There is always a moment of shock, of horror - and for any parent, of fear - when a teenager chooses suicide. How could this happen? Didn't his parents know he was so depressed? She was so pretty, such a high achiever - what went wrong?

Andrew Slaby, a psychiatrist specializing in depression and crisis intervention, sheds light on these perplexing questions. He presents psychological profiles of eight severely depressed adolescents who either attempted or committed suicide.

In reading the teens' journals and talking with their families and friends, he found that the severity of their distress was missed, not because people around them didn't care, but because they didn't know what to look for, what questions to ask, or how to respond effectively.

In addition to sharing these families' stories, Dr. Slaby and Lili Frank Garfinkel detail the many manifestations of adolescent depression, describe families' common pathways through the pain of the suicide to survival, and offer guidelines for recognizing and working with suicidal youth. In alerting parents and friends of depressed teens to the factors that may lead to suicide, this book will literally save lives.