Neurobiology of Mental Illness

Our understanding of the neurobiological basis of psychiatric disease has accelerated in the past five years. The fourth edition of Neurobiology of Mental Illness has been completely revamped given these advances and discoveries on the neurobiologic foundations of psychiatry. Like its predecessors the book begins with an overview of the basic science. The emerging technologies in Section 2 have been extensively redone to match the progress in the field including new chapters on the applications of stem cells, optogenetics, and image guided stimulation to our understanding and treatment of psychiatric disorders. Sections' 3 through 8 pertain to the major psychiatric syndromes-the psychoses, mood disorders, anxiety disorders, substance use disorders, dementias, and disorders of childhood-onset. Each of these sections includes our knowledge of their etiology, pathophysiology, and treatment. The final section discusses special topic areas including the neurobiology of sleep, resilience, social attachment, aggression, personality disorders and eating disorders. In all, there are 32 new chapters in this volume including unique insights on DSM-5, the Research Domain Criteria (RDoC) from NIMH, and a perspective on the continuing challenges of diagnosis given what we know of the brain and the mechanisms pertaining to mental illness. This book provides information from numerous levels of analysis including molecular biology and genetics, cellular physiology, neuroanatomy, neuropharmacology, epidemiology, and behavior. In doing so it translates information from the basic laboratory to the clinical laboratory and finally to clinical treatment. No other book distills the basic science and underpinnings of mental disorders and explains the clinical significance to the scope and breadth of this classic text. The result is an excellent and cutting-edge resource for psychiatric residents, psychiatric researchers, doctoral students, and postdoctoral fellows the neurosciences.

Dennis S. Charney, MD is Dean at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs, The Mount Sinai Medical Center, and Anne and Joel Ehrenkranz Professor in the Departments of Psychiatry, Neuroscience, and Pharmacology & Systems Therapeutics at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York, NY. He is a world expert in the neurobiology and treatment of mood and anxiety disorders. He has made fundamental contributions to the understanding of neural circuits and neurochemistry related to human anxiety, fear, mood and discovery of new treatment for mood and anxiety disorders. He later expanded this area into pioneering research related to the psychobiological mechanisms of human resilience to stress. His work has been carried out over two decades at Yale University School of Medicine, and during four years at the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH). It continues today at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai.

Joseph D. Buxbaum, PhD, is a Professor of Psychiatry, Neuroscience, and Genetics and Genomic Sciences at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, where he is also director of the Seaver Autism Center for Research and Treatment. He is a world-renowned molecular geneticist and spearheads research into human psychiatric and neurological diseases. As Vice Chair for Research in Psychiatry, Dr. Buxbaum helps set the research direction for the Department, which is ranked among the top 20 psychiatry departments in the country in NIH funding.

Pamela Sklar, MD, received her BA from St. John's College and her MD and PhD from Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and Neuroscience. She is a neuroscientist, human geneticist and clinical psychiatrist investigating the genetic causes of psychiatric disorders, including schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. A major focus of her prior work has been to identify susceptibility genes for psychiatric diseases by applying tools developed for understanding and characterizing human sequence variation. Currently, she is Chief of the Division of Psychiatric Genomics, and Professor of Psychiatry, Neuroscience, Genetics and Genomic Sciences.

Eric J. Nestler, MD, PhD, received his BA, MD, and PhD degrees from Yale University. He then served on the Yale faculty, where he was named the Elizabeth Mears and House Jameson Professor of Psychiatry of Neurobiology and Director of the Abraham Ribicoff Research Facilities. In 2000, Dr. Nestler was named the McGinley Professor of Psychiatry and Chairman of the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas, before accepting his current position at Mount Sinai in 2008. Dr. Nestler has been a pioneer in the field of molecular psychiatry, whose research has helped us understand the molecular mechanisms of addiction and depression based on work in animal models.