Children of Depressed Mothers: From Early Childhood to Maturity. By Marian Radke-Yarrow. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 1999. 216 pp. £27.95 (hb). ISBN 0-521-55131-5

When someone who has spent most of their working life researching a particular topic condenses all that knowledge into a book, it is well worth taking note of. And so it is with Marian Radke-Yarrow's Children of Depressed Mothers. She has the ability to present the complex interactions that exist between mother, child and family in a way that is both comprehensive and comprehensible.

The book is based around a longitudinal study of 98 families, with children followed up from toddlerhood to late adolescence. Sixty-eight of the mothers suffered from either major unipolar or bipolar depression. The study was carried out at the National Institute of Mental Health in the USA and has the strength of including fathers (many of whom were also depressed) and taking into account the effect of the child's problems on the family dynamics.

Some children had no apparent symptoms or difficulties in social functioning, but many had significantly impaired social functioning, with serious psychiatric disorders in addition to depression. An interesting subgroup of the children had severe depression, while managing to cope well, although quite precariously.

The highest rates of child problems were associated with depressed mothers who were angry and irritable and/or those who encouraged an enmeshed dependency in their children. Girls of depressed mothers were especially likely to develop disruptive disorders.

Psychopathology was strongly influenced by the direct effect of the mother's depressive behaviour on the child's development from early childhood onwards. The pervasiveness of the negative influences across many social contexts within the family had an accumulative effect over time, while the child's temperament and coping strategies were also important in the development of psychopathology.

Each chapter is clearly structured, with a concluding summary, and a good balance is kept between well-referenced academic material and more informal discussion based around case histories. The book is strongly recommended to anyone interested in developmental psychopathology. It should be included in every general psychiatric library.