Receptors

Restak here gives new meaning to the term ``designer drugs.'' A noted neurologist and author of The Brain and The Mind , he outlines advances in our understanding of the brain's chemical processes that, while holding great promise for the relief of mental illness, also suggest provocative possibilities for the refashioning of personality. Focusing on the role of neurotransmitters, which relay messages from neurons to receptors, he chronicles experiments and discoveries in the field of brain chemistry of the last half-century. Restak, who has long listened to Prozac and other mind-altering drugs, provides a lucid, balanced and helpful history of the steps leading us to this new frontier. (Mar.)