Helpful approach to depressive illness | |
Dealing with depression. A commonsense guide to mood disorders. Gordon Parker. Sydney: Allen and Unwin, 2002 (xiii + 146 pp). ISBN 1 86508 513 8. |
This brief, affordable
pocket text, written by one of Australia’s most respected researchers of depression and mood disorders, covers many of the key elements of depressive illness. It is presented as a guide for sufferers, their families, and health professionals. There is a real place for such a book on these common and disabling disorders, so this book answers an unmet need. Rather than reading it from beginning to end, the reader may approach the book by looking at sections of interest first and then other parts. The glossary would have been more helpful if it had included acronyms such as PMD. A minor criticism is that parts of the book are too complex in some areas for the lay reader, while being inadequate for health professionals, who need a more detailed understanding of the assessment and treatment of depressive disorders. The author describes depression as a “psychological illness” in his first sentence. While technically correct, some readers may misinterpret this as implying the disorder is solely psychological, without biological determinants. Only later does the rich interplay of psychological, social, environmental and biological factors become apparent. The real strengths of the book are its coverage of the range of depressive illnesses rather than stereotyping them as a single disorder; its outlining questions that might be asked in a detailed assessment of depression; and stressing the potential for early onset. The expectation that all doctors would identify the likely depressive subtype is not common in current practice, although useful to aspire to. Many psychiatrists would think that the advice to consider a tricyclic antidepressant if one of the newer medicines does not work was premature. Most would try several newer agents first. In all, this is a most welcome and useful book whose minor limitations are more than offset by the wealth of benefit to the reader. John W G Tiller
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