Murray Jarvik

Murray Elias Jarvik ( born June 1, 1923 in New York City; † May 8, 2008 in Santa Monica, California ) was an American psychopharmacologist. He developed along with Jed Rose, the nicotine patch.

Biography

Jarvik was born in 1923 in New York. His academic career spans more than 50 years. He taught and conducted research mainly at the University of California, Los Angeles ( UCLA). He was also employed as chief physician at the West Los Angeles Veterans Administration Medical Center and was one among others, the American Academy of Neurology, the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the American Psychological Association at.

In the 1960s, he was one of the first who examined the effects of LSD on the human body and its psyche. He then devoted himself to the memory. In 1970 he devoted himself to nicotine dependence and examined the causes of this addiction. In 1990, he studied together with Jed Rose, a doctoral fellow at UCLA, a case of "green tobacco illness", which was common among the southern farm workers and expressed itself in dizziness, nausea and confusion states. During the studies on this enigmatic epidemic among farmers, Jarvik came across the realization that tobacco can be absorbed by the skin. This discovery led to the development of the nicotine patch, which can be used for smoking cessation. Since the two scientists could find no volunteers, they tested the active ingredient in self- test. In 1992, the patch was released in the U.S., where it is now available without a prescription.

His works for psychopharmacology are among the most widely read among American medical students. On 8 May 2008 the scientist died after a prolonged heart problems. He left behind his wife Lissy Jarvik, two sons and three grandchildren.