Dynamics of neural networks: a proposed mechanism to account for changes in clinical symptomatology through time in patients with psychotic diseases.

The classical Kraepelinean dichotomy between manic depressive insanity and the schizophrenias has been recently challenged from clinical and neurobiological quarters. It is not so infrequent to see patients shift from a manic to a schizophrenic symptomatology and vice versa. This paper proposes neurobiological mechanisms as to how these changes may occur, based on recent data on the functioning of neural networks at different modes.