At Risk for Neuropsychiatric Disorders: An Affective Neuroscience Approach to Understanding the Spectrum

Abstract

Neuropsychiatric disorders such as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, depression, anxiety disorders, and other mental disorders constitute about 13% of the global burden of disease surpassing both cardiovascular disease and cancer. The total cost worldwide of these diseases is estimated to exceed 100 million disability-adjusted life years. In order to begin to address this important problem, the present Research Topic brings together a group of leading affective neuroscience researchers to present their state-of-the-art findings using an affective neuroscience approach to investigate the spectrum of neuropsychiatric disorders from patients to those at risk. They focus on different aspects of the emotional and social cognitive disturbances which are core features of neuropsychiatric disorders. While progress has been slow over last couple of decades, we are finally beginning to glimpse some of the underlying neural mechanisms of the emotional and social cognitive disturbances in patients and those at risk. With the technological advances in affective neuroscience and neuroimaging presented in this volume, we hope that progress will be much swifter in the coming years such that we can provide better care for patients and those at risk.