This volume presents the contributions to the third symposium on the "Search for the Causes of Schizophrenia". The first symposium was organized by the Central Institute of Mental Health on the occasion of the 600th anniversary of the University of Heidelberg in 1986. Its objective was to give an overview of the rapid development in schizophrenia research in a situation characterized by an excessive variety of methods and topics. It was our intention, through substantial contributions to topical areas of schizophrenia research and through intensive discussions, to further the exohange of hypotheses and results and thus open up ways towards new concepts integrating different methodological approaches or towards new models of explanation. The first symposium was a great success. The publication of the proceedings (Hafner et al. 1987) was received with enthusiasm and recommended in leading journals "as the best available state-of-the-art analysis of current research on the aetiology of schizophrenia". For this reason we held a second and a third symposium entitled "Search for the Causes of Schizophrenia" under the same auspices and at the same place in 1989 and 1993.

I Antecedents, Onset, and Early Course of Schizophrenia

Birth Cohort Study of the Antecedents of Psychosis: Ontogeny as Witness to Phylogenetic Origins
Antecedents of Schizophrenia: Moderating Effects of Development and Biological Sex
Onset and Early Course of Schizophrenia
Early Predictors of Onset and Course of Schizophrenia: Some Results from the Copenhagen High-Risk Study
Neurobehavioral Studies of Schizophrenic Children: A Developmental Perspective on Schizophrenic Disorders
Antecedents, Onset, and Early Course of Schizophrenia: Discussion
II Schizophrenia: Disease or Syndrome?
Brain Imaging, Psychopathology and Neuropathology
Idiopathic and Organic Presentations of Schizophrenia
Associations Between Regional Brain Abnormalities and Specific Syndromes in Schizophrenia
Genetic Heterogeneity and Phenotype Variation of Schizophrenia
Schizophrenia: Disease or Syndrome? Discussion
III Brain, Receptors and Schizophrenia
Multiple Dopamine Receptors: Implications for Schizophrenia
Increased Breakdown of Membrane Phospholipids in Schizophrenia: Implications for the Hypofrontality Hypothesis
31P Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy Study of Brain Metabolism in Schizophrenia
Positron Emission Tomography, Receptors, and Schizophrenia
Brain Receptors and Schizophrenia: Discussion.