Melancholia The Diagnosis, Pathophysiology and Treatment of Depressive Illness

MelancholiaThe Diagnosis, Pathophysiology and Treatment of Depressive Illness\nAuthor(s): Michael Alan Taylor, Max Fink\nFormat: Hardback\nPublisher: Cambridge University Press, United Kingdom\nImprint: Cambridge University Press\nISBN-13: 9780521841511, 978-0521841511\nSynopsis\nThis book provides a comprehensive review of melancholia as a severe disorder of mood, associated with suicide, psychosis, and catatonia. The syndrome is defined with a clear diagnosis, prognosis, and range of management strategies, differentiated from other similar psychiatric, neurological, and general medical conditions. It challenges accepted doctrines in the classification and biology of the mood disorders and defines melancholia as a treatable mental illness. Described for millennia in medical texts and used as a term in literature and poetry, melancholia was included within early versions of the major diagnostic classificatory systems, but lost favour in later editions. This book updates the arguments.