by Nancy Wartik

About the author: Nancy Wartik is a Brooklyn, New York, writer who specializes in psychology and health issues.

It often strikes when people are young and vital. It may linger for years and become as debilitating as diabetes or arthritis. It affects one in 10 Americans annually, more than half of them women. What’s the disorder? Depression. Fortunately, thanks not only to the Prozac revolution, but also to effective psychological treatments, 80% to 90% of sufferers can now find relief.

So why are most of them still not getting it? In January 1997 an expert panel convened by the National Depressive and Manic-Depressive Association in Washington sounded an alarm. “The vast majority of patients with chronic major depression are misdiagnosed, receive inappropriate or inadequate treatment or are given no treatment at all,” the panel...