Almost ready!
In order to save audiobooks to your Wish List you must be signed in to your account.
Log in Create accountShop small, give big!
With credit bundles, you choose the number of credits and your recipient picks their audiobooks—all in support of local bookstores.
Start giftingLimited-time offer
Get two free audiobooks!
Nowโs a great time to shop indie. When you start a new one credit per month membership supporting local bookstores with promo code SWITCH, weโll give you two bonus audiobook credits at sign-up.
Sign up todayA Cure for Darkness
This audiobook uses AI narration.
Weโre taking steps to make sure AI narration is transparent.
Learn moreBrought to you by Penguin.
What is depression? Is it a persistent low mood or a complex range of symptoms? Is it a single diagnosis or a range of mental disorders requiring different treatments? And is there a way of curing such a complex, and diverse, condition?
A sufferer of depression himself, science writer Alex Riley has spent years thinking about these issues as he was prescribed antidepressants and underwent cognitive behavioural therapy. Throughout his treatment, he wondered-are antidepressants effective? Do short-term talking therapies actually work? And what is on the horizon for those who don't respond to these first-line treatments? A Cure for Darkness explores all of these questions and more, as the author embarks on a journey to illuminate one of the world's most prevalent disorders.
Weaving personal and family history, the book tracks treatments through centuries of science, from the 'talking cure' to electroconvulsive therapy to magic mushrooms. Reporting on the field of global mental health from its colonial past to the present day, Riley discovers new and exciting therapies, including how a group of grandmothers stands on the frontline of a mental health revolution. A gripping narrative journey, A Cure for Darkness delves deep into the science of mental health and finds hope at the new frontiers of treatment.
'Boldly ambitious, deeply affecting, and magisterial in scope' Steve Silberman, author of Neurotribes
ยฉ Alex Riley 2021 (P) Penguin Audio 2021
Alex Riley is an award-winning science writer and the author of A Cure for Darkness: The Story of Depression and How We Treat It, his first book. He received a best feature award at the 2019 Association of British Science Writers Awards for his reporting on The Friendship Bench, a project that began in Zimbabwe in 2006 and has since provided mental health care to thousands of people in New York. Since leaving academia in 2015, he began writing popular science articles for magazines such as New Scientist, PBS's NOVA Next, BBC Future, Mosaic Science, Aeon, and Nautilus Magazine. He lives in Bristol.
Alex Riley is an award-winning science writer and the author of A Cure for Darkness: The Story of Depression and How We Treat It, his first book. He received a best feature award at the 2019 Association of British Science Writers Awards for his reporting on The Friendship Bench, a project that began in Zimbabwe in 2006 and has since provided mental health care to thousands of people in New York. Since leaving academia in 2015, he began writing popular science articles for magazines such as New Scientist, PBS's NOVA Next, BBC Future, Mosaic Science, Aeon, and Nautilus Magazine. He lives in Bristol.