D. Jablow Hershman

We are in the midst of a revolution in attitudes toward depression and, to some
extent, manic-depression as well. In the late seventies, when I began the investi-
gations that led to the writing of the initial edition of this book, I went to the med-
ical library of Yale University to find out what was known about manic-depres-
sion.To my amazement, the books on the subject were so few that I could carry
them home under one arm. Very little research had been done on affective disor-
ders and very little of value was being done for the patients. The general public
knew nothing about mental illness and cared less. That is, until the epidemic of
drug use began sending the children of suburbia into hospitals, inevitably blur-
ring the distinction between those deemed mentally ill and those considered to be
normal people with problems.

Today, it is a different world. An antidepressant is the subject of a best sell-
er. The pharmaceutical industry is spending fortunes on the development of new
antidepressants, as well as on advertisements for these products on television, in
national magazines, and in local newspapers. Every month brings reports of new
studies of depression, and to a lesser extent, manic-depression. Articles about the
symptoms of depression and the neurological processes underlying it appear not
only in scientific periodicals but in popular magazines. Primary care physicians
are prescribing drugs to ease depression and anxiety that were considered the
exclusive domain of psychiatrists a decade ago. And the emotionally distressed
can cut the medical profession completely out of the loop if they care to. Saint
John's Wort, an herbal antidepressant, is available to the general public in drug
stores and at discount stores.

Among my own acquaintances I have seen a dramatic change in general atti-
tudes toward depression. A friend of mine was chronically depressed for years and
did not understand what was happening to her. She attributed her unhappiness first

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