Series in Psychopathology – serie

The Behavioral High-Risk Paradigm in Psychopathology examines both traditional clinical research on psychopathology and psychophysiological research on psychopathology, with an emphasis on risk for schizophrenia and for mood disorders. Complementing treatments of risk for psychopathology in other sources which emphasize either genetic factors or large-scale psychosocial factors, the edited chapters focus on individual and familiar behavioral phenomena as a means for understanding risk for psychopathology. Leading researchers in specific areas of each disorder have contributed review chapters from a clinical (symptom, family history, etc.) or a psychophysiological perspective.

As editor of the Springer-Verlag Series in Psychopathology, Lauren Alloy knew of my work in cognitive psychophysiology to study processing anomalies in nonpatients at risk for psychopathology and invited me to edit a book for the series. This evolved into an opportunity to address an aspect of the unfortunate nature-nurture battle in the field, which too often emphasizes genes and macrolevel environment. Extreme positions are often taken (sometimes unwittingly), even though a great deal of the actual research is between the extremes, including laboratory psycho­ logical and psychophysiological studies. There is more to biology than genes and even more to it than things like brain imaging, enlarged ventricles, glucose metabolism rate, and receptor density, which have received a great deal of attention in recent years. of studies at the One goal of this book is to provide demonstrations intersection between psychology and biology via psychophysiology. In parallel, another goal is to showcase solid psychological research that may bear directly on what are often considered biological issues. For example, Chapter 4, by Walker and colleagues, can be considered classically psychological, because the authors focus on overt behavior. Yet some of the importance of their work is its implication of a particular biological process involved in the gross motor behavior anomalies they have identified in the etiology of schizophrenia. Similarly, whereas in Chapter 7, Klein and Anderson articulate the behavioral high-risk paradigm quite well, in Chapter 10, Yee relies on their approach in pursuing psycho­ physiological research on risk for depression.

Postpartum Depression: Causes and Consequences chronicles a decade and a half of research into this relatively common mood disorder experienced in various forms by between 10-40% of all women following delivery. The author has conducted three major studies all of which are presented in this volume. The most recent study comprises the bulk of the monograph and presents the results with regard to psychological, social and hormonal factors in postpartum depression and the blues. Information regarding the epidemiology, etiology and treatment of postpartum depression is also included. The work described in this volume represents the attempt by the author to begin to address several of the major unresolved questions regarding the prevalence, causes, and consequences of postpartum mood disorders. The important negative implications of poor maternal adjustment for both the new mother and her family as well as the increased awareness of childbearing women who are now demanding answers and information make this book indispensable for all practitioners in psychology, psychiatry and obstetrics-gynecology as well as for the students of these disciplines.

"Depression runs in families." Above all, the goal of thisbook is to come to some conclusions about the meaning ofthat simple assertion, which has a far from simple ex-planation of meaning. This book is designed to address someof the gaps in previous research on depressive disorders inthe family context: the sheer numbers of people withaffective disorders marks them as our most commonpsychiatric problem.