R. Harrington, Depressive Disorder in Childhood and Adolescence, Chichester:  Wiley, paperback 1995.  244 pp., £14.99.P. Graham and C. Hughes, So Young, So Sad, So Listen, London:  Gaskell/West London Health Promotion Agency, 1995.  56 pp., £5.00.

As both of these books point out, depression in children and adolescents does occur, may be easily missed and is a major health problem. However, reviewing these two books is like being set an essay: ‘Compare and contrast two approaches to depression in children and adolescents’. Both books cover the same material, but their styles vary enormously.

Harrington provides a clear summary of the clinical standing of depression in the under 16s, based on current (to date of publication: 1993) research findings. He succeeds in guiding the reader through the increasing number of studies in this area, providing useful summaries at the end of each chapter.

The initial chapter focuses on the present classification systems in use — ICD-10 and DSMIII-R, before moving on to discuss the validity of the concept of depression in young people. The issue of validity is placed in its historical context and covers the argument well, though might have been better placed at the beginning of the chapter. The next section deals with the assessment of depression and various tools for its measurement. The chapter on epidemiology attempts to assess how common the condition is. While it is clear that depression in this age group is not uncommon, the prevalence suggested does seem to depend on the definition of depression used. The next chapter usefully points out that often depression does not occur in isolation, but overlaps with other disorders.

Putative causative/associated factors are extensively reviewed, including a section on the importance of early adverse experience and