WORKSHOP ON SCHIZOPHRENIA

On November 29-30, 1995, the National Academy of Sciences and the Inst itute of Medicine brought together experts in schizophrenia and specia lists in other areas of the biological sciences in a workshop aimed at promoting the application of the latest biological information to thi s clinical problem. The workshop paid particular attention to evidence of pathology in the brains of people with schizophrenia, and to the p ossibility that this reflects an abnormality in brain development that eventually leads to the appearance of symptoms. The participants were impressed with the complexity of the problem, and felt that multiple approaches would be required to understand this disease. They recommen ded that a major focus should be on the search for predisposing genes, but that there should be parallel research in many other areas.