Moodswing: Dr. Fieve on Depression

The extremes of mood can feel like a personal failing, a character flaw that willpower alone should be able to fix. For decades, that was the prevailing view in psychiatry, and for the people living through the swings, it meant suffering in silence. Dr. Ronald R. Fieve challenged that view. He was the psychiatrist who established the first lithium clinic in North America and conducted the first controlled U.S. trial of lithium for depression, work that helped lead to the FDA’s approval of the drug for mania in 1970. This 1989 revised and expanded edition of Moodswing is his landmark account of the biochemical revolution that followed, a book that treats mood disorders as medical conditions rather than moral ones. The 276 pages move through the science and the human experience with equal care. Fieve sheds new light on the causes and symptoms of specific disorders, including manic depression, seasonal depression, and PMS. He uses case studies to illustrate the effective use of lithium and the latest antidepressant drugs, and he explores the connections that have long fascinated researchers: why creative individuals are often prone to manic-depressive illness, how manic depression and substance abuse intertwine, and why teenage and adult suicide is on the rise. For anyone who has ever wondered whether the swings they experience are something more than ordinary sadness, or for families trying to understand a loved one’s diagnosis, this book offers a framework grounded in clinical experience and biological evidence.