Introduction

Abstract

The editors were impressed with the encyclopedic scope and thoroughness of the contributors as they discussed issues in neuroscience with an immediate or potential relevance to child psychiatry. The review of these submissions suggested many potentially fruitful avenues of future investigation. The stimulation of new research ideas and the exposure to problems that could be pursued most effectively collaboratively in the laboratory and at the bedside were essential objectives in proposing and developing the idea for this book. The most optimistic goals in editing this book were that it would serve as a catalyst for interaction between investigators from seemingly unrelated areas and would lead to novel approaches to the understanding and treatment of major disorders in child psychiatry. There is a compelling need to apply the developments in the neurosciences to child psychiatry as rapidly as they emerge in order to relieve children of life-long disabilities. The editors hope that this book will introduce clinicians to developments in the neurosciences, and basic neuroscientists to clinical problems.