There is something intrinsically satisfying about starting a New Year. In essence, it is a space-time reboot that along with a review of achievements of the previous 12 months allows for the psychological resetting of goals for the coming year. Rejuvenation of the editorial and advisory boards, which I will return to in a later issue, alongside the establishment of benchmarks for the review of articles and their online and hard copy publication has meant that Acta Neuropsychiatrica has now finally managed to settle into a rhythm. To this end, I have received a number of emails indicating that new readers are regularly being drawn to the journal and that they particularly enjoy the breadth of topics and balance of articles (reviews and original data papers) within the journal, but at the same time like the continuity provided by the usual special sections and correspondence.

Throughout 2007 and 2008, the editorial team of the Journal has actively sought to embrace a different and stimulating format that does not always adhere to the standard scientific publishing formulae. With this in mind, this first issue of 2009 ventures further into the unusual as it begins with an interesting editorial that examines the links between music and autism. In Pictures and Prose, the journal briefly explores the potentially controversial issue of the role of humour in the assessment and treatment of psychological disorders, and this is set against the seriousness and potentially lethal consequences of neuropsychiatric illnesses, the challenges of which are discussed in an Intervention Insights article on suicidality. Further challenges are then highlighted in the Comment and Critique section that tackles interesting diagnostic issues surrounding the schizophrenia spectrum.

On the scientific front, an original article by Lee et al. Reference Lee, Kang and Han(1) examines the ongoing potential causal links between genetic markers and illnesses, such as depression, and another by Zhou et al. Reference Yuan, Zhou and Yao(2) examines the effect of an atypical antipsychotic on the neurobiology of cognition in schizophrenia using mismatch negativity potentials as a marker.

In recent years, Acta Neuropsychiatrica has developed a broad cultural base both in terms of submissions and readership, and this is reflected in the culturally diverse studies in this issue that include, among others, Spanish and Korean populations. Clearly, with another original article featuring neuropsychological assessment in schizophrenia and a review that also focuses on this phenotype, there is perhaps also an emerging ‘theme’ for this issue. This is an important concept as the notion of thematic issues has been floated previously and has produced mixed responses both from the journal board and from its readers. Generally, the journal has an overarching theme namely that of neuropsychiatry; however, within this certain fields, domains or disorders can from time to time warrant detailed examination in the form of a special issue dedicated to a topic of interest. Naturally, any suggestions in this regard or specific proposals are welcome.