First multi-year cumulation covers six years: 1965-70.

The riddle of melancholia has stumped generations of doctors. It is a serious depressive illness that often leads to suicide and premature death. The disease's link to biology has been intensively studied. Unlike almost any other psychiatric disorder, melancholia sufferers have abnormal endocrine functions. Tests capable of separating melancholia from other mood disorders were useful discoveries, but these tests fell into disuse as psychiatrists lost interest in biology and medicine. In the nineteenth century, theories about the role of endocrine organs encouraged endocrine treatments that loomed prominently in practice. This interest faded in the 1930s but was revived by the discovery of the adrenal hormone cortisol and descriptions of its abnormal functioning in melancholic and psychotic depressed patients. New endocrine tests were devised to plumb the secrets of mood disorders. Two colorful individuals, Bernard Carroll and Edward Sachar, led this revival and for a time in the 1960s and 1970s intensive research interest established connections between hormone dysfunctions and behavior. In the 1980s, psychiatrists lost interest in hormonal approaches largely because they did not correlate with the arbitrary classification of mood disorders. Today the relation between endocrines and behavior have been disregarded. This history traces the enthusiasm of biological efforts to solve the mystery of melancholia and their fall. Using vibrant language accessible to family care practitioners, psychiatrists and interested lay readers, the authors propose that a useful, a potentially live-saving connection between medicine and psychiatry, has been lost.

In The Rise and Fall of the Age of Psychopharmacology, esteemed historian Edward Shorter proposes that the recent history of psychiatry is that of a failed scientific discipline of medicine. Medicine generally is about the story of progress, but psychiatry's story is that of failure in diagnosis, in therapeutics, and in the ability to deliver science-based care to suffering individuals.

Psychopathology is the science of deviant behavior. However, as psy chopathologists, our explanations of deviant behavior are not developed in a sterile, laboratory environment. Abnormality is a relative concept, and the labeling of someone or some behavior as abnormal is inextrica bly linked to a particular social context. In the United States, for exam ple, a woman reporting vivid hallucinations is likely to be committed to a mental hospital and the behavior considered maladaptive. In other cultures, the same behavior may be interpreted as reflecting magical, healing powers, and the woman honored and revered. An explicit assumption underlying this book is that elements of social causality influence the development and maintenance of psycho pathology. While the chapters emphasize environmental influences, this is not intended to negate the importance of physiological, biological, genetic, or hormonal factors in relation to psychopathology. The purpose of this book is to examine the impact of sex role ster eotypes on the occurrence and distribution of specific forms of psycho pathology. In contrast to prior work, which emphasizes sex differences (e.g., Franks and Gomberg's Gender and Disordered Behavior) these are not the primary focus of this volume. Sex Roles and Psychopathology analyzes the extent to which cultural norms about the sexes, societal expectations and values about sex-typed behavior and sex differences, and profes sional biases influence the development, manifestation, and mainte nance of abnormal behavior among men and women.

The group of European Medical Research Councils (EMRC) was formed in 1971 and became a Standing Committee of the European Science Foundation (ESF) in 1975. EMRC is an association of medical research councils or equivalent organizations in Western Europe. The National Institutes of Health, the Israel Academy of Sciences and the European Office of WHO are associated with EMRC and take an active part in EMRC activities. The main aims of EMRC are to exchange information on the research policies pursued by its member organizations and to initiate and stimulate international cooperation in biomedical research. Since biomedical research is highly international in itself, EMRC concentrates its activities on furthering international collaboration in those fields where it can play a significant role as a complement to existing channels. Mental illness research has been judged by EMRC to fulfill these criteria. After a survey of the activities of the member organizations in mental illness research, EMRC decided in 1978 to set up a study group to look for areas within this field to which EMRC could contribute. As a result of the work of the study group, four work shops have been arranged to define present knowledge in some specific areas and to delineate research needs. The present volume contains the proceedings of the fourth workshop, held in 1985 and dealing with the course and outcome of depressive illness. EMRC hopes that this volume will stimulate intensified research and research cooperation on mental illnesses.

In 2013, the American Psychiatric Association published the 5th edition of its Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5). Often referred to as the “bible” of psychiatry, the manual only classifies mental disorders and does not explain them or guide their treatment. While science should be the basis of any diagnostic system, to date, there is no knowledge on whether most conditions listed in the manual are true diseases. Moreover, in DSM-5 the overall definition of mental disorder is weak, failing to distinguish psychopathology from normality. In spite of all the progress that has been made in neuroscience over the last few decades, the psychiatric community is no closer to understanding the etiology and pathogenesis of mental disorders than it was fifty years ago. In Making the DSM-5, prominent experts delve into the debate about psychiatric nosology and examine the conceptual and pragmatic issues underlying the new manual. While retracing the historic controversy over DSM, considering the political context and economic impact of the manual, and focusing on what was revised or left unchanged in the new edition, this timely volume addresses the main concerns of the future of psychiatry and questions whether the DSM legacy can truly improve the specialty and advance its goals.