Vol 7 n° 1 - New Psychiatric Classification based on Endophenotypes
Past issues Contributors How to publish Contributions and comments Home
 
ear Colleagues, Phenotypes can be considered as the clinical expression of a given situation, which, in the cases discussed here, may have a pathological or nonpathological character.These phenotypic expressions have, above all, a qualitative dimension, like that found in the various systems for nosological classification. Endophenotypes, on the other hand, can be traced to the genome, but may also be unrelated to a heritable transmission and result from events during prenatal or perina- tal life. Moreover, these cannot be linked to specific psychiatric disorders and are more often the expression of biological perturbations. Endophenotypes can be expressed in different manners, for example, abnormalities in cognition, electrophysiology and corti- cal evoked potentials, cerebral imaging, neurochemistry, neuropsychopharmacology, and associated clinical disorders. Endophenotypes do, however, have one feature in common: the advantage of being quantifiable. No doubt we could speak of the endophenotypic spectrum  of  a  disorder, which  clearly  demonstrates  the  value  of  a  wide  variety  of approaches in the field of the diagnosis and follow-up of psychiatric disorders. Thanks to its Coordinating Editor, Prof David Rubinow, this issue of Dialogues in Clinical Neuroscience has provided us with an excellent opportunity to gather articles on this subject from undisputed leaders in the field, thereby creating a solid overview. Yours sincerely, Jean-Paul Macher, MD Marc-Antoine Crocq, MD E d i t o r i a l D 8 9