill, and the community of doctors and researchers he worked with, THE MADNESS PILL recounts the drug-fueled quest to cure schizophrenia. A wunderkind who started medical school at 19, Snyder worked steadily for decades to replicate the illness, ultimately finding in 1970 that amphetamines could trigger a schizophrenia-like state by flooding the brain with dopamine. Five years later, he went on to discover the dopamine receptor and proved that antipsychotic drugs work by disabling dopamine neurons. Snyder’s dopamine hypothesis inspired a generation of researchers to part ways with psychoanalysis and look for the biological basis of schizophrenia and other mental disorders.

Using first-hand research and interviews, THE MADNESS PILL is at once a raucous history and insightful portrait of a remarkable scientist who turned psychiatry into a respected science by transforming how mental illness is treated.

Genres: Science, Mental Health, History, Psychology, Nonfiction, Biography Memoir, Biography

Kindle Edition

Expected publication April 28, 2026

About the author

Justin Garson, Ph.D., is a philosopher and historian of science at the City University of New York. He’s written numerous scholarly books and articles on biology, mind, and madness, including Madness: A Philosophical Exploration and The Madness Pill. He lives in Connecticut with his wife and children.

Reviews

[Emily Poche · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thank you to St. Martin’s Press for providing this ARC for review consideration via NetGalley. All opinions are my own.

The Madness Pill by Justin Garson is a part scientific history, part biography. Following the career path of Dr. Solomon Snyder, the book delves into some crucial discoveries in the fields of neuroscience and psychopharmacology that helped redefine the treatment of schizophrenia and other psychiatric illnesses.

The thing that makes this one of the easier science histories to read due to its concise nature. The book is relatively short, and the scope of the book is relatively narrow. The author wastes very little time delving into tangential topics. The author also is very clear in his aims that despite the career biography, this isn’t a personal biography. While Dr. Snyder’s basic biography does get mentioned, very little time is spent on his personal life. This makes a very specific, very streamlined narrative. The author is able to focus very strongly on the 50 or so odd years of research and innovation without finding the story mired in extraneous details.

I thought that the writing and language used in the story were clear and straightforward. The explanations and descriptions were technical and presumed a level of familiarity but weren’t overly technical.

Something that did impact my final feeling on the book were the epilogue and forward. While the context was certainly interesting about the personal connection, I felt like beside mentioning the side effects, it didn’t factor much into the bulk in the narrative. It was the epilogue that was really what made me feel conflicted. The author spends 200 pages talking about all the successes and innovations of this field and then levels a somewhat heavy handed critique of everything in a single chapter. It sort of felt like the author wasn’t trying to present some more food for thought but rather like they were trying to derail their own story. Sure, it’s not unusual or even a bad idea to present the counter arguments for a book, but this felt somewhat out of place. I think that this book was just too brief to have a very steep criticism in less than a chapter tacked on to the end.

For me, I’d realistically give this a 3.5/5 but feel that in light of the actual chapters of the book merit closer to a 4/5. Fascinating information, concisely written.

[Glen · Rating 3 out of 5]

I won this book in a goodreads drawing.

A biography of the man who helped to create the pill used to cure schizophrenia. This caused the practice of psychiatry to turn away from talk and psychoanalysis towards drugs.

The sad part, is that as far as I can tell, niether the pills nor the talking actually work very well.

[Elizabeth Patton · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5 ⭐️

Thank you to NetGalley, Macmillan Publishers, and Justin Garson for providing me with an advanced digital copy of The Madness Pill. This is my honest review.

The Madness Pill is a fascinating blend of biography, science, and history. Quite literally, this book is a true labor of love written by a son whose father lived with schizophrenia. Drawing from both personal experience and deep research, Garson crafts a compelling narrative centered on psychiatrist Dr. Solomon Snyder, whose groundbreaking discoveries helped transform modern mental health treatment.

Born in the 1930s, Snyder began his career at just nineteen with a single goal: to uncover the cause and find a treatment of schizophrenia. His lifelong dedication to this mission is both inspiring and deeply human.

As someone who regularly works with individuals affected by schizophrenia, I found this book to be empathetic and respectful toward people living with mental illness. Garson manages to balance scientific information with compassion, making complex concepts accessible and easy to digest.

I highly recommend The Madness Pill to readers interested in the history of mental health, neuroscience, or psychology. This book is for anyone looking for an approachable yet thought-provoking work of nonfiction.

[Rachael · Rating 4 out of 5]

What The Madness Pill by Justin Garson offers the reader is a sympathetic and approachable look into the work of psychiatrist Dr. Solomon Snyder, who spent his career attempting to understand the cause of and a cure for schizophrenia. While I think some scientific understanding is perhaps beneficial, as a layperson to the sciences, I still took a lot away from this book and was engaged throughout.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for providing me with an eArc in exchange for an honest review.

[Tina · Rating 4 out of 5]

a super interesting read for anyone interested in schizophrenia, neuroscience, or the history of modern psychiatry. great explanation of the biological and historical mechanisms behind schizophrenia while tracing how psychiatric treatment and the pharmaceutical industry have evolved over time through the work of Dr. Sol Snyder.

[Matthew Chapman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing! Best non-fiction I have read this year.

Thanks to the publisher for the ARC. #giveaway

[Charissa Wilkinson · Rating 4 out of 5]

I received this book courtesy of the Goodreads First Reads program for the purpose of a fair and honest review.

Overview: Schizophrenia has been a thorn in the side of mankind for quite a while now. But how did psychiatry go from Freud and the asylums to hide the mad away, to finding a group of medications that can work for those who have to deal with the symptoms of madness? That's where Doctor Solomon Snyder comes in. How did he come to understand how parts of schizophrenia work? Let's find out.

Dislikes: This does lean rather heavily into some scientific terms. That's not a bad thing per se, it just makes for dry reading at a time.

Likes: The effort Dr. Snyder went through just to discover part of how schizophrenia works. It takes a big person to admit that perhaps the plan to make it easier to communicate with those who have schizophrenia, may have had unforeseen consequences.

Dr. Snyder seems to have been quite the musician. I don't blame him for finding something else to work at.

Few of us today realize what exactly added the regulations on scientific studies. This book will tell you. None of these 'volunteers' sound like they understood what was going on, or what they were agreeing to.

Conclusion: This was a fascinating book. If you like biographies or medical history, then this book is for you. Enjoy the read.

[Elvin · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Madness Pill is a fascinating biography of Dr. Solomon Snyder, detailing his quest to discover the cause of schizophrenia.

This is a fairly quick read at less than 200 pages of actual text, but provides a wealth of information. The book is in third person, so as a reader, the purpose isn’t to get to know Sol as a person outside of his research. Instead, the thesis of this work is to provide a timeline and life and history of Sol, his research, and how that research contributed to psychiatry and biological neuroscience.

It’s a very successful and well-researched book. While it’s not what I would traditionally rate 5 stars even for a non fiction work, I ultimately stopped waffling on whether I should round down to a 4 or up to a 5 because I think that’s this book delivers exactly what it sets out to and does so in a remarkably interesting way.

For people interested in psychology, psychiatry, or in schizophrenia research, this is an empathetic and interesting biography that has enough technical meat to interest someone with academic knowledge of those topics, and yet is explained well enough to allow for more novice readers to enjoy the book as well.

Thank you to St. Martin’s Press for providing this ARC for review consideration via NetGalley. All opinions are my own.

[Jeremy Reppy · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a fascinating book. I enjoyed learning about the history of the study of and treatment for schizophrenia and other mental illnesses; the various theories for what caused schizophrenia; the medication trials; the professionalization of psychiatry; the way certain doctors and scientists were able to take existing research and knowledge and see connections or new insights; how chemicals designed for non-medicinal purposes were able to be repurposed for medical uses, etc. Some of the experiments that were tried were pretty wild — experiments that would never be allowed today. I appreciated that the author used the epilogue to highlight the downsides of the medicalization of mental illness, especially that while knowing there is a biological component to mental illness provides a sense of comfort to those with mental illness (there is a reason I am like this), it also creates a belief that the mental illness is something that can possibly be managed but never overcome. For some people that is certainly true. But for people whose symptoms are heavily tied to life stressors, mental illness is not necessarily permanent.

[Lauren · Rating 4 out of 5]

(ARC - out 04/28/26 via St. Martin's Press) I tend to vibe with non-fiction that focuses on the history of mental illness and mental healthcare in the U.S., so this was really interesting to me. The author tells the story of the treatment of schizophrenia via the life and work of a psychiatrist intrinsic to our modern understanding of the illness. Occasionally the story gets bogged down in complicated details, but Justin Garson is quite adept at taking scientific language and making it palatable to someone untrained in the sciences. I also like that Garson keeps his focus narrow - this isn’t a long book and he doesn’t get lost in digressions or tangents only minutely related to the history of the treatment of schizophrenia. As someone who relies on medication to survive my own brain, I find the history of mental illness and treatment both fascinating and depressing, and this absolutely added to my previous knowledge

[Jill Elizabeth · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was an absolutely fascinating read! I worked in pharmaceuticals for a while and have long been intrigued by the drug development process for mental health conditions, and so those aspects - along with the focus on psychosocial AND physical elements to the treatment and origin of those conditions - have long been an area of interest for me. I worked at a company that offered a schizophrenia product, so was aware of some of what was discussed, but not most of it - and it's a story long overdue to be told. The writing was very engaging and easy to fall into, with a style that felt more like a story than non-fiction narrative. It was a really great read!

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for my obligation-free review copy.

[Christine Cazeneuve · Rating 4 out of 5]

Like a previous reviewer stated - the book is short and tends to focus on Dr. Sol Snyder who was a neuroscientist. He was most noted for his work around opiod receptors and the action of psychoactive drugs. Dr. Snyder's fascination with drugs to cure Schizophrenia lead the medical community away from therapy into medication as the solution. The book is interesting and not overly technical so it is not a complicated read. I do think it just didn't quite delve deep enough into the story as it seemed to dip its feet into a subject and like someone touching their toes into a cold lake quickly stepped out again. Thanks to NetGalley, the author and publisher for an advanced copy in exchange for my honest opinion. 3.5 stars rounded up.

[Elaine · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was well written and fascinating. It takes a very technical topic and makes it approachable. I find mental health and, in particular, schizophrenia to be a fascinating subject and the discussion around using LSD and other mind altering drugs as a way to approach this 'illness' to be very enlightening. It's not just kids playing with drugs, it is highly respected scientists and researchers exploring the possibilities of replicating the mind-state of schizophrenia and attempting to find a cure.

This ARC was provided by NetGalley and the publisher, the opinions expressed herein are strictly my own.

[Steve · Rating 5 out of 5]

I thought that this book was a very good history of medicine, particularly of psychiatry. Its strong points include good explanations of the science and the great use of analogies. I appreciated the autobiographical information in the book and the highly conversational tone. Thank you to Netgalley and St. Martin's Press for the advance reader copy.

[Sheila · Rating 4 out of 5]

I received a free copy of, The Madness Pill, by Justin Garson, from the publisher and Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. I had never heard of Dr. Solomon Snyder before reading this book. This was an interesting read on hoe mental health has evolved from the 1960s to now. This was an interesting read.

[Kaitlyn Cotton · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great novel on the early research into the biological cause & treatment of schizophrenia (primarily focused on the work of Sol Snyder)! It jumps around quite a bit to catch all the synchronous work by many different researchers, but I loved it all the same

#GoodreadsGiveaway