  We review how the phenomena of inverse symmetry breaking (and symmetry
nonrestoration) may arise in the context of relativistic as well as
nonrelativistic multi-scalar field theories. We discuss how the consideration
of thermal effects on the couplings produce different transition patterns for
both theories. For the relativistic case, these effects allow the appearance of
inverse symmetry breaking (and symmetry nonrestoration) at arbitrarily large
temperatures. On the other hand, the same phenomena are suppressed in the
nonrelativistic case, which is relevant for condensed matter physics. In this
case, symmetry nonrestoration does not happen while inverse symmetry is allowed
only to be followed by symmetry restoration characterizing a reentrant phase.
The aim of this paper is to give more insight concerning the, qualitatively
correct, results obtained by using one loop perturbation theory in the
evaluation of thermal masses and couplings.
