Cyril Höschl receives the Neuron Award for lifelong contribution to science

To connect the "talking cure" and the "pill business" and build an institution without parallel in Central and Eastern Europe. Professor Cyril Höschl managed that too in the course of his career. For his lifelong contribution in the field of psychiatry and mental health, the Council of the Neuron Foundation decided to award him the prestigious Neuron Award at an extraordinary date, to mark World Mental Health Day. The award comes with a financial reward of CZK 1.5 million. Professor Höschl, who has devoted his life to popularising psychiatry and destigmatising psychiatric patients, received the award with enthusiasm, humility and the humour that is so characteristic of him.

"We decided to present the award to Cyril Höschl to mark World Mental Health Day, which is a day of education and awareness-raising in this area and also a day of struggle against the social stigma of mental illness. Professor Cyril Höschl is the embodiment of that work, not only in the Czech Republic but internationally. It seemed fitting to us to celebrate this day precisely with a Neuron Award," explains the co-founder and director of the Neuron Foundation Monika Vondráková.

The professional path of Cyril Höschl is all the more remarkable in that psychiatry was at first rather what was left over for him — after graduating he could not find a position and only found his place at the Psychiatric Research Institute in Bohnice. He stayed in the field and discovered in himself a passion that shaped his entire career.

Opening up to the world

After the fall of communism in Czechoslovakia he became the first president of the European Psychiatric Association from the countries of Central and Eastern Europe. "I set myself the goal of opening the door to all the countries that were looked upon as having climbed down from the trees only yesterday. Yes, in the West they had far more opportunities, more robust research and were methodologically far ahead of us, but here people read much more and in many ways we were better educated," Höschl recalls.

Cyril Höschl also managed to reform the Third Faculty of Medicine of Charles University and build it into a respected institution. His life's work, though, is the creation of the National Institute of Mental Health in Klecany. "In 2013 there was a meadow there and by the autumn of 2014 the building was standing. It came about at an incredible pace. A miracle," Höschl remembers. This institution brings together research, education and treatment, uses the most modern technology — and in Central and Eastern Europe it is absolutely unique.

Science and popularisation

"We are not nominating Professor Höschl for inventing a new antidepressant, but for his systematic, lifelong work to remove the stigma from psychiatric illness, so that people are not afraid to seek expert help if they are experiencing mental health problems. And at the same time for his great service in changing the system of care for psychiatric patients and in teaching new doctors. Cyril Höschl has thus improved life for all of us," is how the chair of the Neuron Foundation's scientific council, Jan Konvalinka, explains its choice for 2024. Even so, his scientific work and achievements should not be overlooked.

In his research activities Professor Höschl has worked on biological psychiatry, psychopharmacology, neuroendocrinology and the neurosciences. As a young scientist he and his colleagues developed a method for using endocrinological processes in diagnosis. He is also the author of a fundamental Czech textbook for undergraduate and postgraduate students of psychiatry and of other key specialist publications. He is the founder of the journal Psychiatrie and a member of the editorial boards of prestigious international journals in the field.

Cyril Höschl is a leading figure of psychiatry in the Czech Republic and worldwide.

— — Monika Vondráková —

His fundamental contribution, however, remains public education in the form of lectures, popular-science texts in mainstream general media and other events explaining psychiatry and its concepts to the wider public. "I tried to tell people that psychiatric patients — with rare exceptions — do not bite and do not murder. To some extent that has perhaps worked, but you have to keep blowing on the embers," is how Professor Höschl describes his life's mission.

"Professor Cyril Höschl has worked tirelessly all his life to raise the standard of psychiatry in the Czech Republic and worldwide. He managed to inspire students to study the field, and at the same time he was able to reach the wider public. He helped us understand the importance of psychiatry and made sure society no longer looks down on psychiatric patients so much. We are enormously happy that we can honour his 'work' with a Neuron Award," Monika Vondráková adds.

Listen to a reflective interview with the award-winning laureate.