Going ahead with their plans, the Association for Research on Schizophrenia CARS), the Schizophrenia Research Group of the Institute of Psychiatry of the University of Milan and the Tito and Fanny Legrenzi Foundation organized the International Meeting "Etiopathogenetic Hypotheses of Schizophrenia: The Impact of Epidemiological, Biochemical and Neuromorphological Studies," held in Milan on October 3-4 1986. The Meeting was an excellent occasion for the exchange of information and the sharing of views on the etiological hypotheses of schizophrenia resulting from the latest research in the key areas of epidemiology, biochemistry amd brain imaging. We are very pleased and proud to have had so many of the leading researchers in schizophrenia with us. Their stimulating and friendly presence and their contributions made this Meeting a great success. We hope that this book, a collection of the various participants' contributions at the Meeting, will have an equally favourable reception. The Editors viii List of contributors N. C. Andreasen A. Breier W. Christie The University of Iowa Clinical Neuroscience Klinikum Charlottemburg Hospitals and Clinics Branch, NIHM Department of Neurology Department of Psychiatry Building 10, Room 4N 214 Spandau Damm 130 9000 Rockville Pike D-1000 Berlin 19 500 Newton Road Iowa City, IA 52242 Bethesda, MD 20892 West Germany USA USA C. Cignarale M. Battaglia A. Calzeroni Chair of Clinical Psychiatry S. Maria di Collemaggio Institute of Psychiatry Institute of Psychiatry Milan University Milan University Hospital Policlinico -Pad.

In the last few years ways of thinking in psychiatry have undergone considerable change thanks to advances in the fields of morphology and plasticity of the CNS, particularly with regard to schizophrenic and mood disorders. In addition, the rapid and considerable development of neuroimaging techniques (CT, MRI, PET and computerized EEG) and of molecular genetics (through DNA recombinant meth odologies) have widened the approach to these disorders in a way unimagined a few years ago. These advances and the new etiopathogenetic hypotheses that have sprung from them were the central theme of the Second International Meeting on Schizophre nia "Morphology and Plasticity of the Central Nervous System - A Challenge for Psychiatry of the Nineties" which was organized by the Association for Research on Schizophrenia (ARS), the Schizophrenia Research Center of the Institute of Psychiatry of the University of Milan and the T. and F. Legrenzi Foundation, held in Milan on October 22-24, 1987. This book contains the contributions from participants of the meeting, which took place in a warm and friendly atmosphere and marked by lively and exhaustive discussions on the various papers. The contributions were recently revised for the present publication. We would like to express our appreciation to the book's contributors for the high quality of their reports."