From Publishers Weekly
In her second book, Sheffield (How You Can Survive When They're Depressed) zeroes in on the particular ravages of clinical depression combined with motherhood. Sandwiched between two generations of depressed women in her own family, she supplements interviews and expert findings (university studies that, she claims, never reach a general audience) with her intimate perspective on the disease. Often misdiagnosed or dismissed as "normal," depressionAwhether it takes the form of teenage angst, baby blues or elderly sadness due to the deaths of contemporariesAstrikes one in four women. It affects everyone around its primary victim, including husbands (there's a chapter just for them) and, most detrimentally, children, who manifest its effects through anxiety, low self-esteem and poor school performance. Lauding medication as the first line of defense, the author recommends psychotherapy and family counseling only after the right drug or dosage has been established. While the cause of maternal depression is still far from certain, Sheffield points to heredity as the most likely suspect, with female sex hormones as a possible contributing factor, and offers hope that more answers will soon be forthcoming.
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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Sheffield is the daughter of a depressed mother and admits to having been a depressed mother herself. She writes from experience about the impact of a mother's debilitating depression on the emotional well-being of her children. Sheffield profiles people like herself who grew up with depressed mothers and cites research showing the negative effect of maternal depression on children's emotional, cognitive, and physical development. Children of depressed mothers are more likely to develop behavioral problems and learning disorders and to suffer depression themselves as they mature. Sheffield's writing is accessible and nontechnical as she defines depression, outlines symptoms, and examines treatment alternatives. She explores the range of contributing factors, from congenital predisposition to postpartum depression. Sheffield examines why women are more susceptible to depression than men; and how mothers, fathers, and other caregivers can avoid the negative impact on children of depressed mothers. Sheffield, the author of
How You Can Survive When They're Depressed (1998), also provides a helpful guide to Web sites, books, and agencies.
Vanessa BushCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
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