HOW TO COPE WITH DEPRESSION: A Complete Guide for You and Your Family

by ‧ RELEASE DATE: Aug. 21, 1989

The title notwithstanding, this simply and patiently written overview by De Paolo, director of the Center for Affective Disorders at Johns Hopkins Hospital, and Ablow, a resident and Johns Hopkins Medical School graduate, is less a guide to coping with depression than a primer, with the usual personal cases from De Paolo's practice, on possible causes, treatments, and professional ""perspectives."" Making clear that ordinary blues, grief, and pessimistic personalties are not the same as clinical depression, the authors list the American Psychiatric Association's official criteria for depression and its frequent flip side, mania, and they make clear their own belief that depression is a physical disease with pharmacological, neuronal, endocrinologic, or genetic causes, and that drug therapy is thus the appropriate treatment. Other common views of depression--as personality trait, learned behavior, or response to life experiences--may ""color"" individual cases but don't explain the condition; and other therapies, including some psychotherapies, may be useful but supplemental adjuncts to drug treatment. With a look at promising new treatments and theories and with appended glossary, reading list, and roster of organizations on call, this is a useful and, informative resource for family members and others.

Pub Date: Aug. 21, 1989

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: McGraw-Hill

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 1989

Categories: NONFICTION