For 11 months, Laura McCallister had been telling her husband, David, that something was wrong with their 10-year-old son, Kevin. He was too quiet, too withdrawn. He slept too much. Some days, his teacher said, he would nod off in class by 10 in the morning. Doctors could find no physical cause.

Within days, Kevin was diagnosed as suffering from an ailment more commonly associated with adults than with children. Kevin was the victim of severe depression.

Until 1976, most mental health practitioners did not believe that children so young could become depressed. They knew, of course, that children felt sad from time to time, but it was felt that children lacked the maturity to experience such emotions as prolonged hopelessness and despair that are the salient symptoms of clinical depression.