Family life can be destroyed by a serious depression as well as the life of the ill person. Most people with a depressive disease do not look for treatment when they suffer depression, because they do not want to be treated or even because they are not aware of their disease. The most important thing is that depression even the extremely severe may be treated.

Experts in mental health note that many people tend to get depressed over holiday season and many of them may present suicidal behavior. Hence, it is quite important to be watchful of depressed family members, especially if they also begin heavy alcohol consumption.

According to experts it is always helpful to encourage the depressed person to be with other people, such as friends and neighbours. It is also useful to reach out to others and do not let the person feels alone.

But it is quite difficult to do this when the depressed person is a man. It is difficult for them to admit they are depressed and still less they need help from someone else. Therefore, it is important to know this, since statistics show that depression puts men at risk for suicide.

The problem is quite clearly illustrated by numbers. Half as many men as women seek psychotherapy. Half as many men as women are diagnosed with depression. However, men commit suicide up to eight times more often than women.

That is why the book Men and Depression: Clinical and Empirical Perspectives helps doctors to identify and treat mood disorders in their male patients, addressing an issue that has been neglected by researchers and therapists.

The authors of this new book are Frederic Rabinowitz, professor of psychology at the University of Redlands, and Sam Cochran, director of clinical services at the University of Iowa.