With a prevalence of 3% to 5% in the general population, depression is the most common mental disorder. Ranging from the almost universal 'blues' to very severe psychotic states in which a patient suffers delusions, hallucinations and paranoia, depression is consequently managed by a wide variety of health-care groups, including GPs, social workers, psychologists, psychiatrists, nurses and counsellors. This book attempts to produce a synthesis of all relevant facts about this range of affective disorders and to make sense of the many different ways they present and are treated by health-care workers. The aims of this book are to describe the social, psychological and physical treatments of depression; to indicate the strengths, weaknesses and indications for each; and to show how they may be used together in the management of depression as it presents from primary to tertiary care and at different stages.