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Schizophrenia may not be a single disease, but the result of a diverse set of related conditions. Modern neuroscience is beginning to reveal some of the genetic and environmental underpinnings of schizophrenia; however, an approach less well travelled is to examine the medical disorders that produce symptoms resembling schizophrenia. This book is the first major attempt to bring together the diseases that produce what has been termed'secondary schizophrenia'. International experts from diverse backgrounds ask the questions: does this medical disorder, or drug, or condition cause psychosis? If yes, does it resemble schizophrenia? What mechanisms form the basis of this relationship? What implications does this understanding have for aetiology and treatment? The answers are a feast for clinicians and researchers of psychosis and schizophrenia. They mark the next step in trying to meet the most important challenge to modern neuroscience – understanding and conquering this most mysterious of human diseases.

Perminder Sachdev explores the complexity of the human brain through ten fascinating case-studies from the neuropsychiatric clinic. From alien hand syndrome, anorexia nervosa, frontal lobe dysfunction and phantom limb to coprolalia in Tourette's Syndrome, dementia and golfer's cramp, he provides an understanding of how each disorder has been conceptualised and treated and the challenges that it poses for both the neuropshychiatrist and his patient.