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An engrossing memoir-meets-investigative report that takes a fresh, frank look at how we treat depression. Depression is a havoc-wreaking illness that masquerades as personal failing and hijacks your life. After a major suicide attempt in her early twenties, Anna Mehler Paperny resolved to put her reporter’s skills to use to get to know her enemy, setting off on a journey to understand her condition, the dizzying array of medical treatments on offer, and a medical profession in search of answers. Charting the way depression wrecks so many lives, she maps competing schools of therapy, pharmacology, cutting-edge medicine, the pill-popping pitfalls of long-term treatment, the glaring unknowns...
A guide for practitioners, scientists, and patients, Clinical Management of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome provides an insightful overview of current clinical management of CFS and guidelines for dealing with the disease and its compounding issues. It also provides, especially for patients, an objective framework in which they can approach the confusing psychological and physical ramifications of the disease so that they may sort through possibly misleading information on current treatments. CFS has been the focus of an increasing number of research investigators seeking to unravel the enigmatic interrelationship of immunologic, neurologic, endocrinologic, and psychologic abnormalities associated ...
Psychiatry is arguably the most misunderstood specialty in modern medicine and psychiatrists are often thought of as part physician, part confessor, part police officer, and part shaman. In Demystifying Psychiatry, two eminent psychiatrists offer an illuminating look at the entire field, offering a clear and informative portrait of a medical specialty often clouded in myth. Zorumski and Rubin range from a basic discussion of what psychiatry is, to the types of illnesses psychiatrists treat, the training of psychiatrists, the treatment of psychiatric disorders (covering medications, psychotherapy, lifestyle interventions, electroconvulsive therapy, and much more), and how families can help with treatment. They caution the consumer about practices that should raise red flags. The book also covers new trends in psychiatry and explores the future of the field, predicting that major advances in genetics and neuroscience will lead to rapid and amazing changes in psychiatry. The book concludes with extensive reference materials that will be valuable both to general readers and medical practitioners.
This book is concerned with the extent to which childhood stress and trauma lead in relative maturity to major depression (MDD) and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). The loss of synapses in the cortex, accompanying childhood maltreatment, is identified as a principal mechanism for developing these disorders. Considerable attention is given to identifying interventions that will restore lost synapses, so ameliorating these mental illnesses. The book describes the emergence of abnormal psychology in youth and adult life following childhood maltreatment. Of considerable immediate concern is the extent to which such maltreatment significantly enhances the tendency to suicide and suicidality...
In her latest contribution to the growing field of emotion studies, Deidre Pribram makes a compelling argument for why culturalist approaches to the study of emotional "disorders" continue to be eschewed, even as the sociocultural and historical study of mental illness flourishes. The author ties this phenomenon to a tension between two fundamentally different approaches to emotion: an individualist approach, which regards emotions as the property of the individual, whether biologically or psychologically, and a culturalist approach, which regards emotions as collective, social processes with distinctive histories and meanings that work to produce particularized subjects. While she links a s...
Research in neuroscience is revolutionizing how we think about psychiatric diagnosis and treatment. Psychiatric disorders reflect dysfunction of the human mind and involve changes in cognition, emotion, and motivation. Understanding how the neural networks that underlie these mental functions become dysfunctional holds great promise for devising innovative approaches to diagnosis and treatment. Scientific progress is being driven, in part, by advances in human functional neuroimaging, which is being used to characterize the activity of specific brain circuits at rest and during the performance of specific tasks. Moreover, advances in clinical neuroscience are being coupled with expanding kno...
WITH A NEW EPILOGUE BY THE AUTHOR Like Primo Levi's The Periodic Table, The Noonday Demon digs deep into personal history, as Andrew Solomon narrates, brilliantly and terrifyingly, his own agonising experience of depression. Solomon also portrays the pain of others, in different cultures and societies whose lives have been shattered by depression and uncovers the historical, social, biological, chemical and medical implications of this crippling disease. He takes us through the halls of mental hospitals where some of his subjects have been imprisoned for decades; into the research labs; to the burdened and afflicted poor, rural and urban. He talks to faith healers and voyages around the world in a quest for folk wisdom. He analyses the medications of today as well as reviewing the politics of diagnosis and treatment and, perhaps most significantly, he looks at the vital role of will and love in the process of recovery. **ONE OF THE GUARDIAN'S 100 BEST BOOKS OF THE 21st CENTURY**
As scientific knowledge grows about the role of the brain in mental disorder, no clinician can afford to be uninformed about neurobiology. This accessible primer provides the basic grounding in neuroscience that all contemporary mental health professionals need. Readers are first guided through the fundamentals of neuroanatomy, neurochemistry, and psychiatric genetics. Chapters then illuminate the neurobiological underpinnings of a range of frequently encountered disorders--including ADHD, substance abuse, mood and anxiety disorders, schizophrenia, and learning and cognitive problems--giving particular attention to the impact of psychosocial risk factors on the brain. Also examined are ways that both pharmacological and psychological interventions have been shown to alter brain chemistry as they bring about a reduction in symptoms.
Experiences of Depression is a philosophical exploration of what it is like to be depressed. In this important new book, Matthew Ratcliffe develops a detailed account of depression experiences by drawing on work in phenomenology, philosophy of mind, and several other disciplines. In so doing, he makes clear how phenomenological research can contribute to psychiatry, by helping us to better understand patients' experiences, as well as informing classification, diagnosis, and treatment. Throughout the book, Ratcliffe also emphasizes the relevance of depression to philosophical enquiry. He proposes that, by reflecting on how experiences of depression differ from 'healthy' forms of experience, w...
A Textbook of Biological Psychiatry integrates the basic science concerning brain mechanisms of psychiatric disorders alongside surveys of present standard clinical treatment. Organized in a coherent and easy to follow structure, chapters expand across different levels of analysis, from basic mechanisms to clinical practice. This comprehensive reference provides an integrative treatment of the biochemistry of neurotransmission, behavioral pharmacology, and clinical aspects of psychiatric problems including depression, manic-depression, and mood disorders. Other chapters address the biological mechanisms and treatment of depression, anxiety, panic, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and addictions. The editor concludes with a perspective on the future of the field and prospects for understanding and effectively treating mood and anxiety disorders.