Just came back from ICOSR. A brilliant meeting where great minds get together to solve the mystery of schizophrenia. I thought it would be interesting to see how the themes of the meeting inform about the current view of schizophrenia.
And here they are:
1. Biology continues to have the upper hand. The vast majority of the communications (oral and posters) were from the biological camp.
2. Fundamental research (or basic science) has the upper hand. Clinical research is playing catch up.
3. Psycho-social research is making a comeback by changing its theoretical allegiance from a psychological to a biological perspective. In other words psychosocical research appears to regain status while conceding to the view that the mind is a brain epiphenomenon. Thus, the gold standard psycho-social assessments and interventions are to be measured against is their ability to measure/change brain states, rather then mind states or social functioning.
4. Cognition in schizophrenia is on the rise. It has been steadily consolidating prior gains and is now rubbing elbows with the major league players (genetics and functional imaging). In fact cognition might end up stealing the show as it is ideally positioned at a crossroad between biological, psychological and social theories as applied to both assessment and intervention research.
© Copyright Adrian Preda, M.D.
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