I am honored to introduce readers to this extraordinary volume, the first in the annual International Perspectives Series: Psychiatry, Psychology, and Neurosciences. This particular volume on the Recent Advances In Schizophrenia stems from the Third Annual Pennsylvania Conference on Schizophrenia, held in March, 1988. At that international meeting, some of the most esteemed researchers in the field surveyed our current under standing of schizophrenia. Collectively, their presentations capture the excitement of a research field launching into a stage of rapid worldwide advancement. The last decade has seen an enormous refocusing of scientific effort on schizophrenia, directed, in large measure, by the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH). Our understanding of this mysterious, disabling disorder in all its diversity has been enhanced by a host of technologies, including new neuroimaging techniques, cognitive psychology, molecular genetics, and anatomical, biochemical, and molecular neuropathology. The resulting growth spurt in our knowledge constitutes the essence of the conference and of this volume. As the following pages amply docu ment, it has been a decade of great progress, one in which we can take great pride. The science of our field has matured to the point that a major research thrust is now feasible-one likely to have enormous benefits for schizophrenic patients and their families. It is a very exciting time to be in this field and to participate in accelerating its advances.

Recent advances in clinical psychiatry are presented by David Baron and Lawrence Gross in this issue of Psychiatric Clinics. Psychiatrists will find here disorders they deal with daily in patients and topics include Advances in: Addictive disorders; Geriatric and healthy aging; Trauma and violence; PTSD; Schizophrenia; Intellectual disabilities; Neuropsychiatry, Psychopharmacology; Integrated care - psychiatry and primary care; Global and cultural psychiatry; Mood disorders. Also presented are the Future role of psychotherapy in psychiatry; Public mental health in the Affordable Care Act era; Genetics; and Diagnostic classification (DSM criteria) how they are transitioning in future - DSM V and beyond.

Growing evidence derived from cerebrospinal fluid (CSF), neuropathological, imaging, genetic, and epidemiological studies link neuroinflammation and immune dysregulation to a subset of individuals with a variety of severe mental disorders (SMDs), including affective and non-affective psychotic disorders. Further, the recent discoveries of neuronal surface antibodies (NSAs) in autoimmune encephalitis (AE) presenting with diverse neuropsychiatric disorders such as psychosis and cognitive decline, among many others, provides further support to the notion that CNS autoimmunity and neuroinflammation can contribute to the neurobiology of psychiatric disturbances. Further, these immune mechanisms may contribute to a subset of patients currently diagnosed as having treatment-resistant SMDs such as schizophrenia and major depressive disorder. Additionally, mounting data indicate that various infections can serve as an immunological trigger of aberrant immune responses, presumably by causing release of excess neural antigen, thereby giving rise to NSAs or aberrant immune cellular responses to give rise to primary or secondary psychiatric disorders such as schizophrenia and those associated with AE, respectively. Collectively, these findings support the “mild encephalitis” hypothesis of SMD. The significant overlap among AE-associated psychosis, systemic autoimmune disorder-associated psychosis, and psychotic disorders associated with pathological processes involving inflammation and immune dysregulation has also prompted some authors to adopt the term “autoimmune psychosis” (AP). This term reflects that this psychosis subtype is mechanistically linked to complex neuroimmune and inflammatory signalling abnormalities that can be responsive to early immunomodulatory treatment. It also suggests that a subset of AP might represent an incomplete or “forme fruste” subtype of AE presenting with dominant or pure psychiatric symptoms mimicking primary psychiatric illnesses. Because data indicate that delayed diagnosis and treatment may lead to permanent sequelae, early recognition of AP utilizing neurodiagnostic workup (e.g., CSF analysis, neuroimaging, and EEG) and its early treatment with appropriate immunotherapy are paramount to a meaningful recovery. This eBook will provide an overview of the current knowledge and research areas from epidemiology, risk factors and diagnosis to the management of these conditions, in this rapidly emerging field, helping to bridge the gaps in knowledge that currently exist in the disciplines of Psychiatry, Neurology, and Neuroimmunology.

This issue of the Psychiatric Clinics, edited by Dr. Peter F. Buckley, examines advances and current management in the treatment of Schizophrenia. The topics covered in this issue include, but are not limited to: Duration of Untreated Psychosis (DUP) and Longitudinal Perspectives on DUP; Neuroinflammation and Schizophrenia; Emerging Treatments for Schizophrenia; Treatment-Resistant Schizophrenia; Comorbidities and Schizophrenia; Recovery from Schizophrenia; and the latest in schizophrenia research.

Recent Advances In Neuropsychopharmacology contains selected papers from the 12th Congress of the Collegium Internationale Neuro-Psychopharmacologicum held in Gõteborg, Sweden, 22-26 June 1980. The 47 papers in the volume are organized into six parts. The papers in Part I deal with the subject of psychostimulants in psychiatric research. Topics covered include the effect of chronic d-amphetamine and chronic apomorphine treatment on non-human primate social and solitary behavior; and the behavioral effects of dopamine agonists. Part II assesses the prescription of psychotropic drugs by general practitioners. Part III examines blood platelets as a model system for central monoaminergic neurons. Part IV focuses on anxiety pathways in the brain. Part V considers prospects for a biochemical classification system in psychiatry. Part VI presents pharmacokinetic studies of psychotropic drugs. Part VI contains two papers on the renal function and renal histology of lithium patients on maintenance lithium therapy and pre-lithium patients; and the treatment of refractory schizophrenia.

A method of behavioral control which utilizes nutritive sucking as the operant has been evolved in our laboratory. Using this technique we studied the role of arousal and learning in the development of environ mental control over earliest feeding behavior. Few of the infants in our studies were able to coordinate their sucking behavior to arbitrary operant-discrimination schedules, but when the individual pattern of suck ing was taken into consideration, some infants rapidly adapted to the reinforcement schedule. Data from various reinforcement schedules suggest that earliest mothering involves a mutual adaptation in which the nurturing environment approximates and then entrains the infant's feeding behavior by a perceptive manipulation of the infant's state of arousal. Coordination between the infant and its environment sets the stage for associative learning, which develops following maturation of the infant's discriminative and response capacities. The process of behavioral acquisition begins with unconditioned feeding responses, which are transformed into complex learned behavior through the mediation of an appropriately reinforcing environment. The infants studied showed individual differences in susceptibility to environmental control and in response to frustration. The relative importance of arousal and learning as determinants of infant behavior are discussed and a hypothetical model for the earliest mother-infant relationship is proposed.

Edited by the president of the World Federation of Societies of Biological Psychiatry and featuring an international list of world-renown contributors, Schizophrenia, Second Edition provides psychiatrists, neurologists, and psychologists with a comprehensive handbook on the latest schizophrenia research and management from diagnosis through tr