Early family life adversity has been linked with negative physical and psychological health consequences in adulthood, possibly due to alterations in neuroendocrine activity. Young adults from families characterized by parental loss (N = 45) and control participants (N = 43) completed self-report measures of prior abuse and family conflict, and performed a stressful speech task designed to elicit neuroendocrine responses. Higher reported abuse and conflict were associated with increased cortisol for the loss group, but were unrelated to cortisol in the control group. Results indicate alterations in neuroendocrine functioning associated with early parental loss, which are moderated by the quality of the family environment.This research was supported by Grant 0130024N (to P.I.L.) from the American Heart Association. We are grateful for the research assistance of Jessica Tartaro and Anna Rodriguez.

Bipolar disorder (BPD) has received increasing attention from public and professional sources. Although pharmacologic treatments are considered the sine qua non in the treatment of youth with BPD, psychosocial interventions are critical to assist the child and family cope with symptoms that carry with them significant morbidity and mortality. Treatments developed to date are few in number; all are psychoeducationally based, using cognitive–behavioral and family systems interventions within a biopsychosocial framework. This paper reviews possible mediators of outcome, including caregiver concordance, children's social skills, hopelessness, and family stress. The author has developed two family-based psychoeducational interventions for the treatment of youth with BPD: multifamily psychoeducation groups (MFPG) and individual family psychoeducation (IFP). These treatments are both described and the results from a previously published randomized clinical trial (RCT) of MFPG are summarized. Then, new findings from an RCT of IFP are presented, along with preliminary pilot data from an expanded version of IFP. The paper concludes with recommendations for future research.This paper was supported by grants to the author from the National Institute of Mental Health (R01-MH61512) and the Ohio Department of Mental Health (ODMH-743074 and 734030).

In addition to members of the Editorial Board, we sought reviews from a number of other scholars. We wish to acknowledge our appreciation to all those who returned reviews during 2006.