Philip D. Harvey - Böcker

New developments in the basic and clinical neurosciences have lead to important advances in our understanding of the events that occur between conception and birth that can influence schizophrenia. At the other end of the life span, some of the most exciting developments in years have recently been coming out of comprehensive studies of post-mortem studies of patients with schizophrenia. In the clinical domain, studies of first episode patients with schizophrenia are proliferating, at the same time as many research groups are performing comprehensive studies of patients with schizophrenia who are in the eighth decade of life or even older. Thus, many of the exciting new developments in research on schizophrenia are at the ends of the life span, suggesting that a wide-ranging treatment of schizophrenia in this framework will be very well accepted.This volume is unique in adopting a lifespan approach to understanding schizophrenia. There are many aspects of schizophrenia that require research attention from a lifespan perspective. For example, there may be aspects of the behavior or biological functioning that are present before the illness that change an individual's risk for developing the illness. There may be environmental events that can cause schizophrenia in the absence of other predisposing factors. There may be genetic influences on the development of schizophrenia that are modified by environmental events, either psychological or physiological. Factors such as an individual's gender or intelligence may also influence schizophrenia, either in terms of changing the risk for development or changing aspects of the illness' presentation, such as onset age or overall functional outcome. With contributions from leading scientists in this field, and results from the frontiers of schizophrenia research, this volume is a major new addition to the psychiatry literature.

New developments in the basic and clinical neurosciences have lead to important advances in our understanding of the events that occur between conception and birth that can influence schizophrenia. At the other end of the life span, some of the most exciting developments in years have recently been coming out of comprehensive studies of post-mortem studies of patients with schizophrenia. In the clinical domain, studies of first episode patients with schizophrenia are proliferating, at the same time as many research groups are performing comprehensive studies of patients with schizophrenia who are in the eighth decade of life or even older. Thus, many of the exciting new developments in research on schizophrenia are at the ends of the life span, suggesting that a wide-ranging treatment of schizophrenia in this framework will be very well accepted.This volume is unique in adopting a lifespan approach to understanding schizophrenia. There are many aspects of schizophrenia that require research attention from a lifespan perspective. For example, there may be aspects of the behavior or biological functioning that are present before the illness that change an individual's risk for developing the illness. There may be environmental events that can cause schizophrenia in the absence of other predisposing factors. There may be genetic influences on the development of schizophrenia that are modified by environmental events, either psychological or physiological. Factors such as an individual's gender or intelligence may also influence schizophrenia, either in terms of changing the risk for development or changing aspects of the illness' presentation, such as onset age or overall functional outcome. With contributions from leading scientists in this field, and results from the frontiers of schizophrenia research, this volume is a major new addition to the psychiatry literature.

First published in 1987. This volume presents a collection of chapters on varied aspects of psychotic symptoms, largely within the context of positive versus negative symptoms. These chapters cover a broad range of aspects of these symptoms, such as longitudinal course, cognitive correlates, biochemical and structural correlates, conceptual issues, and research methods. The majority of these chapters were presented at the SUNY-Binghamton/Cornell University conference on schizophrenia that took place on October 17-19, 1985, in Ithaca, NY. That conference was designed to provide a forum for the dissemination of information on psychotic symptoms in general, with the overriding framework of positive versus negative symptoms.

Although the precise mechanisms and pathways of schizophrenia remain something of a mystery, there is little dispute that cognitive deficits present as some of the clearest and most debilitating symptoms of the disease. This book describes the characteristics of cognitive deficits in schizophrenia, functional implications, the course of impairments, the genetic and biological contributions and reviews management options, including neuropsychological, psychological and pharmacological techniques. Chapters are written by leading experts in the field, in an accessible and highly informative style, ensuring the content is clinically relevant. State-of-the-art information about new developments in the treatment of related features of the illness, such as disability, is provided. The wide ranging focus of this volume will appeal to clinicians and academic researchers working with patients impaired by severe mental illness.