Depression and Its Impact

Depression has become the most frequently diagnosed chronic mental illness, and is a disability encountered almost daily by mental health professionals of all trades.

Understanding Major Depression

"Major Depression" is a medical disease, which some would argue has reached epidemic proportions in contemporary society, and it affects our bodies and brains just like any other disease.

Questions and Investigations

Why, this book asks, has the incidence of depression been on such an increase in the last 50 years, if our basic biology hasn’t changed as rapidly?

Exploring Causes

To find answers, Dr. Blazer looks at the social forces, cultural and environmental upheavals, and other external, group factors that have undergone significant change.

The Approach of Social Psychiatry

In so doing, the author revives the tenets of social psychiatry, the process of looking at social trends, environmental factors, and correlations among groups in efforts to understand psychiatric disorders.