In the years following publication of the DSM-5, the field of psychiatry has seen vigorous debate between the DSM’s more traditional, diagnosis-oriented approach and the NIMH’s more biological, dimension-based RDoC approach. Charney & Nestler’s Neurobiology of Mental Illness is an authoritative foundation for translating information from the laboratory to clinical treatment, and this edition extends beyond its reference function to acknowledge and examine the controversies and thoughts on the future of psychiatric diagnosis.
In this wider context, this book provides information from numerous levels of analysis including molecular biology and genetics, cellular physiology, neuroanatomy, neuropharmacology, epidemiology, and behavior. Section I, which reviews the methods used to examine the biological basis of mental illness in animal and cell models and in humans, has been expanded to reflect important technical advances in complex genetics, epigenetics, stem cell biology, optogenetics, neural circuit functioning, cognitive neuroscience, and brain imaging. These established and emerging methodologies offer groundbreaking advances in our ability to study the brain and breakthroughs in our therapeutic toolkit.
Sections II through VII cover the neurobiology and genetics of major psychiatric disorders: psychoses, mood disorders, anxiety disorders, substance use disorders, dementias, and disorders of childhood onset. Also covered within these sections is a summary of current therapeutic approaches for these illnesses as well as the ways in which research advances are now guiding the search for new treatments. The last section, Section VIII, focuses on diagnostic schemes for mental illness. This includes an overview of the unique challenges that remain in diagnosing these disorders given our still limited knowledge of disease etiology and pathophysiology. The section then provides reviews of DSM-5 and RDoC. Also included are chapters on future efforts toward precision and computational psychiatry, which promise to someday align diagnosis with underlying biological abnormalities.