In Search of Madness: Schizophrenia and Neuroscience

William Glassman is a professor of psychology at Ryerson Polytechnical
University in Toronto.

Schizophrenia has long posed a challenge to both science and society.
The term has been used for over a hundred years, and most clinicians
agree the disorder occurs in roughly the same proportion (about 1
percent) of individuals in all societies. Nonetheless, despite decades
of research and thousands of studies, basic questions remain unanswered.
York University psychologist R. Walter Heinrichs attempts to bring some
order and insight to the issue, especially with respect to our
understanding of neurological factors and evidence, in a book that is
intended for doctors and psychologists, but may also be of interest to
motivated general readers.

The book is broken down into reviews of basic aspects, from symptoms
and diagnosis to neurochemical factors, genetic markers, and theories of
schizophrenia’s origin. Given that many reviews of the literature
exist, Heinrichs attempts to provide more than either an idiosyncratic
selection of sources, or even a standard meta-analysis, with its
emphasis on “box scores” of positive or negative results from a
large number of studies of mixed methodologies. Instead, he tries to
consider the effect sizes present in particular studies. Given the
heterogeneity associated with schizophrenia, and the likelihood that
causation is multifactorial, this approach may tend to minimize the
significance of factors that are contributory rather than primary
causes. Nonetheless, the use of effect sizes provides an interesting way
of thinking about the literature. In addition, Heinrichs makes
interesting suggestions concerning what types of evidence might be
needed to further advance our understanding of schizophrenia. Serious
readers will find much food for thought in this lucidly written and
well-organized volume.