Edited by Jozef Corveleyn, Patrick Luyten, and Sidney J. Blatt

Recent research indicates that depression, once believed to be a relatively benign disorder, is a highly recurrent disorder which does not respond well to treatment. This book brings together the latest thinking and research concerning depression, including epidemiological, cognitive-behavioral, psychodynamic, developmental psychopathological, and neurobiological approaches, with the goal of fostering dialogue and enhancing integration to facilitate the development of more encompassing theories and more effective treatments for this disabling disorder.

Each chapter provides an overview of the state of the art of research in a particular area as well as an exploration of both the possibilities and the barriers towards integration with other approaches.

In an integrative Epilogue, the editors identify and discuss the points of primary convergence among these various approaches. They note a general dissatisfaction with the DSM approach to depression because it is insufficiently informed by basic research. In addition, they note a broad dissatisfaction with existing guidelines for the treatment of depression because these guidelines underestimate the need for more extended treatments for many patients as well as the importance of patient and therapist factors and the central role of the therapeutic alliance in treating depressed patients. As an alternative to the DSM approach, the editors propose an etiologically-based, dynamic interactionism model of depression that emphasizes recursive interactions between genetics, neurobiological factors, personality, and life stress in the etiology of depression. The volume closes with a discussion of the implications of this dynamic interactionism model for future research on mood disorders and for the development of treatment guidelines that are better informed by basic research and are more congruent with the complex clinical reality.