Bipolar Disorders: Clinical Course and Outcome

From our regular book review column.

This book is based on several presentations given at the 1995 American Psychiatric Association symposium "Modern Day Bipolar Disorders: Course and Outcome." The authors represent a spectrum of scholars from major academic medical centers in the United States and Europe, the National Institute of Mental Health Intramural Research Program, and the pharmaceutical industry who have contributed to the literature on affective disorders. There is a bibliography at the end of each chapter with references to literature published between 1996 and 1998 in almost every chapter. The chapters focus on the phenomenology of bipolar disorder and its pharmacologic, psychotherapeutic, and psychosocial treatment, Goodwin, in his introduction, notes that the American focus on bipolar affective disorder, as opposed to cyclic mood disorders regardless of polarity, may have limited our understanding of its etiology.