Handbook of Depression

Depression is a common mood disorder that affects approximately 10% of the global population at some point in their lives and can cause serious psychological, physical, and cognitive distress. Additionally, patients with depression are at a greater risk for cardiovascular disease, stroke, functional impairment, disability and all-cause mortality. Aside from the impact on the individual, this condition presents a very real economic burden, as depression is the most predominant mental health problem among working-age patients and the leading cause of lost work productivity. Despite advances in screening and treating depression in recent decades, a vast majority of patients with depression do not actively seek treatment and, of those that do, only a quarter have been found to receive adequate and effective interventions. Handbook of Depression, Second Edition is a concise review of assessment tools, available and emerging pharmacological and non-pharmacological treatment options, and consensus management guidelines that center on enhancing the clinician-patient relationship and improving patient quality of life. Cowritten by expert US- and UK-based authors, this handbook has an innovative global focus that consolidates current knowledge in a convenient, pocket-sized guide that is ideal for every day reference in a clinical setting.

Dr Edward Friedman (USA) is an Associate Professor of Psychiatry and the Director of the Depression Research & Treatment Program, a research group that has the distinction of participating in many prestigious National Institute of Mental Health programs on mood disorders research in the US. Dr. Friedman is Director of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy and Adult Ambulatory Pharmacotherapy at the Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic. Dr Friedman is an is an internationally recognized and widely published expert in pharmacotherapy and cognitive therapy. He serves as a reviewer on a number of psychiatric journals and a principal investigator on a number of ongoing research studies in the areas of depression and bipolar disorder. Professor Ian Anderson (UK) is Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Manchester and an Honorary Consultant Psychiatrist at Manchester Mental Health and Social Care Trust. He was a Medical Research Council Training Fellow in Oxford and obtained his MD on the investigation of serotonin function in depression and in the action of antidepressant drugs. He is Director of the Specialist Service for Affective Disorders in Manchester, which he founded in 2001 as a multidisciplinary tertiary service for treatment-resistant depression and bipolar disorder. His current research interests concern the role of serotonin in the aetiology and treatment of affective disorders, functional brain imaging of neurotransmitter function and evidence-based psychiatry. He is lead author of the British Association for Psychopharmacology guidelines on the use of antidepressants in the treatment of depression. He is currently Chair of the NICE Clinical Guideline Development Group.