The pharmacology of neurotrophic factors is part of the general field called neuroprotection or neurodegeneration, which has emerged during the past two decades. This new broad research area has identified molecular mechanisms that regulate the morphological plasticity of the nervous system and, in con- sequence, discovered novel pharmacological approaches to manipulate these processes in disease states. The new, structural neuropharmacology as de- scribed in this volume attempts to regulate the anatomic aspects of the nervous system and is perhaps comparable to hardware manipulation in...