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

by J. Raymond DePaulo ( ; ); Leslie Alan Horvitz

• ISBN13: 9780471249726
• ISBN10: 0471249726
• Format: eBook
• Copyright: 2002-04-01
• Publisher: Wiley

Summary

From a leading medical expert at Johns Hopkins, here is an up-to-the-minute, definitive guide to whats 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 havent even sought help. Now, Dr. Raymond DePaulo, one of the worlds 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.

Author Biography

J. Raymond DePaulo Jr., M.D., is the Henry Phipps Professor and Chairman of the Department of Psychiatry and founder 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 manic-depressive illness, 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. Leslie Alan Horvitz is a freelance writer based in New York

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments.

Foreword.

Introduction.

Part One: Understanding Depression.

1 The Experience of Depression.

2 The Experience of Mania: Bipolar Disorder.

3 Who Is at Risk for Depression?

4 Recognizing Depression in All Its Forms and Guises.

5 Stressful Events: When People Get Depressed.

Part Two: Unraveling the Secrets.

6 What Do We Know About the Brain?

7 Genes and Depression: The Fateful Inheritance.

8 Hormones, Headaches, and Heart Attacks.

Part Three: Depression and Mania and Destructive Effects on the Whole Person.

9 Depression, Manic Depression, and Relationships.

10 Destructive Behavior.

11 Facing up to Suicide.

Part Four: Treatments for Depression.

12 Getting Help for Depression.

13 Making the Diagnosis Is the First Treatment.

14 Medical Treatment.

15 The Different Kinds of Drugs.

16 Psychotherapy: Treating the Person.

17 ECT, Light, and Other Medical Treatments.

18 Alternative Treatments.

19 Hospitalization: A Guide for Patients and Families.

20 Getting Back to Normal.

21 Going Forward.

Appendix A: Insurance.

Appendix B: Helpful Organizations.

Appendix C: Helpful Books.

Glossary.

Bibliography.

Index.