Published online by Cambridge University Press: 16 May 2024
The concept of abnormal mood has been a matter of a millennia-long debate in philosophy and medicine, while the diagnosis and classification of mood disorders remains a complex and controversial issue even in modern psychiatry. A centrepiece of this debate is the conceptualisation of mood and, by extension, mood disorders as a multi-dimensional spectrum with transdiagnostic symptoms (i.e., a continuous diagnostic classification) or as discrete nosological entities (i.e., a categorical diagnostic classification). Theoretical models and arguments based on empirical evidence have been proposed for both the distinct categorisation of abnormal mood states and the affective continuum perspective, which may also encompass psychosis and psychotic disorders. Although the conceptualisation of mood as a spectrum ranging from unipolar depression to unipolar mania may be the most suitable, this approach requires further evidence before it can replace the categorical classifications firmly employed in clinical practice for more than a century.
To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.
Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.
Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.
To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.
To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.