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I really liked Julien's Primer of Drug Action. It's also easy to read.

I'm sorry to hear about your diagnosis. I am hopeful there will be something that can work soon.

I believe Stephen Stahl's Prescriber's Guide for psychopharmacology may be what you're looking for.

It gives dosing ranges for each disease state, how to initiate dosing, and tidbits such as whether it might be used as an augmentation agent. I have his Essential Psychopharmacology book, and I absolutely love it. He's a great writer - clear, but thorough.

Dark Therapy, Dark Therapy, Dark Therapy, Dark Therapy.

and Light therapy in the morning.

All you need is some uv/blue blocking glasses and to put them on at night for half an hour before bed. Installing flux also helps, but not as much as the glasses and absolute darkness at night in your room do.

The vast majority of people with psychiatric disorders would benefit from a combination of dark and light therapy, maybe in 15-20 years time with enough work and effort it'll be implemented in most inpatient settings, and then eventually outpatient settings too.

See Robert Whitaker's Anatomy of an Epidemic pp. 307-309 for a list of relevant research studies.

> This is one of the first times I've heard of hormonal treatments. Do you have any hypotheses w.r.t. depression in men? I imagine estrogen would not be nearly as useful there, to put it mildly.

First, I will note that much of our knowledge is of estrogen for various reasons. Little is known about testosterone, though research there is finally heating up. In short, we know that hypogonadal men suffer from depression at very high rates. They also have cognitive and executive function deficits. What is not known is whether testosterone by itself has neural importance or whether those effects are derived from the estrogen that is obtained from the testosterone (the body breaks testosterone down into estrogen, which is how men get their estrogen in small amounts - men are also known to be more sensitive to estrogen, so it may be that a small amount is all they need to achieve the same effects as women). Here is just a sampling of information:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24313565
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24359698
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24501728
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24552043
Plug "testosterone" and "depression" into PubMed and have fun. Also try "testosterone" and other terms, as well as substituting "estrogen" or "estradiol".

So, next, I will give you a link to a book: http://www.amazon.com/Estrogen-Mystery-Neuroprotective-Activities-Hormone/dp/3709172543. I interlibrary loaned this book and read it. It is quite technical, written by one of the world's more respected neuroscientists. The original version was written in 2001 and that is the one I read. Since then a new version was released in Oct. 2013 and I assume it was updated. I may have to get it again to see what the changes were. Here is a link to a review with a basic summary: http://www.deepdyve.com/lp/springer-journals/estrogen-mystery-drug-for-the-brain-the-neuroprotective-activities-of-hAijXGC6s0

To shortly summarize the book: estrogen is not just a "sex hormone". It plays a key role in brain function in ways that are just being discovered and ways we do not yet understand. It appears to have neuroprotective action in Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, depression, schizophrenia, and more. (We also know that estrogen is essential to healthy bones).

Now for the more general overview. We know that women suffer from depression at 2x the rate of men. We also know that women's depression rates soar at 3 points in their life: at puberty, in postpartum, and at menopause. All three of these situations are times of great hormonal and estrogen fluctuation. We also know that other mental illnesses have hormonal links. Bipolar disorder typically shows up at puberty - never before (forget the advocates for childhood bipolar disorder - childhood bipolar is medically induced by stimulants and antidepressants. Prior to their widespread use, it was commonly acknowledged that children did not display bipolar disorder). Hospital admissions data for schizophrenia consistently shows that relapses occur during particular times of the menstrual cycle. We also know that many women diagnosed with bipolar actually suffer from premenstrual dysphoria.

This paper, by Dr. John Studd in the UK - a very respected gynaecologist - provides a good summary of estrogens and depression, including some history: http://www.studd.co.uk/dep_women.php. Also check out all the other links on his site. He has quite a bit of papers published on PubMed as well.

A major issue causing lack of research in this area is pharma obstruction and lack of interest. But another issue that Dr. Studd raises is that estrogens are endocrine system and the province of OB/GYNs. Psychiatrists and psychiatric researchers know little about them and are not comfortable with endocrine treatments. Those who are comfortable with the endocrine system do not focus on psychiatric issues, so there is little crossover in specialties and therefore little interest in the research. It's a shame and perhaps will change eventually, but because specialties are siloed, this area is being neglected.

The first study on estrogen for women with postpartum depression was published in 1979. It found that estrogen in relatively small amounts was more effective than placebo in treating treatment-resistant women. The study authors called for more studies to be done, but nothing happened for almost 20 years. (Having trouble finding the link, but it's out there if you search). In 1996 a group including Dr. John Studd finally performed a follow up and again found estrogen effective. Study here: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8598756. They called for yet another larger study but again none was done. Dr. Studd himself states on his website that their group attempted to do a larger study but all the drug companies they contacted refused to manufacture the placebo patches they needed - even when the study authors agreed to pay for them. Eventually they gave up in frustration.

For a great overview of estrogen and depression, along with links to a lot of the studies, see this free paper: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2782667/. Particularly pay attention to the Bloch study that demonstrated you could induce depression in women with a history of postpartum depression by simulating pregnancy followed by withdrawing estrogen (simulating postpartum). Also, pay attention to the two main Ahokas studies on postpartum psychosis and depression. Dr. Ahokas is unique in that he used very high doses of sublingual estrogen based on his clinical experience that it provides rapid relief, whereas the transdermal estrogens at low doses common in US studies bring very slow and minimal relief. His studies were small and they were not randomized, but their results are shocking in how effective estrogen was - particularly given that the women in his studies were very ill. The studies contain charts that show a perfect correlation between blood estrogen levels and a decrease in depression/psychosis scores. I corresponded with Dr. Ahokas, who was very nice and sent me copies of his studies. He maintained that he has continued to use estrogen as first line therapy and his success is "as reported in the studies" - meaning 100% and very rapid relief. He has not performed further studies, possibly because he is a clinician and now finds it unethical to withhold estrogen when his clinical and research experience shows it brings rapid relief. Dr. Ahokas is perhaps the best known psychiatrist in Finland. He is frequently quoted in Finnish media as an expert, so it's not like he is unknown.

In the last couple years there has been renewed interest in estrogen, with many studies in 2013 showing estrogen's "antidepressant" effect in rats. There are also at least 2 ongoing trials using estrogen to treat postpartum depression. One by Dr. Wisner, one of the authors of the overview I linked above. Another is by Peter Schmidt at NIMH. Dr. Schmidt has been doing major work in this area for years. Here is a fascinating video where Dr. Schmidt discusses some of what they have found:
http://nihvideoidol1.cit.nih.gov:8080/NIH/widgets/hyperlinking/autosuggest.jsp?seconds=0&filetype=FLASH&realplayer=http://videocast.nih.gov/flashvod.xml?id=9922&offset=0&url=http%3A%2F%2Fvideocast.nih.gov%2FSummary.asp%3FFile%3D16433&id=9922&links=SCHMIDT,DEPRESS&v=c&fileid=16433

Finally, a study last year by Johns Hopkins researchers analyzed genes in women who developed postpartum depression. They found that by looking at epigenetic changes on 3 different genes, they could predict who would develop postpartum depression with 85% accuracy. A simple blood test could make this prediction. The 3 genes involved are little known, but they do know they play a role in estrogen reception in the hippocampus. They are going to repeat the study with a larger group. Article on the study here:
http://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/news/media/releases/genetic_predictors_of_postpartum_depression_uncovered_by_johns_hopkins_researchers

As for schizophrenia and estrogen, here are some quick links:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12510215
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8197416
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8144127
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12650683
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11278160
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22966438
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22249082
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18678800

There are actually plenty more where that came from on schizophrenia.

One last thing to keep in mind: it appears that absolute estrogen levels are not relevant. There is more going on than just levels of estrogen. For example, in the postpartum all women have low estrogen, but only some become depressed. Some become depressed right away, while others become depressed after months. I believe that epigenetic changes are induced by the interplay between sex hormones and stress hormones. Under stress, changes occur that predispose someone to depression or other mental illness. In the absence of estrogen in the postpartum, women become more susceptible to this. I think that there is a very good probability that these same changes are occurring to a lesser degree in all forms of major depression. Women in the postpartum are just the "canary in the coal mine" that are signaling where we should be looking to figure out what is going on. It appears that for a very long time, no one was listening.

EDIT: We also have a lot of data from transgender men becoming women, but that is a whole other area. They take very high doses of estrogen to make the change, and they often report mood instability lasting from several weeks to several months. Then it levels off as the brain most likely decreases its sensitivity to the estrogen - turning the sensitivity from the typical male sensitivity to the typical female sensitivity...roughly. But that is a whole other area and I think transgender experience with estrogen is fascinating.