The historical evolution and future of neurology and psychiatry.

In the UK, as in most western countries, neurology and psychiatry evolved into separate disciplines in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. In the late 20th and early 21st centuries there are signs of some convergence of the two disciplines, stimulated in part by a common interest in neuroscientific studies of the brain, but also a greater awareness of the psychological and social dimensions of neurological disorders and the re-emergence of the concept and discipline of neuropsychiatry. Neither the Royal College of Psychiatrists, nor the Association of British Neurologists has a specialist interest group on history, but might there be support from both disciplines for a joint history group? So-called neurological and psychiatric diseases have been recorded for up to 4 millennia and the histories of these disorders are profoundly intertwined.