Abstract
Department of Clinical Psychiatry, Nagoya University of Graduate School of Medicine
In the early days of modern psychiatry, the methods for elucidating the pathogenesis of neuropsychiatric disorders were mainly anatomies and neuropathological method based on microscopic observation of the brain. This research has greatly advanced the elucidation of the pathophysiology of neurodegenerative diseases including dementia such as Alzheimer disease. However, the pathogenesis of endogenous psychiatric disorders including schizophrenia or mood disorder has not been declared by neuropathological methods despite energetic research had been made, and it was said “schizophrenia is the graveyard of neuropathologists” with sarcasm at last. But recent advances in histopathological research methods, advances in neuroimaging techniques, and molecular biological research have made it necessary to verify again what is happening in the brain, which is the core of neuropsychiatric function. We are in the age of convincing the results of neuroimaging or molecular psychiatry in brain tissue by neuropathological research from a new perspective in elucidating the pathophysiology of mental disorders such as schizophrenia. For achieve that purpose as well, accumulation of brain tissue as research resources is very important activity, and the success of Japanese Brain bank network system is much expected.
