Depression and Drugs ― The Neurobehavioral Structure of a Psychological Storm

???This book integrates the current state of knowledge on the association of neurochemical and psychological factors underlying the concept of depression or on the process and nature of the drug-induced changes that lead to recovery. Highlighting the results of two major multisite collaborative studies of the psychobiology of depression, the author demonstrates how more refined clinical methods uncover the initial behavioral actions of the drugs and chart the time course of their actions. The results disconfirm earlier textbook reported findings that these actions are delayed for several weeks beyond the almost immediate neurochemical effects. The “multivantaged” method makes possible distinguishing the clinical actions of different classes of antidepressant drugs.? ?

Dr. Katz received his PhD from the University of Texas in psychology and physiology in 1955. From 1958 to 1968, he served in the National Institute of Mental Health's (NIMH) newly formed branch on psychopharmacology as Executive Secretary of the Institute's 1st Psychopharmacology Advisory Committee, then, in 1965 as head of its Special Studies Section. In 1968 he was appointed Chief of the NIMH’s Clinical Research Branch. That program was charged with expanding research on the causes and treatment of schizophrenia and the affective disorders. It initiated national conferences and developed landmark collaborative programs on the testing of the new biochemical and clinical theories of the genesis of the disorders. The biology and clinical Collaborative and the Clinical Center programs created by Dr. Katz and Branch staff (1970–1978), were responsible for the training of many young investigators and provided needed methodology for expanding research in these fields. He co-chaired the Clinical and Biological Collaborative programs in their early development. The Collaborative programs were in operation for several decades under NIMH grants. In 1984, he joined the psychiatry faculty at Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York as Professor and established the 1st Division of Psychology and Laboratory of Psychopathology at the College. Since 1996, he has been an Adjunct Professor in the Department of Psychiatry, University of Texas Health Sciences Center at San Antonio, where he has conducted grant-supported research on the “biological aspects of depression” and the neurobehavioral mechanisms of action of antidepressant drugs".