Topics in this volume include: pharmacotherapy for mood, anxiety, and cognitive disorders; current theories on the pathphysiology of mood disorders; mood stabilizers; antidepressants; anxiolytics; and cognition and dementia.

This book reviews -Effective new alternatives in mood stabilizers and antidepressant interventions -Advances in the study of the pathobiology of anxiety disorders as well as available treatment choices, including anxiolytic medications -Several treatment approaches to dementia and other age-related cognitive impairments -Gender differences in the treatment of depression and anxiety and the different responses to pharmacotherapy -New treatments for social phobia and pharmacological strategies for cognitive disorders Providing both a broad overview and detailed reviews of pharmacotherapy, this resource is essential reading for any practitioner who wants to understand the rationale and background for the drugs he or she prescribes and to assess medications that are currently under development. It is a great reference and ancillary text for students and residents during their clinical years.

Section I: Overviews.
Pharmacotherapy for mood, anxiety, and cognitive disorders: an overview. Current theories on the pathophysiology of mood disorders. Pharmacological validity of diagnostic separation. Signal amplification in psychiatric diagnosis: therapeutic implications. Gender differences in treatment of depression and anxiety. Section II: Mood Stabilizers. Carbamazepine and nimodipine in refractory bipolar illness: efficacy and mechanisms. Mechanisms of action of lithium in bipolar illness. Clinical efficacy of valproate in bipolar illness: comparisons and contrasts with lithium. Therapeutic potential of inositol treatment in depression, panic, dementia, and lithium side effects. Electroconvulsive therapy: current practice and future directions. Antidepressant and mood stabilization effects potential of transcranial magnetic stimulation. Section III: Antidepressants. Changing targets of antidepressant therapy: serotonin and beyond. New emerging serotonergic antidepressants. Dopamine receptors and antidepressant development. Noradrenergic and other new antidepressants. Hormonal interventions as antidepressants or adjunct therapy: treatment implications. Mechanisms and management of treatment-resistant depression. Treatment of psychotic depression. Antidepressant maintenance medications. Section IV: Anxiolytics. Overview of new anxiolytics. Interactions between physiological, hormonal, and environmental determinants: the anxiety model. Serotonin-specific anxiolytics: now and in the future. Serotonergic treatments for panic disorder. New treatments for social phobia. Why a peptide as an anxiolytic? Cholecystokinin antagonists in panic and anxiety disorders. Neurosteroids. Nonbenzodiazepine anxiolytics acting on the GABA receptor. Treatment of obsessive-compulsive disorder: from theory to practice. New approaches to treatment-refractory obsessive-compulsive disorder. Section V: Cognition and Dementia. Pharmacological strategies for cognitive disorders: an overview. Cholinergic approaches to cognition and dementia. Serotonin mechanisms and cognition. Nicotinic cholinergic approaches to cognitive enhancement in the dementias. References. Index.