Patterns of Improvement in Depressed In-patients

Depression is a complex emotion and physical state. It affects a substantial proportion of the population at some time in their lives, and ranges from a mild mood disturbance to a major life-threatening illness. In many cases the risk of suicide influences management. In the past 30 years, the advent of electroconvulsive therapy and of the modern antidepressant drugs has led to great improvements in treatment. Patients no longer languish in hospital with 'Bedlam Melancholia'. Also, interest has arisen in the relationship between the various facets of depression - emotional, somatic, cognitive, and so on. This book is an account of a study in which the authors monitored the response of depressed in-patients to antidepressant therapy, and thereby evaluated the relationship between various aspects of depressive phenomenology. The work was carried out jointly between the Department of Pharmacology and the Department of Psychology at the Maudsley Hospital. Psychiatrists, Psychologists, Pharmacologists.