A Mood Apart

February 2, 1997
Seldom has the inner emotional landscape of melancholic depression, mania and manic-depressive illness been mapped with so much clarity, empathy and sensitivity. Chairman of psychiatry at the University of Pennsylvania, Whybrow draws on his experiences in treating mood disorders. He recommends a combination of psychotherapy, self-education and pharmacologic drugs to improve the emotional brain's self-regulating functions. According to his theory, grief, severe stress, genetic predisposition, distorted childhood attachments and weak social support networks may interact to disrupt the brain's system of "emotional homeostasis," which promotes the individual's equilibrium within his or her ever-changing circumstances; the result is a debilitating mood disorder. Whybrow weaves observations on shyness, temperament, suicide, the melatonin fad, brain research and seasonal effects on mood into a series of open-ended, exploratory case histories that comprise the book's core. Including an appendix listing common medications with dose ranges and side effects, his illuminating study will be useful to those who suffer from mood disorders and people close to them.