Countless Christians -- including scores of saints -- have suffered profound, pervasive sorrow that modern psychiatrists call "depression." Then, as now, great faith and even fervent spiritual practices have generally failed to ease this wearying desolation of soul.

In these pages, Catholic psychiatrist Aaron Kheriaty reviews the effective ways that have recently been devised to deal with this grave and sometimes deadly affliction -- ways that are not only consistent with the teachings of the Church, but even rooted in many of those teachings.

Extensive clinical experience treating patients with depression has shown Dr. Kheriaty that the confessional can't cure neuroses, nor can the couch forgive sin. Healing comes only when we integrate the legitimate discoveries of modern psychology and pharmacology with spiritual direction and the Sacraments, giving particular attention to the wisdom of the Church Fathers and the saints.

Here, with the

Aaron Kheriaty, MD, is Associate Professor of Psychiatry and Director of the Bioethics Program at the University of California Irvine School of Medicine, where he also serves as chairman of the clinical ethics committee at UCI Health. Dr. Kheriaty graduated from the University of Notre Dame in philosophy and pre-medical sciences, earned his MD degree from Georgetown University, and completed residency training in psychiatry at UC Irvine.

Dr. Kheriaty has authored books and articles for professional and lay audiences on bioethics, social science, psychiatry, and religion. His work has been published in the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post, and First Things, and he has conducted print, radio, and television interviews on bioethics topics with The New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, CNN, and NPR. On matters of public policy and healthcare he has been invited to address the California Medical Association, the UC Center in Sacramento, the Sacramento Press Club, and has testified before the California Senate Health Committee. He is Senior Fellow and Director of the Program in Health and Human Flourishing at the Zephyr Institute in Palo Alto, CA, and Scholar at the Paul Ramsey Institute in San Francisco, CA.