Being asked to provide a second edition of ‘Parental Psychiatric Disorder’ meant that the initial edition had filled a perceived gap. We were pleased and caught by surprise by the response to the first edition, each of us now in new places and stages of life and career. We had moved on and so had the field. Like the previous edition, but perhaps more clearly so, the volume focuses on the parent with a psychiatric disorder while keeping in mind that the best interests of the child must be considered paramount, if service systems are to work coherently, so that child and adult services complement one another. This edition is completely rewritten bar one chapter by Roberts (Chapter 20), which because of its seminal value, was retained unchanged. Two other chapters (Hall, Chapter 3; Velleman, Chapter 13) were retained but revised and updated. The rest of the chapters are either completely rewritten, or are new, representing the changes in thinking, knowledge and service developments that have taken place since 1995. We made a conscious editorial decision not to republish material where no major change had occurred (e.g. eating disorders, psychosomatic disorders, learning disability). The first edition remains available as a resource and is referenced extensively in this volume.

Our own interests have made us more aware of some developments focusing on personality-disordered parents and their children.