Manic Depressive Illness

The revolution in psychiatry that began mid-century has led to dramatic advances in the understanding and treatment of manic-depressive illness. No other mental disorder has been the subject of such clinically useful and scientifically productive research. This book is the first to survey this massive body of evidence comprehensively and to assess its meaning for both clinician and scientist. The book also vividly portrays the experience of manic-depressive illness from the perspective of patients, their doctors, and researchers. It also recounts the torments of some of the great poets and composers whose art was almost certainly enriched, energized, and deepened by the extremes of manic-depressive illness. Drawing on the widsom of classic psychiatric authors, the book encompasses knowledge about manic-depressive illness as Kraepelin originally defined it. Drs Goodwin and Jamison's understanding of the illness, gained from their own extensive research and clinical experience, guided their interpretation of the literature. Like Kraepelin, they emphasize the cyclical course of manic-depressive illness and the essential unity of its bipolar and recurrent unipolar forms.;Encyclopaedic in scope, the book exhaustively reviews the biological and genetic literature that has so dominated the field in recent years. It also surveys the psychological and epidemiological evidence, as well as that pertaining to diagnostic issues, course, and outcome.