I would have preferred the title to be “Practical Treatment of . . .” rather than “Practical Management of . . .” but that is a minor gripe. What about the content? On the positive side, it is in the main very well written and has great breadth for a smallish volume. It is impressively current, authoritative and well referenced. The unique selling point is of course the multi-professional authorship, with chapters contributed from psychiatry, nursing, psychology, occupational therapy, social services, advocacy and even the pharmaceutical industry. Curran and Wattis deliberately edited the book in this way to show the necessity and value of multi-professional working. This is the overriding message of the book and it works well. Having read and enjoyed Practical Management, it does capture something of the essence of a well-functioning, multi-professional team. There is balance, there is respect for each other's opinions, there is skill and, most importantly, there is a simple common goal: patient care. The book reflects those themes throughout.

The opening section covers the epidemiology, clinical features and etiology of depression in the elderly, with a skilful overview of the topic. Those three chapters alone would justify the cost of the book. Etiology of later life depression is very strongly covered from a biological perspective but more attention to psychological and social factors would have added balance. Treatment is next up with chapters covering psychopharmacology, psychotherapy and ECT. All chapters on treatment are extensively referenced, and pay customary homage to National Institute of Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) guidelines, but are littered also with clinical pearls of wisdom and solid advice in areas where the evidence base is weak or lacking. Important questions, including which antidepressant to use as first line, treatment duration, augmentation strategies and mood stabilizers, are well discussed in the psychopharmacology chapters. The chapter on ECT reads well and draws attention calmly to the dispute about current NICE guidelines for practice. Psychotherapy is particularly well done and benefits from case examples, an overview of the different available psychotherapies and advice on how to modify the delivery for an elderly clientele. The relationship between depression and physical illness is then explored from the perspective of elderly medicine, liaison psychiatry and primary care and the interaction between affective disorders and common medical conditions. Somatization and chronic pain states also get an airing. However, I would have liked to see a chapter on the management of depression in dementia.

Chapter 11 sees the book shift from a predominantly medical model towards a more multi-professional stance, which covers nursing, occupational therapy, social services, advocacy, cultural aspects, religion and finally drug development. The nursing chapter is clinically robust and defines the modern psychiatric nurse role but loses relevance as it drifts into policy. A well-written analysis of occupational therapy follows and is well fleshed out with hypothetical examples. An important chapter on social services analyses current and future policy trends but is written from a U.K. perspective. Social services dovetail neatly with the next chapter on service users and advocacy, which covers similar ground, but with an emphasis on how to influence policy on behalf of patients. However, insufficient attention is given to resource allocation and, in particular, the competition for resources.

Three final eclectic chapters cover the effects of culture, spirituality and drug development. A sensible argument is put forward for cultural awareness in the context of an increasingly global world. A chapter on religion follows which encourages clinicians to pay due attention to this aspect of their patients lives and proposes psychoneuroimmunology as the possible link between observed religious observance and mental health. The final chapter, about drug development, seems out of place after a chapter on spirituality and perhaps would fit better near the psychopharmacology chapters.

Overall, this is a fine piece of work, which does its subject justice and would be a good addition to any clinician's library.