Cognitive Vulnerability To Depression

Recurrence of depressive episodes is not uncommon, even after successful treatment. What makes some people more vulnerable than others to this devastating disorder? Do depressive individuals have characteristic thinking and reasoning styles? By what means can cognitive antecedents to affective disorders be identified at different stages in the lifespan, and how can the risks they represent be mitigated? An important resource for anyone who seeks to understand or treat depression, this volume synthesizes the most current research and theory on cognitive vulnerability. Covering methodological, theoretical, and empirical issues, the authors review cognitive theories of depression; explicate and assess the vulnerability approach to psychopathology; and formulate an integrative view of the key proximal and distal antecedents of depression in adults.

In this book, which advances clinical science and clinical practice, experts present the broad synthesis of what we have learnt about nature, origins, and clinical ramifications of the general and specific cognitive factors that seem to play a crucial role in creating and maintaining vulnerability across the spectrum of emotional disorders.

Providing a cutting-edge examination of the mechanisms underlying depression, this volume integrates important areas of research that have largely remained separate. The authors explore both the cognitive and neurological processes that make some people more vulnerable than others to developing depression and experiencing recurrent episodes. They also probe how these processes interact—how negative life experiences, maladaptive belief systems, and patterns of thinking may actually affect neural circuitry, and vice versa. Explaining sophisticated theory and research in an accessible style, the book highlights the implications for improving clinical practices and patient outcomes.

The most comprehensive volume of its kind, The Oxford Handbook of Mood Disorders provides detailed coverage of the characterization, understanding, and treatment of mood disorders. Chapters are written by the world's leading experts in their respective areas. The Handbook provides coverage of unipolar depression, bipolar disorder, and variants of these disorders. Current approaches to classifying the mood disorders are reviewed and contemporary controversies are placed in historical context. Chapter authors offer a variety of approaches to understanding the heterogeneity of the experiences of those who meet criteria for mood disorders, both within and across cultures. The role of genetic and environmental risk factors as well as premorbid personality and cognitive processes in the development of mood pathology are detailed. Interpersonal, neurobiological, and psychological factors also receive detailed consideration. The volume reviews mood disorders in special populations (e.g., postpartum and seasonal mood disorders) as well as common comorbidities (e.g., anxiety, substance use disorders). Somatic and psychosocial treatment approaches receive in-depth coverage with chapters that describe and review empirical evidence regarding each of the most influential treatment approaches. The depth and breadth offered by this Handbook make it an invaluable resource for clinicians and researchers, as well as scholars and students.

Emotional disorders such as anxiety, depression, and dysfunctional patterns of eating are clearly among the most devastating and prevalent confronting practitioners, and they have received much attention from researchers--in personality, social, cognitive, and developmental psychology, as well as in clinical psychology and psychiatry. A major recent focus has been cognitive vulnerability, which seems to set the stage for recurrences of symptoms and episodes. In the last five years there has been a rapid proliferation of studies. In this book, leading experts present the first broad synthesis of what we have now learned about the nature, of cognitive factors that seem to play a crucial role in creating and maintaining vulnerability across the spectrum of emotional disorders. An introductory chapter considers theory and research design and methodology and constructs a general conceptual framework for understanding and studying the relationships between developmental and cognitive variables and later risk, and the difference between distal cognitive antecedents of disorders (e.g. depressive inferential styles, dysfunctional attitudes) and proximal ones (e.g. schema activation or inferences). Subsequent chapters are organized into three sections, on mood, anxiety, and eating disorders. Each section ends with an integrative overview chapter that offers both incisive commentary and insightful suggestions for further systematic research. A rich resource for all those professionally concerned with these problems, Cognitive Vulnerability to Emotional Disorders advances both clinical science and clinical practice.

Cognitive psychotherapy is a form of therapy that attempts to understand and conceptualise a patient’s problems in accordance with a cognitive model. Therapy is based on an exploratory, collaborative relationship between the patient and therapist. The underlying principal factors of the therapy are explained to the patient, including the interrelationships between various cognitions (beliefs, conceptions, thoughts, feelings and behaviour). An attempt is also made during the therapy process to identify such events from the patient’s developmental history that will assist in understanding the causes of strong emotional reactions and cognitions during current problem situations. The therapy is also influenced by the view of a learning theory that states that behaviour is guided by activating factors and consequences. Cognitive psychotherapy has divided into many branches which retain many common features: a focused therapeutic approach and goal-orientated working, the use of homework assignments, a collaborative therapeutic relationship with a shared exploratory approach, an attempt to understand the person’s experiences through investigating the inner processes of the mind and introducing the concept of alternative experiences. Cognitive psychotherapy has been shown to be an effective therapy form particularly in monopolar depression, generalised anxiety disorder, panic disorder, social phobia, post-traumatic stress disorder as well as in childhood depression and anxiety. After a fairly short training, a general physician will be able to use cognitive and behavioural methods when treating psychiatric disorders.

This timely, authoritative volume provides an integrative review of current knowledge on child and adolescent depression, covering everything from epidemiology and neurobiology to evidence-based treatment and prevention. From foremost scientist-practitioners, the book is organized within a developmental psychopathology framework that elucidates the factors that put certain children at risk and what can be done to help. Proven intervention models are discussed in step-by-step detail, with coverage of cognitive-behavioral, interpersonal, and pharmacological approaches, among others. Special topics include sex differences in depression, understanding and managing suicidality, and the intergenerational transmission of depression.