To discuss the major strides during the past decade related to the basic processes underlying schizophrenia, professors Mark F. Lenzenweger of Cornell and Robert H. Dworkin of Columbia University will host 20 leading scientists at the conference "Experimental Psychopathology and the Pathogenesis of Schizophrenia" Nov. 7 through Nov. 10, 1996 at the Statler Hotel on campus.
The conference, which is supported by the American Psychological Association's Science Directorate, will cover genetics, neurocognitive processes, theoretical models of liability, developmental processes, course and outcome, as well as affect and emotion. It is open to those with interests in a basic science approach to this illness; treatment and policy will not be addressed.
"Schizophrenia is the most severe mental illness known to humankind, afflicting 1 percent of the world's population and costing the United States, alone, $48 billion annually, dwarfing the cost of AIDS by comparison," said Lenzenweger, a conference organizer and Cornell associate professor of human development and family studies. Lenzenweger also is director of the Laboratory of Experimental Psychopathology at Cornell and associate professor of psychology in psychiatry at Cornell Medical College in New York City.
"Although, this illness continues to elude scientists seeking to determine its etiology and development, experimental psychopathologists have made enormous strides in the past 10 years in better understanding the basic processes known to be dysfunctional in the illness. This conference will review the work of leading scientists actively studying schizophrenia and will outline future directions in the experimental psychopathology of the illness," he said.
The conference, intended for scientists, practitioners and students, will attract psychopathologists working across multiple domains and levels of analysis. Its highlights include presentations by Philip S. Holzman and Jill M. Hooley of Harvard University, Irving I. Gottesman of the University of Virginia, David Silbersweig, M.D., of Cornell Medical College and Keith Nuechterlein of the University of California at Los Angeles.
Registration is $80 and individuals may register at the Statler Hotel on Nov. 8 beginning at 8 a.m. For more information, contact Lenzenweger by phone 255-0827, by fax 255-9856 or e-mail mfl1@cornell.edu.