The paper by Thomas et al 1 (this issue, pp 83–87) furthers the concept of “vascular depression”. The concept is a venerable one, dating back at least to the scholarly work of Felix Post.2 It found new vigour in the work of Robinson and others,3 whose investigations provided important empirical support for older clinical findings. New in Robinson's studies was their demonstration of regional specificity, with the greatest burden of depression in patients whose cortical infarcts were small and/or located in the left frontal …