The Encyclopedia of Depression

Each title in the "Social Issues" series answers a need for information on many areas of social medicine and counselling. It provides statistics, data, incidence and qualified opinion from many expert individuals and practitioners for comparative study and reference. Chronic depression is now recognized as a crippling mental disorder than can pervade, and sometimes destroy, lives. The encyclopaedia is a complete reference to all aspects of the subject: psychological, biological and social. It comprises more than 500 entries in an A-Z format, encompassing everything currently known about depressive illness. Contents include the history of the disease, current research into its medical and psychological treatment, the epidemiology of the disease and the role of mental-health professionals and government programmes in the treatment of depression. The encyclopaedia also features information on a wide variety of myths and misconceptions surrounding the disease.