Men and Depression: Clinical and Empirical Perspectives (Practical Resources for the Mental Health Professional) - Softcover

Cochran, Sam V.; Rabinowitz, Fredric E.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0121775402 ISBN 13: 9780121775407

Publisher: Academic Press, 1999

Synopsis

Men and Depression: Clinical and Empirical Perspectives is the only book currently available that integrates psychological theories and the latest research findings with clinical recommendations for working with men who are suffering from depression. This volume covers a wide range of topics and issues that relate to men and depression, including: assessment of male depression; statistics on depression in men; theories to explain depression in men; treating depression in men with both pharmacotherapy and psychotherapy; the interrelation of grief, loss, trauma, and depression in men; the problem of suicide and how to assess and treat suicide risk in men; and prospects for future work in this important area.
This is a unique reference and practical guide that integrates and evaluates research and clinical practice relating to the diagnosis and treatment of men with depression. The volume explores why men are underdiagnosed and undertreated for mood disorders and provides the clinician with practical guidelines for conceptualizing a treatment plan for men with depression.

• Only book on the current market to address the complex nature of male depression
• Integrates the latest research findings and clinical innovations
• Offers guidelines for the assessment, diagnosis, and treatment of male depression
• Addresses pharmacological treatments and their implications
• Extensively illustrated with case material and clinical inquiries

About this title

About the Author:

Sam V. Cochran received his Ph.D. in counseling psychology from the University of Missouri-Columbia in 1983. He is currently Assistant Director of the University Counseling Service and an Adjunct Assistant Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Iowa in Iowa City. He conducts a private practice of individual psychotherapy that focuses almost exclusively on treating men for depression, relationship difficulties, and male gender-role concerns. He has authored and co-authored a number of publications related to men's issues, including a book, "Man Alive: A Primer of Men's Issues" with his co-author, Dr. Fred Rabinowitz. He is currently Recording Secretary for the Society for the Psychological Study of Men and Masculinity of the American Psychological Association and co-chair of its Task Force on Men and Depression.

Fredric E. Rabinowitz, Ph.D., received his doctorate in counseling psychology from the University of Missouri-Columbia in 1984. He began his professorship at the University of Redlands in 1984 and has been there ever since, currently as a full professor of Psychology. Dr. Rabinowitz has developed a private psychotherapy practice that focuses mainly on the issues of men and has co-led a men's group in Redlands since 1987. He has presented extensively on men and psychotherapy and has written and co-written many articles on the topic. He and his co-author, Sam V. Cochran, wrote a book titled Man Alive: A Primer of Men's Issues in 1994 that was published by Brooks/Cole. He has received the Outstanding Teaching Award and Professor of the Year awards at the University of Redlands. Dr. Rabinowitz has served several years as the Department Chair and has also been the Mental Health Director of a local community mental health center.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.:

From the Preface
There was a time in the not-too-distant past when disclosure by a man that he had suffered from and been treated for depression was enough to disqualify him in the public eye for electoral office. Today, a number of prominent men have "gone public" with their struggles with depression. Mike Wallace, Rod Steiger, Andrew Solomon, and William Styron, to name a few, have all shared their experiences with depression. Styron's Darkness Visible (1990) is a moving memoir of his struggle with and recovery from depression. Terrence Real's (1997) recent popular book I Don't Want to Talk About It opens the door wider on this neglected topic. Popular literature and film portray men with mood problems openly and sympathetically. Perhaps the tide is shifting, the pendulum swinging a bit. Maybe it is becoming easier for men to acknowledge depressed feelings. Are we beginning to see a change in how men view their emotions; a shift from hiding and suppressing their emotions to a more open, accepting, and affirming posture with respect to the emotional aspects of their lives?

It has been 20 years since we each began treating men in psychotherapy. Looking back on our experiences, many of the men we have seen and treated were suffering from some form of depressive disorder. A broken relationship, a failed marriage, a lost job, a death of a friend; these experiences were the keys that opened the door to a vast emotional landscape with which most men were unfamiliar and that frightened them. Since that time, an increasing number of scholars and authors have written about the psychological problems of men and have speculated about the best ways to treat men who come to therapists for assistance in their problems with living, including problems with moods.

...This book is intended for the practitioner and the researcher interested in increasing her or his knowledge base about mood disorders in men. Even though there is a large body of knowledge pertaining to mood disorders in women, there is a relatively sparse knowledge base that looks at these phenomena and asks what we might learn about men. We want to know what we can learn about men--how to understand mood disorders in men, how to better assess these problems, and how to offer effective treatments for these mood problems in men.

...A book that examines distress and depression in men may be seen by some as politically provocative. Our intention is not to be provocative. Our intention is to raise awareness in clinicians and researchers of the problem of undiagnosed and untreated depression in men. The cost of ignoring these problems is great. As mentioned, we owe a great debt to the researchers and clinicians who have taken the psychiatric and psychological establishments to task regarding the condition and treatment of women. Many insights and initiatives have come from this hard work. Nonetheless, it is remarkable, and disconcerting, that so little attention has been devoted to men's suffering from depression. When sorting through the hundreds of books and the thousands of journal articles and monographs on depression, there is but a scant handful that specifically address the topic of male depression. The acceptance and production of such a volume is encouraging. The tide is indeed turning. We owe the men in our consulting rooms and our lives nothing less than our best possible efforts to understand and help them in their journeys. It is our greatest hope that this volume will help researchers to better understand the complexities of male depression and will equip clinicians to more effectively treat the men who seek them out for help.

About this edition

• Publisher: Academic Press
• Publication date: 1999
• ISBN 10: 0121775402
• ISBN 13: 9780121775407
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 208