'Compassionate and wide-ranging' The Times'Masterful . . . distils extensive clinical
experience personal insights and the scientific achievements of a professional lifetime to
offer a lucid analysis of what it will take to understand treat and ultimately defeat what is
todays cancer of the self' Peter Whybrow Founding Member and Fellow of the Royal College of
PsychiatristsWe are often told that depression is 'all in the mind'. So why are so many of its
symptoms felt in our bodies? Why can depression have such a profound impact on physical as well
as mental health - from coronary disease to stroke? Philip Gold a world-renowned expert on
this devastating illness shows how depression is a stress response gone awry affecting the
whole body not just the brain. Drawing on both neuroscience and endocrinology Breaking
Through Depression reveals the latest research on how depression influences every aspect of our
health from the chemical messengers that control appetite to the brain's structure and
functionality. Packed with startling insights - such as how depression disrupts the
twenty-four-hour sleep-wake cycle interacting with the stress system differently depending on
whether someone experiences melancholic or atypical symptoms - this book gives us the fullest
picture yet of the disease. Gold transforms our understanding of different forms of depression
including related conditions such as bipolar and seasonal affective disorders and its huge
impact on global health. Timely urgent and important Breaking Through Depression articulates
the workings of this misunderstood illness in compelling and often surprising detail
introducing the newest innovations in treatment - from low energy lasers to genetic solutions
and rapidly acting antidepressants which restore damaged brain cells - that offer hope for
healing.
