Understanding Depression : What We Know and What You Can Do about It

From a leading medical expert at Johns Hopkins, here is an up-to-the-minute, definitive guide to what s known about depression and how it can be treated.

Around ten percent of North Americans suffer from depression at some point -- and more than half haven t even sought help. Now, Dr. Raymond DePaulo, one of the world s foremost authorities on depression, provides a sensitive, thorough, and reassuring book for sufferers from depression and those who care about them. This practical guide for individuals with depression and their families -- the only totally comprehensive book in the market -- shows readers how to identify the problem, then directs them to the various forms of treatment, including medications, psychotherapy, support groups, and exercise. It is one of the few books to discuss in depth manic depression, the bipolar form of depression. Dr. DePaulo discusses both mainstream (the latest medications and talk therapies) and alternative paths and reveals the truth about the dangerous fallacies that abound about depression. Comprehensive, compassionate, and grounded in the very latest research into brain chemistry, psychology, and medications, this is a definitive, landmark roadmap to one of the most devastating -- and common -- mental illnesses.

J. RAYMOND DePAULO Jr., M.D., is a professor of psychiatry and Director of the Affective Disorders Clinic at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. Internationally known as a clinician, teacher, and research expert on depression and bipolar disorder, Dr. DePaulo has won many awards for research and teaching, and he has been selected as one of the "Best Doctors in America" in each of the three editions of the book with that title.

LESLIE ALAN HORVITZ is a freelance writer based in New York. His most recent book, Eureka!: Scientific Breakthroughs that Changed the World, is also published by Wiley.