Author Description

This volume contains the proceedings of the symposium Pathochemical Markers in Major Psychoses, held in Vienna in July 1983. The development of biological markers in psychiatric diseases, par ticularly in the field of neurochemistry, has made substantial progress during recent years although the multiple mechanisms of mental illness are still not fully understood. The greatest contribution has come through the development of new therapeutic agents that not only pro vide invaluable help for psychiatric patients but also serve as chemical tools for the investigation of the biological mechanisms underlying the disease. The catecholamine and serotonin hypotheses for major psy choses have been of particular heuristic value and have stimulated im portant research. However, the scope of our scientific endeavours has to be broadened to include other putative biological causes of psychoses, e. g., pathomorphological changes, aberrations in the metabolism of other amino acids and oflipids, or the formation of endogenous toxins. This book presents new selected studies of the pathochemical bases of schizophrenia and affective psychoses. Although several topics were inevitably not included in this symposium, we nevertheless hope that it represents an integration of basic pathomorphological research with current clinical findings in the area of pathochemical markers in psy chiatry. October 1984 HELMUT BECKMANN PETER RIEDERER Contents Neuromorphological Background of Pathochemical Studies in Major Psychoses K. JELLINGER (With I Figure).......... of Psychopathological Classification The Significance in Interpreting Biochemical Findings E. GABRIEL.................