Understanding and Treating Depression: Biological, Psychological and Behavioral Perspectives

Depression has been alternately described as (a) a disorder of the central nervous system with a neurological basis, (b) a mental health disease, and (c) an adaptive behavioral process that may hold some benefits for the person experiencing it. These different views on the nature of depression reflect the lack of a comprehensive model of depression, and the various perspectives that have been taken when attempting to understand why depression occurs, how it proceeds, and what are the most effective ways of either treating it or avoiding it. Understanding and Treating Depression: Biological, Psychological and Behavioral Perspectives addresses this issue by reviewing the literature from the areas mentioned above. To elucidate the nature of depression, how it emerges from otherwise ‘normal’ behaviour patterns, why it should exist at all, and how it might best be treated, this book presents a series of perspectives, beginning with the incidence and effects of depression, some historical views of depression, the currently accepted definitions of depression, the various methods of identifying and assessing depression, and the subtypes of this disorder. This book then culminates in a comprehensive model of depression. Working from this model, a discussion of the implications it has for treatment options is undertaken, with some suggestions for good clinical practice. This is not a clinical ‘how-to’ textbook, but rather an attempt to draw together research findings that are relevant to an encompassing model of depression. Table of Contents
• Section I: Understanding Depression Chapter 1 — Introduction: What this book is about; Chapter 2 — What is depression?; Chapter 3 — Finding the facts: Methodological issues
• Section II: What Causes Us to Feel Bad 1: Biological Bases for Depression Chapter 4 — Genetic influences: Heritability in action; Chapter 5 — Neurotransmitters: The monoamine hypothesis ; Chapter 6 — Stress and the HPA axis; Chapter 7 — How stress changes the brain to make us depressed buy; Chapter 8 — The role of self-protection: Immunological factors in depression ; Chapter 9 — Towards a unified model of neurobiological factors in depression
• Section III: What Causes Us to Feel Bad 2: Environmental Factors in Depression Chapter 10 — Aversive environmental events that ‘trigger’ depressive behaviour
• Section IV: A Multi-Perspective Model of Depression Chapter 11 — A unified model of depression: Linking behaviour with physiology depression
• Section V: Assessing and Treating Depression Chapter 12 — Implications for assessment of depression; Chapter 13 — Treating depression from a multi-perspective basis