Depression is a common disorder, but it is surrounded by ignorance, fear and prejudice. As a clinical psychologist, Gwendoline Smith has worked with many depressed people, but it wasn’t until she suffered depression herself that she fully appreciated how these factors can prevent effective treatment.

In Depression Explained she faces these issues and combines personal experience, clinical information and commonsense advice for all those who have to deal with depression, including childhood and adolescent depression, post-natal depression and depression in the elderly. She defines depression and explains how to recognise it, outlines the role of the psychiatrist, describes the various medications and therapies available, discusses the place of natural therapies, offers advice to the carer, and throughout the book includes the experiences of many families and the lessons they have to offer.