Neurobiology of Personality Disorders

Christian Schmahl is Professor of Experimental Psychopathology and Medical Director of the Department of Psychosomatic Medicine at the Central Institute of Mental Health in Mannheim, Germany. His research focus is on emotion regulation, self-injurious behavior and dissociation as well as the interaction of neurobiology and psychotherapy in Borderline Personality Disorder and Posttraumatic Stress Disorder. Since 2015 he is spokesperson of the Clinical Research Unit "Mechanisms of Disturbed Emotion Processing in BPD". He has published more than 150 articles and book chapters. Robert O. Friedel is Distinguished Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, Virginia USA. His primary focus of academic work has been in the neurobiological basis and pharmacological treatment of Borderline Personality Disorder. He received his medical training at Duke University and his research training in biology at Duke and at the National Institute of Mental Health(NIMH). Dr. Friedel served as chair of the departments of psychiatry at Virginia Commonwealth University, the University of Michigan, where he was also Executive Director of the Mental Health Research Institute, and chair at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. He has published more than 100 scientific articles, books and book chapters.K. Luan Phan, MD is Professor of Psychiatry and Director of the Mood and Anxiety Disorders Program at the University of Illinois at Chicago. His research is focused on the neuroscience of emotion and emotion-cognition interactions, especially emotion regulation, and in relation of psychopathology and treatment interventions. He has published over 200 peer-reviewed articles.

• Preface1. Neurocircuitry of Affective, Cognitive, Regulatory SystemsAnnmarie McNamara and K. Luan Phan2. The Fundamentals of Brain NeurotransmissionRobert O. Friedel and Stephen M. Stahl3. Genetics of Personality DisordersTed Reichborn-Kjennerud and Kenneth S. Kendler4. Cognitive Neuroscience Approaches to Personality DisordersAndrew Poppe and Angus W. MacDonald III5. Minding the Emotional Thermostat: Integrating social cognitive and affective neuroscience evidence to form a model of the cognitive control of emotionBryan T. Denny and Kevin N. Ochsner6. The Neurobiology of Attachment and Mentalizing: A Neurodevelopmental PerspectivePatrick Luyten and Peter Fonagy7. Emotion RegulationKatja Bertsch, Karold Koenigsberg, Inga Niedtfeld, and Christian Schmahl8. The Clinical Neuroscience of Impulsive AggressionRoyce Lee, Jennifer R. Fanning, and Emil F. Coccaro9. Social Cognition in Personality DisordersStefanie Lis, Nicole E. Derish, M. Mercedes Perez-Rodriguez10. Attachment in Personality DisordersM. Mercedes Perez-Rodriguez, Nicole E. Derish, Nerea Palomares, Sukhbir Kaur, Armando Cuesta-Diaz, and Stefanie Lis11. Suicide and Non-Suicidal Self InjuryPaul Soloff, Christian Schmahl 12. The Neurobiology and Genetics of Schizotypal Personality DisorderDaniel R. Rossell and Larry J. Siever13. The Neurobiological Basis of Borderline Personality DisorderRobert O. Friedel, Christian Schmahl, and Marijn Distel14. The Neurobiology of antisocial Disorder Focusing on PsychopathyMichael Baliousis, Najat Khalifa, and Birgit Vollm15. The Neurobiological Basis of Avoidant Personality DisorderTheresa Wilberg and Kenneth Silk16. Established and Novel Pharmacological Approaches to the Treatment of Personality DisordersS. Charles Schulz and Robert O. Friedel17. Neurobiological Underpinnings of Psychosocial Treatment in Personality DisordersMarianne Goodman, Jennifer Chen, and Erin A. Hazlett18. Conclusion and Future DirectionsRobert O. Friedel, K. Luan Pham, and Christian Schmahl

This book is well thought out and written. It is an important addition to the literature about personality disorders and the intersection of psychiatric illness with neurobiology.