Millions of people go through the motions of daily living reaping little joy. People who tend to be glum, passive, negative and sluggish may suffer from dysthymia – persistent, low-grade depression – but don't know it, or that they can do something about it.

"Mild depressions are so insidious that sufferers often don't seek help, thinking, 'that's just the way I am and there's not much I can do about it.' Most don't realize that chronic mild depression can be relieved in 85 percent of cases," says Susan S. Lang, a senior science writer at Cornell University and the co-author of Beating the Blues: New Approaches to Overcoming Dysthymia and Chronic Mild Depression (Oxford University Press, 2004).

The book helps readers identify chronic low-grade depression and details cognitive strategies to change negative and distorted thinking patterns that lead to a downward spiral of pessimism. It also covers other self-help strategies, including various mind/body approaches as well as useful psychotherapies and antidepressants.

"One of the most underrecognized and undertreated mood disorders, persistent mild depression afflicts up to 35 million Americans, sapping their energy and changing their behaviors. It not only causes distress, deforms self-image and disrupts interpersonal relationships but also significantly increases the risk of developing other problems, including major depression, heart disease, substance abuse, compromised immune function and even earlier death," says co-author Michael E. Thase, M.D., professor of psychiatry and medical director of the Mood Disorders Module at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine and chief of the Division of Adult Academic Psychiatry and Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic in Pittsburgh. "Yet, dysthymia can be readily and permanently cured."

"If you need help lifting the veil of gloom and apathy, this is the best concise guide to treating chronic depression I have seen," says James H. Kocsis, M.D., professor of psychiatry at Weill Medical College of Cornell University.