Main description:

This volume is the fourth in a series on depressive illness. The first volume, entitled Phenomenology of Depressive Illness, is devoted to a de- scription of depressive illness from a variety of perspectives that include that of the patient, the clinician, and the psychiatric researcher. It de- scribes the major subtypes of depressive illness and places them in the context of the life cycle. The second volume in this series is entitled Models of Depres- sive Disorders: Psychological, Biological, and Genetic Perspectives. This volume describes several major models of depressive disorders, in- cluding genetic, cognitive, interpersonal, intrapsychic, and neurobio- logical models. The third and fourth volumes deal with the biology of affective disorders in detail. These volumes are distinguished by a triaxial ap- proach. In Volume III the biology of affective disorders is described from the perspective of individual transmitter systems and neurophysio- logic and biologic processes.
In Volume IV the biology of depression is addressed from the vantage point of symptom components of de- pression, and similarities and differences in the biology of depression are described compared to other psychiatric disorders with clini- cally overlapping features such as anxiety disorders or eating disor- ders. The effects on biology of comorbid conditions such as anxiety, personality disorders, alcoholism, and eating disorders are reviewed.

Contents:

Subtypes of Depression: Biology of Bipolar Disorder; A.C. Swann. The Biology of Depression in Children and Adolescents; N.D. Ryan, R.E. Dahl. The Biology of Late Life Depression; C.B. Nemeroff, et al. The Biology of Chronic Depression; J.H. Kocsis. Biological Relationships of Comorbid Disorder: The Biology of Personality Disorders; O. Kalus, L.J. Siever. Depression in Alcoholism; A. Roy, M. Linnoila. Serotonin and Norepinephrine Activity in Anorexia and Bulimia Nervosa; W.H. Kaye, et al. The Biology of Panic Disorder; J.D. Coplan, et al. Index.