Mary L. Fisher

Foreword to the Second Edition

When Rachel Miller and Susan Mason asked me to update the foreword for the second edition of Diagnosis: Schizophrenia, my first reaction was to ask, “Can you just use what I wrote in 1999?” They graciously said yes, and we agreed that the foreword to the first edition should be included in the present volume. But the ten years since I wrote those words have seen important advances in our understanding of schizophrenia and specific therapeutics available for people early in the course of their illness, as well as in our views of how and when to engage patients and their families. The second edition therefore includes new information about the brain and schizophrenia, genetics, and childhood-onset schizophrenia. In addition, new medications are available, and these and their side effects are considered. Perhaps the most important changes are in sections that deal with coping with side effects of medication like weight gain, help with substance abuse and smoking, understanding delusions, dealing with violent thoughts and feelings, and negotiating the system of benefits for medication and Medicaid. In addition to the advances in understanding schizophrenia and the guidance that has developed over that past decade, publication of the second edition of Diagnosis: Schizophrenia comes at a time when the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) has initiated a major research effort designed to change both perceptions and outcomes of schizophrenia. RAISE—Recovery After an Initial Schizophrenia Episode—is a largeForeword to the second edition