3 and a fraction mayor may not respond to treatment. On the behavioral level, animal research shows that a variety of experimental conditions can induce de pression. The same is true in the field of treatment, where pharmacologically highly different drugs can equally alleviate depression in animals and hu mans. The question as to whether this is due to a heterogeneity of depressive subjects based on different pathogenetic mechanisms is open to discussion. We can look for common features of all possible causal factors in the hope of finding a single basic mechanism. Many divergent findings may also be ex plained as peripheral changes of a highly complicated dynamic system. In the field of psychopharmacology, a circular reasoning has become evident in the sense that originally the clinical antidepressive response was founded on empirical grounds only. In a second step, an attempt was made to characterize some clinically active compounds pharmacologically, and in a third, further compounds were developed based on aspects of the pharmaco logical profiles. Moreover, the post hoc development of a pharmacological screening method has the serious disadvantage of delaying breakthroughs into new fields."

Der funfte Band der erfolgreichen Reihe Aktuelle Probleme der Schizophrenie" behandelt den Zusammenhang von Schizophrenie und Lebensqualitat nach folgenden Gesichtspunkten: - Grundlagen - Therapie, Kosten und Lebensqualitat - Wohnen, Arbeit, soziales Netzwerk - Administrative Epidemiologie der Schizophrenie - Forensisch-psychiatrische Referate

The functional psychoses, medical diseases with no known biological causes (for example, schizophrenia and anxiety disorders), continue to be classed as illnesses of unknown origin, and the validity of diagnostic concepts therefore also depends on extrinsic criteria such as course and outcome, results of biological and genetic investigation, and response to treatment. Operational diagnostic criteria, or the process of defining a psychosis by studying its manifestations, are the main subject of this book, which presents a comprehensive review of the present state of diagnostic formulations for functional psychoses. From the early nosological and pathogenetic concepts of Kraepelin, Bleuler. Schneider, and Kasanin, the authors trace the development, internationally, of the various classifications of the functional psychoses, culminating among others in those embodied in the latest International Classification of Diseases (ICD) and Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM) formulations. This is a revised and expanded edition of Diagnostic Criteria for Schizophrenic and Affective Psychoses and is also published under the auspices of the World Psychiatric Association. Diagnostic criteria have been selected for inclusion on the basis of their historic importance, their influence on current diagnostic systems, their international scope, and their scientific importance.

The functional psychoses continue to be classed as illnesses of unknown origin, and the validity of diagnostic concepts therefore also depends on extrinsic criteria such as course and outcome, results of biological and genetic investigation, and response to treatment. 'Operational' diagnostic criteria are the main subject of this book, first published in 1992, which presents a comprehensive review of the state of diagnostic formulations for functional psychoses. From the early nosological and pathogenetic concepts of Kraepelin, Bleuler, Schneider and Kasanin, the authors trace the development, internationally, of the various classifications of the functional psychoses, culminating among others in those embodied in the latest ICD and DSM formulations. This is a revised and expanded edition of Diagnostic Criteria for Schizophrenic and Affective Psychoses and is also published under the auspices of the World Psychiatric Association. Diagnostic criteria have been selected for inclusion on the basis of their historical importance, their influence on current diagnostic systems, their international scope and their scientific importance.