Robin Murray
The Life Scientific
BBC
4.6 • 1.4K Ratings
🗓️ 7 February 2012
⏱️ 28 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Jim al-Khalili talks to psychiatrist, Robin Murray about his life's work trying to understand why some people have schizophrenia and others don't. As a young man, Murray lived in an Asylum in Glasgow for two years, mainly because it offered free accommodation to medical students. Struck by how people's minds could play tricks on them and the lack of proper research into the condition, he resolved to put the study of schizophrenia on a more scientific footing. Fifteen years ago he believed schizophrenia was a brain disease. Now, he's not so sure. Despite decades of research, the biological basis of this often distressing condition remains elusive. Just living in a city significantly increases your risk (the bigger the city the greater the risk); and, as Murray discovered, migrants are six times more likely to develop the condition than long term residents. He's also outspoken about the mental health risks of smoking cannabis, based both on his scientific research and direct experience working at the Maudsley Hospital in South London.
Producer: Anna Buckley.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | You're about to listen to a BBC podcast and I'd like to tell you a bit about the |
| 0:03.8 | podcast I work on. I'm Dan Clark and I commissioned factual podcasts at the BBC. |
| 0:08.6 | It's a massive area but I'd sum it up as stories to help us make sense of the forces shaping the world. |
| 0:15.0 | What podcasting does is give us the space and the time to take brilliant BBC journalism |
| 0:20.0 | and tell amazing compelling stories that really get behind the headlines. |
| 0:23.7 | And what I get really excited about is when we find a way of drawing you into a subject |
| 0:28.3 | you might not even have thought you were interested in. |
| 0:30.2 | Whether it's investigations, science, tech, politics, culture, true crime, the environment, |
| 0:36.1 | you can always discover more with a podcast on BBC Sounds. |
| 0:40.0 | Thank you for downloading the Life Scientific from BBC Radio 4. |
| 0:44.0 | When Professor Robin Murray first became a psychiatrist, |
| 0:47.5 | paranoid thoughts, hearing voices and hallucinations |
| 0:51.0 | were regarded as the first signs of inevitable mental decline. |
| 0:54.9 | People experiencing these symptoms were labeled as schizophrenic and were shut away in |
| 1:00.4 | as asylums. Since then attitudes have changed and treatments improved. Many people |
| 1:05.8 | with schizophrenia or psychosis can lead normal lives. But despite decades of research we still don't understand what causes this |
| 1:15.4 | often distressing and sometimes debilitating mental health problem. |
| 1:19.2 | 15 years ago Robin Murray was convinced it was a brain disease. |
| 1:24.1 | Now he says the evidence is less clear. |
| 1:27.1 | We know, for instance, that living in a city |
| 1:29.6 | significantly increases your risk. |
| 1:32.3 | The bigger the city, the greater the increase and |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from BBC, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of BBC and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.