Families and mental illness: current interpersonal and biological approaches (Part 1). Contributions by the Society for Life History Research on Psychopathology: epidemiology, life course development, and family research.
FAMILY research in mental health has until recently been largely confined within specific disciplines or fairly narrow perspectives, with little interdisciplinary integration. While sociologists, geneticists, psychologists, psychiatrists and scholars in related disciplines all have developed explanations regarding the familial origins or transmission of psychopathology and mental disorders, their work has largely remained isolated in the separate fields and is usually published in separate journals. We believe that the importance of Psychiatry: Interpersonal and Biological Processes lies in its mission to promote the integration of such work, not only in regard to family research but in the broad arena of research in mental health and illness. The Society for Life History Research on Psychopathology has always been concerned with interdisciplinary longitudinal investigation. Its 1984 meeting focused upon new opportunities in methods and in theory building in family research. This set of five papers and the papers to be published in the next issue were first presented at that meeting, hosted in Baltimore by the Department of Mental Hygiene, The Johns Hopkins School of Hygiene and Public Health. They reflect continuing evolution toward a multidisciplinary family research perspective.
Department of Mental Hygiene, Johns Hopkins University School of Hygiene and Public Health, Baltimore 21205.
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D004812:Epidemiologic Methods; D005190:Family; D006801:Humans; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000523:psychology*; D011599:Psychopathology; D012106:Research; D012307:Risk Factors