Product Description

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. It also vividly portrays the experience of manic-depressive illness from the perspective of patients, their doctors, and researchers, and 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 wisdom 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 biopolar and recurrent unipolar forms. Encyclopedic in scope, this volume exhaustively reviews the biological and genetic literature that has 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. The authors 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, the product of a decade of work, will be a valuable 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.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #149512 in Books
• Published on: 1990-01-15
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 938 pages

Review

"The best treatise on the subject since Kraepelin."--Journal of Clinical Psychiatry
"A book such as this one, devoted entirely to one major disorder, is quite rare....This thorough and most readable book by two highly regarded senior clinicians and researchers in the field is thus a most welcome addition to the clinician's bookshelf....[It] is solidly based on data, with a staggering 122 pages of references alone. Each chapter integrates the research done in the area, and there are dozens of useful tables and diagrams...It is hard to imagine a clinician working with patients with the illness (what psychiatrist does not?) or a researcher in any part of the field of mood disorders who should not have this tour de force available."--The New England Journal of Medicine
"A solid and well-balanced treatise on current thinking, knowledge, and treatment of bipolar disorder. It is encyclopedic on most topics and will useful as a reference book for the coming decade. The book is thoughtful and provocative and, at under ten cents a page, a bargain in today's economy. It is a book that will take the reader through the next decade of research and clinical practice, and it is strongly recommended for novices and oldtimers and researchers and clinicians."--Contemporary Psychology
"An extraordinary book which reviews, analyzes and interprets the world literature on manic-depressive illness...a monumental work which should be on the shelf of every practitioner, researcher and teacher. The book has the unique characteristic of being usable either as a textbook by the novice or as a reference source by the more seasoned clinician or researcher."--General Hospital Psychiatry
"An important event in the literature about serious mental illness. Ten years in the writing, the book is a landmark, the first comprehensive treatment of major affective disorders since 1953. While it is a medical and scientific text, it sets a new standard in medical writing. It is understandable to consumers and families as well as medical students, psychiatrists, psychologists, researchers, and other professionals....Authoritative, comprehensive and encyclopedic, the 27 chapters cover diagnosis, epidemiology, childhood and adolescence, genetics, suicide, personality, medical treatment, biochemistry, lithium, and the effect of alcohol and drug abuse on bipolar and unipolar patients."--NAMI Advocate
"A classic work--a textbook in scope, but literate, readable, and compassionate. Sets a new standard in scientific medical writing."--Myrna M. Weissman, Columbia University College of Physicians & Surgeons
"Provides an unprecedentedly comprehensive discussion of the disease and the patients, the advances and challenges of scientific research. An indispensable guide, providing a model of psychiatric science at its best." --Daniel X. Freedman, UCLA
"A monumental endeavor that will be an invaluable aid for comprehending a disease which strikes down all too many of the world's best and brightest."--Dr. James D. Watson
"The book contributes something that is all too rare in today's psychiatry. It makes sense of the research, places it in context, applies its results to the clinic, and struggles toward the construction of hypotheses that are based on both clinical and scientific understanding. I recommend it highly."--Herbert Pardes, M.D., Professor and Chairman, Department of Psychiatry, Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons
"A treasure of information and ideas to be read carefully and often. It will enrich every doctor, who will be rewarded for reading it with improved diagnostic and therapeutic skills and a greater capacity to help all manic-depressives."--International Drug Therapy Newsletter

About the Author
Frederick K. Goodwin is at National Institutes of Health. Kay Redfield Jamison is at The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.

Customer Reviews

"If you only buy one book about bipolar....."
...disorder, then buy this one. For yourself, to help you understand yourself and to understand your psychiatrist too. And then buy Jamison's autobiography, "An unquiet mind", to lend to family and friends to help them understand as best as any "normal" person can. Comprehensive and technical. But entirely readable, this is THE textbook on the subject and although Jamison was not "out" as one of us at the time she wrote, it still shows! It was frightening in some ways to read this for the first time some years ago, realising just how accurately she and her co-author described my experiences, yet at the same time reassuring that here was someone who really had a grip on this disease. No book gets 5 star reviews from 8 people (so far) without good reason.

The ultimate in the description of manic-depressive illness
Having been diagnosed with Bipolar II four years ago, I searched and researched the Internet and bookstores for anything I could find on Manic-Depressive illness. It was by pure chance that I stumbled on this book.

Some years ago, I was a nursing student and psychiatric nursing seemed to be my speciality, since I had some innate ability to understand the mind. And, ever the nursing student, I continued long after nursing school to learning more about psychiatric illness, especially once I was diagnosed with it.

The book is technical in content, but easy for the layperson to understand, providing they have a good dictionary. Being a nursing student, much of the language comes easy for me, but the layperson can grasp a good understanding of the illness. Their references to Kraepelin were especially important since he was the first to recognized the two poles of the illness.

I would recommend this book to any person diagnosed with Bipolar and their families, to help understand their illness and to know they are not alone.

Excellent but holding only old views in treatments
I was diagnosed with Bipolar I back in 1992, when I was 29 and have researched the illness seriously since 1998 when I was a Sophomore in college as a Psychology major. Like Dr. Jamison, I plan on becoming a Clinical Psychologist and an expert in the area. The book was an excellent reference about the illness and I recommend it to anyone with one drawback. It only advocates the old views regarding treatment, primarily only Lithium and a mentioning of Depakote and Tegretal. Dr. Jamison also only advocates Lithium in all of her other books. For 6 years, the Dr.'s that treated me did the same along with adding Depakote combination. I'm allergic to Tegretal. I took my medication faithfully during this time and lived in a state of constant manic mode. It was with the courage of a new Dr. that realized that I am traditional treatment resistant and prescribed Lamictal in Jan. 98 and that is when my life went from the gutter to receiving my BA in Psychology in Jun. 2000. The number of patients with Refractory Bipolar, or in my case, just resistant are mounting and attention need to brought to the foreground of the newer anticonvulsives effectiveness: Lamictal, Neurontin, and Topomax. I lived in total dispair for 6 yrs. and as a future Practioner, I will make sure that a patient of mine never has to suffer the way I did. Someday in the future with the coordination from Psychiatry, I hope to write a book on newer, better, and safer medications for treatment practices. I thank Dr.'s Goodwin and Jamison for their work for advocating information on the illness, yet it is a disadvantage in the way of treatment.