Psychiatric nursing research has historically focused on psychosocial phenomena characteristic of personal experience or symptomatology associated with mental illness. The current climate of the mental health service system and basic science knowledge proliferation require nurse researchers to develop and evaluate interventions based on biological understanding of symptoms. This review examines psychiatric nursing and the broader psychiatric literature from 1990 to 1996 to provide a synthesis of the current research knowledge about important components of the field of schizophrenia research including causal processes, course and outcome, symptoms, treatment, relapse prevention, and consumer providers, followed by a discussion of directions for future research.