An old age psychiatrist, who is both a clinician and researcher, is the author of this succinct paperback book, which explores depression in older adults. Depression is the most frequent mental disorder affecting older people, and it can be difficult to detect due to complicating factors such as varying presentations and the presence of comorbidity. Although it can be treated satisfactorily with good rates of remission compared to younger patients, there are high relapse rates. This means early detection and appropriate treatment are necessary.

Baldwin outlines the pertinent aspects in this area, from assessment, to diagnosis, and management. Important etiological factors such as poor health, life events and social demographics, as well as protective factors are discussed. A chapter is dedicated to various physical disorders such as stroke, Parkinson's disease and cardiovascular disease. These medical comorbidities and their relationship with depression are discussed, which is useful, as these conditions are common in older people, and may influence the course of a depressive illness. The book also contains frequently used scales to measure depression (such as the Geriatric Depression Scale and the Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression) and the diagnostic criteria for the DSM-5, making it a handy resource for the clinician's bookshelf. There are also clear boxes scattered throughout the text which provide a concise and quick method of accessing the key points in each chapter.

In addition, case vignettes are used to highlight particular points. These clinical cases, combined with knowledge from the recent literature make reading this book extremely accessible and informative. If there was anything I would have liked to see covered in more depth it would have been in the chapter outlining suicide and self-harm. Identifying risk factors for suicide is crucial, and information about what options there are when dealing with a potentially suicidal older adult would have been useful. Despite this shortcoming, I would recommend this book to any clinician who might be encountering older adults in their practice, from the general practitioner, to the specialist, and especially those who are time-poor, as all this knowledge is impressively compressed within 150 pages!