This article is freely available to all

Article Abstract

Because this piece has no abstract, we have provided for your benefit the first 3 sentences of the full text.

The pervasiveness of mood disorders is striking and well known to primary care practitioners. Treatment of these disorders is complicated by lack of public awareness about and prejudice against admitting to having such a condition. For example, the single mother who saw me last week to treat her child’s attention deficit had attributed the last 5 years of intense mood swings to the stress of raising a hyperactive child.