Jim van Os is a Dutch psychiatrist

Psychiatrist

A psychiatrist is a physician who specializes in the diagnosis and treatment of mental disorders. All psychiatrists are trained in diagnostic evaluation and in psychotherapy...

 and epidemiologist.

He studied medicine in Amsterdam

Amsterdam

Amsterdam is the largest city and the capital of the Netherlands. The current position of Amsterdam as capital city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands is governed by the constitution of August 24, 1815 and its successors. Amsterdam has a population of 783,364 within city limits, an urban population...

, psychiatry in Jakarta

Jakarta

Jakarta is the capital and largest city of Indonesia. Officially known as the Special Capital Territory of Jakarta, it is located on the northwest coast of Java, has an area of , and a population of 9,580,000. Jakarta is the country's economic, cultural and political centre...

, Casablanca

Casablanca

Casablanca is a city in western Morocco, located on the Atlantic Ocean. It is the capital of the Grand Casablanca region.Casablanca is Morocco's largest city as well as its chief port. It is also the biggest city in the Maghreb. The 2004 census recorded a population of 2,949,805 in the prefecture...

, Bordeaux

Bordeaux

Bordeaux is a port city on the Garonne River in the Gironde department in southwestern France.The Bordeaux-Arcachon-Libourne metropolitan area, has a population of 1,010,000 and constitutes the sixth-largest urban area in France. It is the capital of the Aquitaine region, as well as the prefecture...

 and London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

, and subsequently epidemiology

Epidemiology

Epidemiology is the study of health-event, health-characteristic, or health-determinant patterns in a population. It is the cornerstone method of public health research, and helps inform policy decisions and evidence-based medicine by identifying risk factors for disease and targets for preventive...

 at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. He is professor of Psychiatric Epidemiology at the Department of Psychiatry and Psychology at Maastricht University Medical Centre, and visiting professor at the Division of Psychological Medicine, Institute of Psychiatry

Institute of Psychiatry

The Institute of Psychiatry is a research institution dedicated to discovering what causes mental illness and diseases of the brain. In addition, its aim is to help identify new treatments for them and ways to prevent them in the first place...

, DeCrespigny Park, London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

, United Kingdom

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

.

In 2009, van Os proposed abolishing the diagnosis of schizophrenia

Schizophrenia

Schizophrenia is a mental disorder characterized by a disintegration of thought processes and of emotional responsiveness. It most commonly manifests itself as auditory hallucinations, paranoid or bizarre delusions, or disorganized speech and thinking, and it is accompanied by significant social...

due to lack of validity, and introduced a new syndromal definition, "salience syndrome", citing previous work by other researchers that explains psychosis as aberrant salience regulation.

Some Books and Articles

• van Os, J. & Kapur, S. (2009) Schizophrenia; Lancet, 374, 635-645.
• van Os, J. (2009) 'Salience syndrome' replaces 'schizophrenia' in DSM-V and ICD-11: psychiatry's evidence-based entry into the 21st century? Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica, 120, 363-372.
• Van Os, J., Linscott, R.J., Myin-Germeys, I., Delespaul, P. & Krabbendam, L. (2009) A systematic review and meta-analysis of the psychosis continuum: evidence for a psychosis proneness-persistence-impairment model of psychotic disorder; Psychological Medicine, 39, 179-195.
• van Os, J., Rutten, B.P. & Poulton, R. (2008) Gene-environment interactions in schizophrenia: review of epidemiological findings and future directions; Schizophrenia Bulletin, 34, 1066-1082.
• Tamminga, C., Sirovatka, P., Regier, D.A. & Van Os, J. (2010) Deconstructing Psychosis: Refining the Research Agenda for DSM-V (Arlington, Virginia, American Psychiatric Association).
• Van Veldhuizen, R., Bähler, M., Polhuis, D. & Van Os, J. (2008) Handboek FACT (Utrecht, De Tijdstroom).
• H.M. van Praag, E.R. de Kloet & J. van Os, Stress, the brain and depression, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 2004
• Robin Murray, Peter B. Jones, Ezra Susser, Jim Van Os, Mary Cannon, The epidemiology of schizophrenia, Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press 2003 (ISBN 0-521-77540-X)
• De nieuwe psychose (Trimboslezing 2003), Utrecht: Trimbos-Instituut 2003
• J. David, Simon Wessely, Jim van Os, Robin M. Castle Murray, Psychosis in the Inner City. The Camberwell First Episode Study (Hardcover), Hove: Psychology 1998
• (Genetic) epidemiology as a tool to identify risk factors for emergence and persistence of illness in the functional psychoses (diss. Maastricht), Maastricht: IPSER Foundation 1995

External links

• Psychosis research at Maastricht University by Jim van Os and Philippe Delespaul
• cannabis research
• Information at 2002 inauguration in Maastricht