Overview
- Summarises and participates in the debate about where depression and unhappiness begin and end
- Responds to recent publications which take opposing views on psychopharmacology and depression
- Discusses recent research on the effectiveness of Cognitive Activation and Cognitive Behavioural Therapy to treat depression
- Includes supplementary material: sn.pub/extras
- Includes supplementary material: sn.pub/extras
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Table of contents (12 chapters)
Keywords
About this book
This book examines existing treatments, legislation and research methodology of depression and exposes their limitations, championing psycho-social support as an alternative. Depression, affecting 350 million people according to the World Health Organisation, is almost invariably diagnosed by the criteria of the American Psychiatric Association – a definition which encompasses those with normal emotional responses to stressful life events.
Tullio Giraldi discusses recent developments in popular and academic dialogue related to the use of antidepressants and recent increases in depression diagnosis and laments the rise in prescribing antidepressants despite their links to suicide and unfulfilled promises of efficacy and safety. He argues that psychotherapy is a cost effective treatment devoid of drugs' adverse effects. This work presents psycho-social support as an alternative to antidepressants, particularly for less severe cases, and as a more effective strategy for coping with the emotional challenges of today’s global reality. Patients, students of medicine and psychology, and professionals of mental health will find this work valuable.
Reviews
“Tens of us take an antidepressant of whom 90% have been on them for over a year. There are not that many depressed people. The fact so many are affected points to a medical or perhaps even a political problem that faces us with two issues – how did it arise and how do we get people out of the trap they are in. This book is your best guide to finding answers.” (David Healy, Professor of Psychiatry, Bangor University and author of Pharmageddon)
“A remarkable achievement! Unhappiness, Sadness and 'Depression' should be must reading for all health professionals and policy makers. Scholarly, yet at the same time eminently readable, It documents the history of medicalization of human misery and the role of commercial interests in current treatment practices.” (Irving Kirsch, Associate Director of the Program in Placebo Studies & Therapeutic Encounter at the Harvard Medical School and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and author of The Emperor's New Drugs: Exploding the Antidepressant Myth)
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About the author
Bibliographic Information
Book Title: Unhappiness, Sadness and 'Depression'
Book Subtitle: Antidepressants and the Mental Disorder Epidemic
Authors: Tullio Giraldi
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-57657-2
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan Cham
eBook Packages: Behavioral Science and Psychology, Behavioral Science and Psychology (R0)
Copyright Information: The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2017
Hardcover ISBN: 978-3-319-57656-5Published: 28 August 2017
Softcover ISBN: 978-3-319-86218-7Published: 04 August 2018
eBook ISBN: 978-3-319-57657-2Published: 08 August 2017
Edition Number: 1
Number of Pages: XIV, 202
Topics: Critical Psychology, Psychological Methods/Evaluation, Health Psychology, Biological Psychology, Community and Environmental Psychology