From identification of neurofunctional systems to individualization of treatment for schizophrenic disorders

This article outlines the role of systemic neuroscience in research of the pathogenesis and pathophysiology of schizophrenic and other psychotic disorders and in the development of diagnostic and prognostic tools to permit individualized and optimized pharmacotherapy for these disorders. Based on preclinical and clinical studies of the physiology and pathophysiology of human working memory, it is possible to establish intermediate neurofunctional phenotypes that, given the current lack of identified pathological substrates, may serve as biological markers for diagnosing factual disease entities. In this way the use of functional neuroimaging techniques may allow the identification of subtypes of the psychotic disorders that so far are uniformly diagnosed according to current psychiatric classification systems. This may permit more precise diagnosis and a specification and optimization of pharmacotherapy.