Depression in Medical Illness

An authoritative guide to understanding and treating depression in the medically ill Depression in Medical Illness is based on the fact that depression and medical illness are inextricably bound together and must be viewed through a single lens in order to truly understand, diagnose, and treat them.

Throughout the book, the authors emphasize not simply a critical distillation and balanced summary of the available empirical data, but equally important, an active synthesis, formulation, and analysis of that evidence.This informs a contemporary biomedical understanding, as well as diagnostic and therapeutic approaches. All of the chapters are authored by members of the Department of Psychiatry at the world-renowned Brigham and Women’s Hospital. In chapters devoted to specific medical disorders, psychiatrists with particular expertise in those areas have been joined by other eminent Brigham medical and surgical specialists or subspecialists. This makes these chapters valuable not just to psychiatrists and other mental health professionals, but to a wide range of medical specialists as well.

Logically Organized Into Five Sections:

Core Concepts – provides a conceptual and intellectual framework for understanding depressive illness in the context of medical illness

Assessment and Treatment of Depression in Medically Ill Patients – discusses the general principles of depression diagnosis and treatment

Depression in Medical Illness – Assesses what we know about depression when it is comorbid with the full range of major medical disorders

Special Populations and Settings – Is devoted to special patient populations and the importance of the settings in which care is delivered

New Directions – A fascinating glimpse into the future of the care of medically ill patients who are depressed