Schizophrenia today: three views of the future

Three Perspectives in this issue cover different aspects of the current state of our knowledge about schizophrenia. Thomas Insel, director of the US National Institute of Mental Health in Bethesda, Maryland, outlines a new approach to schizophrenia that could in time lead to new treatments. He calls for schizophrenia to be emphasized as a neurodevelopmental disorder in which psychosis is a late — and potentially curable — stage. Andreas Meyer-Lindenberg, director of the Central Institute of Mental Health in Mannheim, Germany, explains how neuroimaging and other systems-level techniques can help develop future treatment. And Jim van Os, Gunter Kenis and Bart Rutten review our knowledge of the environmental factors that influence schizophrenia risk, and the major challenges that will be involved in teasing them out. [Specials: Schizophrenia »]