ABSTRACT
Over 20 years have passed since psychologists turned significant attention toward depression. The topic had heretofore attracted relatively little research interest-or for that matter, scant clinical interest. There were many reasons for the relative neglect, but by the early 1970s, a new era of interest in depression was underway, one that continues today. The interest was spurred by improved diagnostic rules and methods, ground-breaking new models of etiology and treatment, applications of existing theoretical models to embrace the complexities of depression, and certainly, by the growing recognition of the frequency and debilitating effects of depressive disorders.
