The Prevention of Depression

In the early 1990s, as medical costs skyrocketed and health issues inspired heated national debate, preventive health care received increased attention and emphasis. In the area of mental health, however, the subject of effective prevention remained controversial and generally neglected. The National Institutes of Mental Health and the Institute of Medicine conducted systematic reviews of the state of prevention science in the mental health field. Originally published in 1993 contributing to this growing attention and offering the most comprehensive summary to date of this new area of study, The Prevention of Depression presents and evaluates the current research on efforts to prevent what many still considered to be the "inevitable suffering" that is associated with depressive disorders. Ricardo Munoz and Yu-Wen Ying bring together the latest information about depression and review methods of evaluating medical and psychological intervention at the time. Chapters are organized in five sections: an introduction to key concepts; an explanation of the steps to be followed in conducting research on preventive interventions; a report on the authors’ work with the San Francisco Depression Prevention Research Project; discussion of the implications of such research and the goals of the prevention field; and general comments and recommendations directed to mental health professionals. The authors conclude with a call for well-designed prevention programmes to reduce the human suffering associated with depression. Today it can be read in its historical context.