Oxford University Press Inc

The Loss of Sadness argues that the increased prevalence of major depressive disorder is due not to a genuine rise in mental disease, but to the way that normal human sadness has been 'pathologised' since 1980. That year saw the publication of the landmark third edition of The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-III), which has since become a dominant force behind our current understanding of mental illness overall. As concerns at least major depression, the authors argue that the DSM's definition of the condition is too broad and that as a result virtually all research and clinical approaches to the condition have been based on a flawed understanding about it. The social, political, and scientific implications of this are far-reaching - from the overselling of antidepressants to treat ordinary sadness, as Big Pharma exploits the DSM for its own purposes; to intrusive and expensive depression screening programs at all levels of society, as well-meaning but misguided initiatives translate the DSM into simple terms to catch any whiff of depressive pathology in our midst; and funded research into the 'epidemic' of depression, which advances the field very litttle and the public even less. Ultimately, the definition of depression that is in operation today has formed the basis for an entire system of social control (e.g. community-wide screening initiatives, intrusive public health policy) that benefits psychiatry, primary care providers, and the pharmaceutical and insurance industries by turning everyone else into a potential consumer of services, needed or not. The authors do recognise that depression is a devastating illness that affects some people. Their chief concern is with the use of this diagnosis as a catch-all for anyone who has experienced sadness for more than a few weeks at a time. The result is a pointed yet nuanced critique of modern psychiatry that will stir controversy of the sort that will reacquaint us with sadness as a primary human emotion and that could productively influence the way that depression the actual illness is characterised in the future.

Essential hypertension (EH) is the most common type of high blood pressure and is responsible for much death and serious illness, which has been the reason for the huge research effort to determine its causes. However, countless scientific articles still keep proclaiming that "the causes of essential hypertension remain unknown." In view of the number of publications that descend on the hypertension specialist like a waterfall, such proclamations seem to overlook the considerable amount of knowledge that we already have about the etiology of EH. The problem may be a lack of synthesis rather than a lack of information. This book provides a unique synthesis of the pathophysiology of essential hypertension (EH), which is limited through the brain and is critically dependent on both genetic and environmental factors such as stress, high salt intake and obesity. Korner analyses the mechanisms by which the various factors raise blood pressure and the pathophysiology of EH compared with that in renal hypertension and in some of the rat models of genetic hypertension. In some individuals stress-induced vasoconstriction enhances the brain's responsiveness to salt, giving rise to stress-and-salt-related EH. In others, stress-induced EH promotes eating, causing hypertensive obesity. Improving lifestyle through regular exercise and reduction of salt and calorie intake directly antagonises the environmental causes of EH, and has implications for prevenion and treatment.

In Dialysis Without Fear, psychiatrist and dialysis patient Dr. Daniel Offer joins with his wife, Marjorie Kaiz Offer, and daughter, Susan Offer Szafir, to reveal how life can be lived, and lived well, on dialysis. Drawing on his long medical career and more than seven years of personal experience with dialysis, Dr. Offer dispels many misconceptions surrounding this treatment, explaining how you can adapt to the new diet, travel, work and continue to partake in life's joys and celebrations. But the fears and hardships can be quite real, and Dr. Offer brings his years as a psychiatrist to bear as he provides practical advice on how patients can overcome them. Walking through each step of dialysis, he explains different types of treatment, examines the pros and cons of a transplant, and discusses side effects. Since dialysis affects the entire family, Dr. Offer and his co-authors also provide realistic insights into how relatives can cope and thrive together, sharing the humour, courage, and triumphs of real families who have successfully faced the challenges of dialysis. The result is an inspiring, practical guide that will help patients and their families learn to overcome the difficulties of dialysis, live without fear, and enjoy every day.

The revolution in psychiatry that began in the 1950s led to dramatic advances in the understanding and treatment of manic-depressive illness also known as bipolar disorder. No other mental illness has been the subject of such extensive, clinically useful, and scientifically productive research. Hailed as the most outstanding book in the biomedical sciences when it was originally published in 1990, Manic-Depressive Illness was the first to survey this massive body of evidence comprehensively and to assess its meaning for both clinician and scientist. It also vividly portrayed the experience of manic-depressive illness from the perspective of patients, their doctors, and researchers, and recounted the torments of some of the great poets and composers whose art was almost certainly enriched, energised, and deepened by the extremes of manic-depressive illness. In this magisterial second edition, Drs. Frederick Goodwin and Kay Redfield Jamison, with the assistance of a select team of other leading scientists in the field, exhaustively review the biological and genetic literature that has dominated the field in recent years and incorporate cutting-edge research conducted since publication of the first edition. They also update their surveys of psychological and epidemiological evidence, as well as that pertaining to diagnostic issues, course, and outcome, and they offer practical guidelines for differential diagnosis and clinical management. The medical treatment of manic and depressive episodes is described, strategies for preventing future episodes are given in detail, and psychotherapeutic issues common in this illness are considered. Special emphasis is given to fostering compliance with medication regimens and treating bipolar patients who abuse drugs and alcohol or who pose a risk of suicide. This book, in its newly updated and expanded form, will be a valuable and necessary addition to the libraries of psychiatrists and other physicians, psychologists, clinical social workers, neuroscientists, pharmacologists, and the patients and families who live with manic-depressive illness.

For the practicing neuropsychologist or researcher, keeping up with the sheer number of newly published or updated neuropsychological tests is a challenge, as is evaluating the utility and psychometric properties of each test in a clinical context. The goal of the thrid edition of A Compendium of Neuropsychological Tests, a well-established neuropsychology reference text, is twofold. First, the Compendium is intended to serve as a guidebook that provides a comprehensive overview of the essential aspects of neuropsychological assessment practice. Second, it is intended as a sourcebook of critical reviews of major neuropsychological assessment tools for the use of practicing clinicians and researchers. Written in an easy-to-read reference format, and based on exhaustive reviews of research literature in neuropsychology, neurology, psychology and related disciplines, the book covers topics such as basic aspects of neuropsychological assessment as well as the theoretical background, norms and the utility, reliability and validity of neuropsychological tests. For this thrid edition, all chapters have been extensively revised and updated. The text has been considerably expanded to provide a practical overview of the state of the field. Two new chapters have been added: "Psychometrics in neuropsychological assessment" and "Norms in neuropsychological assessment". The first two chapters present basic psychometric concepts and principles. Chapters three and four consider practical aspects of the history-taking interview and the assessment process itself. Chapter five provides guidelines on report writing. Chapters six through sixteen consist of detailed, critical reviews of specific neuropsychological tests, and address the topics of intelligence, achievement, executive function, attention, memory, language, visual perception, somatosensory and olfactory function, mood/personality and response bias. A unique feature is the inclusion of tables that summarise salient features of tests wihtin each domain so that readers can easily compare measures. Additional tables within each test review present important features of each test, highlight aspects of each normative database, and provide an overview of psychometric properties. Of interest to neuropsychologists, neurologists, psychiatrists and educational and clinical psychologists working with adults as well as with paediatric populations, this volume will aid practitioners in selecting appropriate testing measures for their patients, and will provide them with the knowledge needed to arrive at empirically supported interpretations of test results.

The Executive Brain is the first popular but rigorous book to explore the most 'human' region of the brain, the frontal lobes. Writing in a lively and accessible style, the author shows how the frontal lobes enable us to engage in complex mental processes, how they control our judgment and our social and ethical behavior, how vulnerable they are to injury, and how devastating the effects of damage often are, leading to chaotic, disorganized, asocial, and even criminal behavior. Replete with fascinating case histories and anecdotes, Goldberg's book offers a panorama of state-of-the-art ideas and advances in cognitive neuroscience. It is also an intellectual memoir, filled with vignettes about the author's early training with Luria, his escape from the Soviet Union, and later interactions with patients and professionals around the world.

This book presents a unique synthesis of the current neuroscience of cognition by one of the world's authorities in the field. The guiding principle to this synthesis is the tenet that the entirety of our knowledge is encoded by relations, and thus by connections, in neuronal networks of our cerebral cortex. Cognitive networks develop by experience on a base of widely dispersed modular cell assemblies representing elementary sensations and movements. As they develop, cognitive networks organize themselves hierarchically by order of complexity or abstraction of their content. Because networks intersect profusely, sharing common nodes, a neuronal assembly anywhere in the cortex can be part of many networks, and therefore many items of knowledge. All cognitive functions consist of neural transactions within and between cognitive networks. After reviewing the neurobiology and architecture of cortical networks (also named cognits), the author undertakes a systematic study of cortical dynamics in each of the major cognitive functions - perception, memory, attention, language, and intelligence. In this study, he makes use of a large body of evidence from a variety of methodologies, in the brain of the human as well as the nonhuman primate. The outcome of the interdisciplinary enterprise is the emergence of structural and dynamic order in the cerebral cortex that, though still sketchy and fragmentary, mirrors with remarkable fidelity the order of the human mind. The audience for this book consists of cognitive neuroscientists, neurophysiologists, neurobiologists, neuroimaging experts, neurologists, neurosurgeons, psychiatrists, cognitive psychologists, and linguists. The book will also be of interest to students in all of these disciplines and could be used as text or as collateral reading in courses in systems neuroscience, behavioral neuroscience, cognitive science, network modeling, physiological psychology, and linguistics.

Major advances in the diagnosis and treatment of oral clefts have been made in the past 50 years, and recent genetics and epidemiological studies have led to new theories about the causes of cleft lip and palate. Addressing issues that are relevant to clinicians, researchers and family members, this book is a comprehensive, well-illustrated, and up-to-date account of the many facets of this common disorder. The authors describe the embryological and molecular mechanisms of cleft causation, present and illustrate the genetic and epidemiological methods used to identify risk factors for oral clefts, and describe treatments by the various professionals of the cleft team. A section is also devoted to the integration of research findings into public health practice, including ethical and financial considerations. The book draws together such diverse disciplines as craniofacial development, gene mapping, epidemiology, medicine, ethics, health economics, and health policy and management, and it will be an invaluable reference work.