Full Description
A Life Course Approach to Mental Disorders examines the interplay of social and biological factors in the production of a wide range of mental disorders throughout life, from the peri-natal period through to old age.
The aging into adulthood of numerous birth cohorts, especially over the past twenty years, has provided increasing evidence that mental disorders previously perceived to emerge in adulthood may have their origins early in life. This book brings together, in a single resource, the research in life course epidemiology of mental disorders, forging a consensus on the current science and pointing the way forward for the field.
Assembling researchers across disparate disciplines including epidemiology, developmental psychopathology, psychiatric genetics, sociology, developmental cognitive neuroscience, and epigenetics the book reviews the methods and synthesizes existing knowledge about the life course epidemiology of mental disorders in populations. It also presents discussions of the mechanisms that drive the production of mental disorders over the life course including emerging areas of research in the field.
A Life Course Approach to Mental Disorders brings together the state-of-the-art science of life course epidemiology to inform training, research, practice and policy with regard to mental disorders. The first comprehensive articulation of a life course perspective in the area, it will be a key resource for academics, researchers and students.
Contents
PART ONE: INTRODUCTION ; 1. Life course approaches to mental illness: The emergence of a concept ; PART TWO: METHODS IN LIFE COURSE APPROACHES ; 2. Study designs ; 3. Measurement issues in limited or longitudinal epidemiological studies of origins and/or course of psychiatric disorders ; 4. Analytic considerations in a life course perspective ; 5. Age, birth cohort, and period effects in psychiatric disorders in the United States ; PART THREE: LIFE COURSE APPROACH TO SPECIFIC MENTAL DISORDERS ; 6. Schizophrenia and related psychosis ; 7. Bipolar disorder ; 8. Applying a life course perspective to depression ; 9. Life course epidemiology of anxiety disorders ; 10. Epidemiology of posttraumatic stress disorder ; 11. Life course approach to substance use ; 12. The life course perspective: A framework for autism research ; 13. Life course epidemiology of eating disorders ; 14. ADHD over the life course ; 15. Conduct disorder across the life course ; 16. Borderline, schizotypal, avoidant, obsessive compulsive, and other personality disorders ; PART FOUR: UNDERSTANDING MECHANISMS ; 17. Cognitive function over the life course ; 18. Life course approaches to genetic epidemiology of mental illness ; 19. Impact of early environmental exposures on mental disorders across the life course ; 20. The role of the social environmental over the life course in the etiology of psychiatric disorders ; 21. Social context and mental health over the life course ; 22. Epigenetic influences on mental illness over the life course ; 23. Adverse childhood experiences and brain development: Neurological mechanisms linking the social environment to psychiatric disorders ; 24. Social-biological interplay over the life course ; PART FIVE: NEW DIRECTIONS IN THE LIFE COURSE EPIDEMIOLOGY OF MENTAL ILLNESS ; 25. Intergenerational transmission ; 26. Mental disorders and the emergence of physical disorders ; PART SIX: CONCLUSIONS ; 27. Public health, policy, and practice: Implications of life course approaches to mental illness
