Developmental Neuropsychiatry: Fundamentals

Book excerpt: Although developmental concepts have held a prominent place in American psychiatry for over fifty years because of the dominance of psychodynamic theory, it is only in recent years that advances in neuroscience have begun to impact developmental psychiatry. James Harris's two volume work on developmental neuropsychiatry sets the agenda for this emerging clinical specialty. Written by an individual with the developmental expertise of a pediatrician, the behavioral sophistication of an adult and child psychiatrist, and a deep appreciation of neuroscience, these two books offer an integrated yet comprehensive approach to developmental neuropsychiatry. In Volume I, Part I discusses basic neural science, including aspects of molecular neurobiology, developmental neuroanatomy, neurotransmitter systems and neuronal signaling mechanisms, sleep and circadian rhythms, and basic genetics. Part II provides background on cognitive neuroscience that relate to attention, emotion, language, memory, neural networks, and consciousness. Part III emphasizes the developmental perspective which is crucial to an understanding of neurodevelopmental disorders. It offers an ethological framework as well as background information on cognitive development, emotion expression and regulation, language development, temperament and personality, and the emergence of the self.