Families at High Risk for Depression

This is an open access title available under the terms of a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 International license (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0). It is free to read at Oxford Academic and offered as a free PDF download from OUP and select open access locations.

In Families at High Risk for Depression, volume editors Myrna M. Weissman and Connie Svob chart the evolution of our understanding of depression through the landmark Children at High and Low Risk for Depression Study, spanning 40 years and three generations, comprising grandparents, parents, and grandchildren of families at high or low risk for depression. The primary aim of the study has been to obtain data that would aid in the prevention of depression, by better understanding how it moves through families. The book outlines the journey and the discoveries made over four decades of longitudinal research, describing challenges faced by scientists and the multidisciplinary approach employed to overcome them to determine depression's causes, risk factors, and effects. The authors discuss how children and grandchildren from high-risk families may be up to five times as likely to develop depression, anxiety, and other disorders. They also examine biomarkers of risk for depression in the brain using magnetic resonance imaging and electrophysiology as well as key social determinants of health that lowered the risk of depression, such as personal religious/spiritual belief and available social support. This book will appeal to students and scientists conducting scientific research, people interested in the history of science and medicine, and those whose families have been touched by depression and other psychological disorders.