It has been described as, ‘the common cold of psychiatric medicine’, and, ‘the measles and mumps of the soul’. Winston Churchill referred to it as his ‘black dog’, and Samuel Johnson called it, ‘this vile melancholy’. When in its grip, Abraham Lincoln described himself as, ‘the most miserable man living’. Depression is no respecter of persons. According to the World Health Organisation, 100 million people are depressed at any one time. During the decade before the close of the millennium,