This volume focuses on one of the most prevalent and devastating psychiatric disorders, depression. The contributors apply a developmental analysis to the etiology, course, and sequelae of depression across the lifespan. The effects of depression on multiple domains of functioning, including socio-emotional, social cognitive, and psychobiological, are explored. In addition to the impact of the disorder on the depressed individual, its role on the developmental process in offspring of depressed parents and for families having a depressed member are examined and reviewed. Contributors: BARRY NURCOMBE, PAUL F. COLLINS, RICHARD A. DEPUE, JEFFREY F. COHN, SUSAN B. CAMPBELL, KARLEN LYONS-RUTH, PAMELA M. COLE, CAROLYN ZAHN-WAXLER, JAMES C. COYNE, GERALDINE DOWNEY, JULIE BOERGER, CONSTANCE HAMMEN, E. MARK CUMMINGS, PATRICK R. DAVIES, DONNA T. ROSE, LYN Y. ABRAMSON, JULES R. BEMPORAD and STEVEN J. ROMANO.