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The German Association for Psychiatry and Psychotherapy (DGPPN) has committed itself to establish a prospective national cohort of patients with major psychiatric disorders, the so-called DGPPN-Cohort. This project will enable the scientific exploitation of high-quality data and biomaterial from psychiatric patients for research. It will be set up using harmonised data sets and procedures for sample generation and guided by transparent rules for data access and data sharing regarding the central research database. While the main focus lies on biological research, it will be open to all kinds of scientific investigations, including epidemiological, clinical or health-service research.

Bipolar disorders are severe psychiatric disorders with extensive individual and health economic consequences. Starting in 2007 the first German evidence and consensus based guideline for diagnostics and treatment of bipolar disorders was developed which holds the potential of increasing confidence of therapists, patients and relatives in the decision-making process and improving healthcare service experiences of patients and relatives. Apart from recommendations for diagnostics and treatment the guidelines provide those for trialogue action, knowledge transfer and self-help and for strategies for healthcare provision of this complex disorder. In the present article the methodology and essential recommendations are outlined and complemented in specific topics by corresponding articles in this special issue. Due to restrictions of the length of this presentation there is the need to refer to the comprehensive version of the guidelines at several points also regarding a detailed discussion of the limitations.

In the context of personalized psychiatry there is growing interest in the development of neuroimaging markers for differential diagnosis and individualized therapy of mental disorders. This article reports on new neuroimaging markers for the diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease and particularly recent multi-functional magnetic resonance imaging (m-fMRI) studies in patients with schizophrenic and affective psychoses. Using experimental key paradigms for targeted assessment of pathophysiologically relevant neurofunctional systems, these studies reveal both differences and commonalities between the diagnostic categories. In addition, the article outlines research strategies for further development of the classification of major psychoses on the basis of a more precise characterization of the neurofunctional and pathophysiological phenotype. Multivariate approaches may help to identify more complex neuroimaging markers relevant for diagnosis and/or prognosis. Finally, some examples will be presented for the use of neuroimaging markers in the individualized choice of therapy.