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Depression presents a wide canvas for considering some approaches, issues, and problems in the study of major categories of mental illness in the context of current behavioral and molecular neurobiology. The study of depression encompasses multiple interactions among psychiatry, neurology, and neuroscience, as well as interactions with a host of other disciplines. This paper considers issues from an American perspective and discusses topics including historical aspects of the ways humanity has struggled with depression; the growth of approaches, and the "wars" in psychiatry in the middle of the 20th century between different ideologies; the development of psychiatry as a behavioral science inclusive of many disciplines; current diagnostic systems such as the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5) of the American Psychiatric Association, and the ICD-10 Classification of Mental and Behavioral Disorders of the World Health Organization; the efforts to delineate subtypes of depression; the search for new neurobiological and behavioral targets in the context of the National Institute of Mental Health's Research Domain Criteria framework; and examples of potential future discoveries and disciplines that may ultimately improve treatment., (© 2015 New York Academy of Sciences.)

The growing number of soldiers returning home with psychiatric and neurologic disorders, notably posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and traumatic brain injury (TBI), underscores the need for an interdisciplinary framework for understanding the emergent consequences of combat. Among the challenges facing the scientific community is the development of effective treatment strategies for TBI from blast and other injuries, given the confounding effects of comorbid psychological symptoms on accurate diagnoses. At the individual level, emerging technologies-including virtual reality, the use of genetic biomarkers to inform treatment response, and new brain imaging methodology-are playing an important role in the development of differential therapeutics to best address a soldier's particular clinical needs. At the macro level, new approaches toward understanding the political, cultural, and ideological contexts of mass conflict, the decision to join in violence, and ways of preventing genocide are discussed., (© 2010 Association for Research in Nervous and Mental Disease.)

This special section represents a coordinated publication of the Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology and the Archives of General Psychiatry. These 2 journals have typically focused on somewhat different areas of research and have been read by different audiences. In an effort to achieve cross-fertilization of the disciplines of psychiatry and clinical psychology, this coordinated publication provides a current view of research both in psychopharmacology and psychotherapy as applied to major depression, anxiety disorders, alcohol abuse, and drug abuse. To further the aims of informing the diverse readership in areas to which they are often not exposed in the separate journals, the Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology is publishing in this section, articles that address biomedical and psychopharmacological research, and the Archives of General Psychiatry is publishing a coordinated set of articles on psychotherapy and behavior therapy. Collectively, the series contained in these 2 journals is designed both to foster knowledge and to enhance communication among psychiatrists and psychologists.

In 1994, the fourth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV) was published. Two studies suggested that the prevalence of psychiatric disorders may have been underestimated. A susceptibility gene for manic-depressive illness has been reported.