Maternal Depression : Comments on Cummings & Kouros ; Campbell

Target reviews in this section, written by leading investigators, offer brief, authoritative accounts of the key research findings in this area and how they might help to influence policy and practice. They do this by articulating a range of clinical research questions, and findings, with sizable implications for the affected individual and family and for society as a whole. There is substantial agreement across reviews concerning what is known and what is not yet clear. Moreover, there is agreement on how these authors conceptualize the task of understanding the impact of maternal depression with how investigators in other areas of behavioural science struggle to understand the impact of risk exposures. Accordingly, if we can manage to resolve some of the practical and strategic issues raised in these reviews – pinpointing the source of individual differences in risk exposure, integrating biological with psychological models and measures, translating scientific understanding to improve detection and treatment – then we will have made an advance that will generalize to other multi-determined clinical problems.