Origins and perspectives of schizophrenia research

Schizophrenia is a complex psychiatric disorder with a heterogeneous clinical phenotype. Ancient paradigms focused on clinical experiences and hypotheses mostly without validated measurements but in the modern neuroscientific era the trend has turned oppositely; although an expanding body of evidence is available in association with the neurobiological background of schizophrenia, it seems that development of phenotypic description has been missing from the focus. However, now it is clear that a relevant and sophisticated diagnostic system is also essential for the appropriate interpretation of comprehensive molecular studies. Besides a brief review of most important data on schizophrenia research, the authors call attention to a complex diagnostic system (Composite Diagnostic Evaluation, CODE) which can be a valuable clinical partner of currently accepted models of schizophrenia, such as the neurodevelopmental hypothesis.