The new mind-body science of depression
(Book)

"Norton professional book."

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Depression is the world's most devastating health condition, not just because it extracts so high a price in health, well-being, and ability to function, but because it is so common, especially in the industrialized world, where rates of depression have increased significantly in recent decades. Yet despite how common it is, we hear repeatedly that the causes of depression remain a mystery despite years of research. The New Mind-Body Science of Depression challenges the prevailing wisdom that we don't really understand the disorder. This groundbreaking book brings together a new perspective on major depression: it simply does not exist as we have been characterizing it. It is not a separate, distinct illness, and the DSM criteria, although helpful doesn't describe it effectively. Co-authors Maletic and Raison start their exploration of depression as a mind-body disorder by showing how, despite best intentions, mental health research went astray by conceptualizing depression as a discreet disease state that could be diagnosed and understood the way we understand many other medical conditions. By viewing depression as a discreet medical illness, psychiatric research encouraged an overly-reductionist understanding of the disorder that was deprived of input from a range of scientific disciplines - such as evolutionary psychology and anthropology - that provide key insights into the pathophysiology of the disease. Major depressive disorder is a highly heterogeneous diagnostic and biological entity and studying and understanding it requires a broad, interdisciplinary approach. That's what this book offers scientific disciplines, the authors present depression as a highly conserved emotional, cognitive, and behavioral response to environmental adversity, with a biology that extends from interactions between the environment and genetic risk factors, through bodily pathways such as the immune system and hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis to specific patterns of brain functioning. From genetics to environmental adversity to inflammation and the immune system, the authors provide a comprehensive and full-bodied understanding of this condition. Although much remains to be learned, The New Mind-Body Science of Depression provides evidence that most of what we will eventually know about depression we know already. While the full therapeutic implications of these findings will take time to come to clinical fruition, viewing depression in ways consistent with the best current science is imperative for all researchers and clinicians. Better understanding of these pathophysiological pathways shared by many, but definitely not all, depressed patients may yield novel, more effective treatment approaches. This book explains many of them, offering hope for patients and doctors alike. One thing is sure: after reading this book you'll never look at depression the same way again. -- from dust jacket.