Stephen Ilardi, an associate professor of clinical psychology at Kansas University, will discuss and sign his book “The Depression Cure: The 6-Step Program to Beat Depression without Drugs.”

The public event will be from 4 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. Wednesday at Oread Books on Level Two of the Kansas Union.

His book is a step-by-step guide to help beat depression with clues from our evolutionary past. While today’s hunter-gather groups such as the Kaluli people of Papua New Guinea experience virtually no depression, modern American society with its material comforts and medical advances finds rates of depression as high as one in four people.

Ilardi is the author of more than 40 articles on mental illness. Through his active clinical practice, Ilardi has treated several hundred patients who suffered from depression.