Mitch Golant and Susan K. Golant, What to Do When Someone You Love Is Depressed. New York: Villard, 1996. A practical guide for family and friends of depressed people, designed to help them understand the disease and relate to those who suffer from it.

Lee Gutkind, Stuck in Time: The Tragedy of Childhood Mental Illness. New York: Henry Holt, 1993. This book documents the lives of three adolescents with mental illness, including their experiences in psychiatric institutions, shelters, and group homes.

Susanna Kaysen, Girl, Interrupted. New York: Vintage Books, 1994. This memoir, written in diary form, covers the author's two years as an inpatient at a psychiatric institute following a suicide attempt during her late teens.

Demetri F. Papolos and Janice Papolos, Overcoming Depression: The Definitive Resource for Patients and Families Who Live with Depression and Manic-Depression, 3rd ed. New York: HarperCollins, 1997. This book provides...