Vol 9, No 1- Neuropsychiatry and Cardiovascular Disease
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ear Colleagues, Neuropsychiatric disorders are often comorbid with other pathologies,including cardiovascular diseases;this comorbidity can be manifested in various ways. -Neuropsychiatric disorders can exacerbate cardiovascular pathology;for example,anxiety states have negative influences on angina and cardiac arrhythmia. -Cardiovascular disorders can induce a neurologic or psychiatric disorder;for example,cardiac arrhythmias can provoke migration of an embolus to cerebral arteries;angina can provoke a panic attack, and coronary artery disease can cause a depressive state. There are thus several questions related to this comorbidity: •Which disorder should be considered primary? •Can initial management prevent these comorbid disorders,or at least reduce their severity? •On what criteria can we decide when and why a particular treatment should be introduced,continued, or discontinued? •What are the effects of psychotropic drugs on the cardiovascular system? •What are the neuropsychiatric effects of cardiovascular medications? Other questions arise,in particular regarding background factors:is there a genetic basis for the pathologic links between neuropsychiatric and cardiovascular disorders? During a certain period of its development,neuropsychiatry took its own course,more or less inde- pendently of that of other medical specialties.It is interesting to note that new information is now lead- ing to a closer connection between neuropsychiatry and “somatic”medicine. A growing number of psychiatrists are becoming enthusiastic about this new school of thought. One of the qualities (among many others) of Professor Manfred Ackenheil was his deep commitment to this idea,which led him to organize multidisciplinary meetings on the subject and to publish a number of relevant articles in the area.He had chosen,as a member of our Editorial Board,to coordinate this issue of our journal,Dialogues in Clinical Neuroscience.Manfred Ackenheil is no longer with us:Debbie Morris-Rosendahl and Pierre Schulz were kind enough to coordinate this issue in Prof Manfred Ackenheil's memory. Thank you to the coordinators of this issue,and to the authors who have enriched this fascinating field with their contributions. Sincerely yours, Jean-Paul Macher,MD E d i t o r i a l D