Depression affects 6% of adults each year and is the leading
cause of suicide. Its symptoms can be disabling and its effects pervasive,
impacting on not only the individual patient but also on their families and the
wider society. This book is an invaluable resource enabling healthcare
professionals to recognise, assess and offer effective treatments for this
common mental health problem, which can become a chronic disorder if
inadequately treated.


This updated guideline includes new sections on: current
practice; service user and carer experiences; emphasis on low-intensity
psychosocial interventions and an increased range of effective psychological
interventions; and the management of subthreshold depressive symptoms.


This guideline is an update of the previous guidance from
NICE (full guideline published 2004) on depression.


NICE Mental Health Guidelines



These guidelines
from NICE set out clear recommendations, based on the best available evidence,
for health care professionals on how to work with and implement physical,
psychological and service-level interventions for people with various mental
health conditions.



The book contains the full guidelines that cannot be
obtained in print anywhere else. It brings together all of the evidence that led
to the recommendations made, detailed explanations of the methodology behind
their preparation, plus an overview of the condition covering detection,
diagnosis and assessment, and the full range of treatment and care
approaches.



The accompanying free CD-ROM contains all the data used as
evidence, including:




Included and excluded studies.

Profile tables that summarise both the quality of the evidence and the
results of the evidence synthesis.

All meta-analytical data, presented as forest plots.

Detailed information about how to use and interpret forest plots.