Neurobiologie und psychopathologie - Wie passt das zusammen?

The advances in the field of neurobiological research have resulted in a diminishing importance of psychopathology as a basic diagnostic tool, occasionally even considered as a negligible and somewhat out-dated discipline in clinical psychiatry. Nevertheless, at present we are still far way from diagnosing and classifying psychiatric disorders solely on the basis of biological paradigms, thus psychopathology remains to be a central and important instrument. The aim of this paper is to demonstrate by way of neuroimaging findings how neurobiological research contributes to explaining psychopathological symptoms and can lead to a better understanding of psychiatric disorders and ultimately their treatment. However, until the etiopathogenesis of complex neuropsychiatric diseases such as schizophrenia has not been fully understood, psychopathology i. e. the exact description and assessment of psychopathological symptoms and symptom patterns in the sense of psychopathological syndromes is still an essential point of reference for the understanding of neurobiological findings.