Postpartum Depression and Child Development elopment

Lynne Murray received her undergraduate training in the Department of Psychology of the University of Edinburgh where she also carried out her doctoral research. In 1985 she was awarded the Winnicott Research Fellowship at the University of Cambridge. Since 1990 she has been supported as a Research Scientist by the Medical Research Council of Great Britain. In 1996 she moved to the Department of Psychology of the University of Reading as a Research Professor where, together with Peter Cooper, she is Co-Director of the Winnicott Research Unit.

Peter J. Cooper received his undergraduate training at the University of Cape Town. He carried out his doctoral research within the Department of Psychiatry of the University of Oxford where he also completed his clinical training. Following a postdoctoral Fellowship in Oxford, in 1983 he took up the Cambridge University Lectureship in Psychopathology. In 1993 he moved to the University of Reading to take up the Chair in Psychology.

"The research described in this volume has cast light on both the nature of postnatal depression and its effects on infants. These issues are of considerable practical importance both because of the frequency of postpartum depression and because the effects on infants seem to impinge on a wide range of psychological functions in the individual child as well as on crucial patterns of family interaction. Most importantly, the concepts and findings discussed by the authors have potential implications for a much broader range of issues, both theoretical and practical, with respect to early psychological development. The high quality research described in this book, especially that undertaken by the editors, has clearly shown how difficult developmental questions can be tackled rigorously while still retaining a sensitivity to the subtleties of parent-child interaction and to the nuances of individual psychological development." --From the Afterword by Michael Rutter, "Maternal Depression and Infant Development: Cause and Consequence; Sensitivity and Specificity" "Over the past two decades there has been a great deal of research concerning the impact of postnatal depression on child development. This outstanding and timely volume, which has contributions from leading figures in the field, assembles this work in a remarkably coherent fashion. It succeeds by bringing together a wide variety of issues concerned with postnatal depression and infants, including epidemiology, basic infant development, developmental psychopathology and treatment. The book concludes with a brilliant critique of the field and its future by Sir Michael Rutter. Anyone with an interest in the subject should have this book on their shelves." --Alan Stein, MB BCh., FRCPsych., Leopold Muller Professor of Child & Family Mental Health, The Royal Free Hospital School of Medicine and the Tavistock Clinic "In dealing with the effects of postpartum depression on child behavior Murray and Cooper