Brian Leonard and Paul Spenser, eds.

Colchester: Portland Press, 1991, 516 pp

ISBN 1-869868-74-9

The Royal College of Psychiatrists and the Royal College of General Practitioners launched a 5-year Defeat Depression Campaign on 30 January 1992. The first year of the campaign is intended to educate health professionals in the recognition and treatment of depression.

This book, which is the proceedings of the Conference of the British Society for Psycho-Pharmacology held in Ireland in September 1988, provides an overview of the current pharmacological options in the treatment of depression. Thirty years have elapsed since the almost simultaneous discovery of the therapeutic effect of MOA inhibitors and Imipramine in a substantial percentage of patients with severe depression. Antidepressants are the leading category of CNS drugs in research and development, occupying 11th place of all therapeutic categories, with more than 100 new chemical entities at various stages of development at the time of the Conference. One hundred and nineteen contributors helped to place the current use of antidepressants in context and the nine sections of the book cover a wide range: biochemical mechanisms thought to underlie drug action; animal models of depression and laboratory methods of discovering new drugs; biochemical markers of depression and the discussion of toxicity and side effects of both older and new antidepressants. The section with clinical emphasis covers treatment issues, in particular the problem of resistant depression, with advice on management and indications for psycho-surgery. There is also advice on drug treatment for the depressed elderly, depression as seen in general practice with particular reference to the side effects of treatment and the corresponding problems with patient compliance.

This book will be of wide interest both to researchers concerned with the development of future antidepressants and to clinicians wishing to have a fuller understanding of the mechanism of action of these frequently prescribed drugs.