Abstract
Starting to publish this new journal is a pleasure for all of us at the Turkish Association for Psychopharmacology (TAP), which was founded in 2005 and already organized three national congresses with international participation on psychopharmacology. During the 3rd National Congress in Antalya in March 2010 TAP has started to establish new scientific research sections among its members. The first one was The Turkish Association for Psychopharmacology Mood Disorders Section (TAP-MooDS). It has already conducted a number of meetings in the period until now. One of the main goals of the TAP-MooDS was to launch a new journal in the area.
Mood disorders are mentioned as “the bread and butter of clinical psychiatry” in the “Textbook of Mood Disorders” (1). The purpose for publishing a new journal on this subject was to consider the increasing scientific knowledge in the area. “The Journal of Affective Disorders,” “Bipolar Disorders,” and “Depression and Anxiety” are other important journals related with the topic. Although textbooks and diagnostic manuals used the term generally as “mood disorders,” there has not been a journal directly using the term “mood disorders” in its name. A search on the topic demonstrated that another journal with the name of “International Journal of Mood Disorders” was launched earlier, but still has not moved forward with publication.
DSM IV TR is still using the name of the category as “mood disorders.” This category include: Bipolar Disorder, Cyclothymic Disorder, Dysthymia, and Major Depressive Disorder. ICD 10 also classified this group of disorders under the heading of “mood disorders.” DSM V draft has been preserving the use of the term “mood disorders,” but some changes are offered; i.e. “mixed episode” is turning to a course specifier and the definition is seemed to be broadened… So the debate about the definition of the subcategories of mood disorders and the course specifiers are hot topics in psychiatry and phenomenology issues among researchers.
On the other hand mood disorders have second highest prevalence rates among the psychiatric disorders just behind anxiety disorders. High comorbidity rates of the other psychiatric and medical disorders co-occurring with the mood disorders are the other significant theme on the subject. A mood disorder without any comorbidity is very exceptional.
Huge neuroimaging, genetics, biochemical, and phenomenological data and knowledge have increasingly continued to accumulate in the area…
We aim to publish innovative, thought provoking, and ground breaking articles at the Journal of Mood Disorders (JMOOD) on mood disorders and to make it a fertile ground for new sights…