The Xth international symposium organized by the Esteve Foundation was held in S’Agaró (Girona, Spain; October 2-5, 2002). It was chaired by Adriaan IJzerman (Leiden/Amsterdam Center for Drug Research) and a total of 23 speakers completed the three days meeting.

During the symposium important proof-of-concept was provided arround all the aspects of inverse agonism: in vivo studies, putative endogenous inverse agonists, some cellular context of inverse agonism, the novel techniques to detect and quantify inverse agonism, etc. Interestingly, over the days of the conference, an integrated view emerged among the participants, which is, hopefully, reflected in the proceedings to this workshop (Elsevier Science). They hold the ensemble of individual contributions and the lively discussions that followed each presentation.