Carlsson was born on 25 January 1923 in Uppsala, Sweden, one of four siblings. His family moved to Lund after his father became a history professor at Lund University. Although his two older siblings followed their father's career path, he instead chose to study medicine at Lund, beginning in 1941.[4][7]
In 1944, he participated in the task of examining prisoners of Nazi concentration camps, whom Swedish aristocratFolke Bernadotte had managed to bring to Sweden, which was neutral during World War II.[4][7] He received his MD and PhD in pharmacology in 1951.[4]
In 1957 Katharine Montagu demonstrated the presence of dopamine in the human brain; later that same year Carlsson also demonstrated that dopamine was a neurotransmitter in the brain and not just a precursor for norepinephrine.[8][9] Carlsson went on to develop a method for measuring the amount of dopamine in brain tissues. He found that dopamine levels in the basal ganglia, a brain area important for movement, were particularly high. He then showed that giving animals the drug reserpine caused a decrease in dopamine levels and a loss of movement control. These effects were similar to the symptoms of Parkinson's disease. By administering to these animals L-Dopa, which is the precursor of dopamine, he could alleviate the symptoms. These findings led other doctors to try using L-Dopa in patients with Parkinson's disease, and it was found to alleviate some of the symptoms in the early stages of the disease. L-Dopa is still the basis for most commonly used means of treating Parkinson's disease.[5]
Carlsson was still an active researcher and speaker when he was over 90 years old and, together with his daughter Lena, he worked[12] on OSU6162, a dopamine stabilizer which alleviates symptoms of post-stroke fatigue.[13]
Carlsson married Ulla-Lisa Christoffersson in 1945 and they had three sons and two daughters. His daughter Maria was his lab manager[4][7] and his daughter Lena was one of his collaborators.[12]
He opposed the fluoridation of drinking water in Sweden.[16][17][18] He was a vocal opponent of homeopathy and worked to prevent homeopathic preparations from being classified as medication in Sweden.[2]
Carlsson died on 29 June 2018, at the age of 95.[4][7]
Arvid Carlsson on Nobelprize.org including the Nobel Lecture 8 December 2000 A Half-Century of Neurotransmitter Research: Impact on Neurology and Psychiatry