Category: Getting Help

The anatomy of melancholy

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This international primer on psycho-oncology spans settings of care as well as regional boundaries. Designed to be easy to read, with informaton clearly displayed in concise tables and boxes accompanied by clinical vignettes, the book provides clear, practical guidance on all aspects of the psychological care of patients with cancer. Both trainees and practitioners will find it useful in the clinic as well as a resource for continued professional development.

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Psychogenic Non-Epileptic Seizures (PNES) can cause blackouts, collapses, involuntary movements, loss of memory and have major impact on quality of life. Whereas epilepsy is caused by abnormal electrical activity in the brain, PNES are psychological-based responses to triggers inside or outside the body that are perceived as threatening by the person affected. PNES are poorly understood by the medical community. It is common for doctors to struggle to explain this diagnosis, which can leave their patients frustrated and confused. Often people are told that their PNES are caused by “stress” and sent away with no further support or advice. It is no wonder that those affected feel isolated, abandoned and hopeless about living with the condition. In Our Words: Personal Accounts of Living with Non-Epileptic Seizures shows those diagnosed with PNES that they are not alone, and how others have courageously managed to come to terms with their seizures. These heartfelt personal accounts will also allow family, friends, healthcare providers and researchers to gain more understanding of the condition and work to provide a better quality of life to those living with PNES.

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An authoritative guide to understanding and treating depression in the medically ill Depression in Medical Illness is based on the fact that depression and medical illness are inextricably bound together and must be viewed through a single lens in order to truly understand, diagnose, and treat them. Throughout the book, the authors emphasize not simply a critical distillation and balanced summary of the available empirical data, but equally important, an active synthesis, formulation, and analysis of that evidence.This informs a contemporary biomedical understanding, as well as diagnostic and therapeutic approaches. All of the chapters are authored by members of the Department of Psychiatry at the world-renowned Brigham and Women’s Hospital. In chapters devoted to specific medical disorders, psychiatrists with particular expertise in those areas have been joined by other eminent Brigham medical and surgical specialists or subspecialists. This makes these chapters valuable not just to psychiatrists and other mental health professionals, but to a wide range of medical specialists as well. Logically Organized Into Five Sections: Core Concepts – provides a conceptual and intellectual framework for understanding depressive illness in the context of medical illness Assessment and Treatment of Depression in Medically Ill Patients – discusses the general principles of depression diagnosis and treatment Depression in Medical Illness – Assesses what we know about depression when it is comorbid with the full range of major medical disorders Special Populations and Settings – Is devoted to special patient populations and the importance of the settings in which care is delivered New Directions – A fascinating glimpse into the future of the care of medically ill patients who are depressed

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With the 2013 edition of Ferri’s Clinical Advisor, you can access current diagnostic and therapeutic information on more than 700 common medical conditions faster and more effectively than ever before. Dr. Ferri’s popular “5 books in 1” format provides quick guidance on vitamin-D deficiency, statin-induced muscle syndrome, postural tachycardia syndrome (POTS), and much more. Rapidly find the answers you need with separate sections on diseases and disorders, differential diagnosis, clinical algorithms, laboratory results, and clinical preventive services, plus an at-a-glance format that uses cross-references, outlines, bullets, tables, boxes, and algorithms to expedite reference. Review normal values and interpret results for more than 200 lab tests. Get the insurance billing codes you require, including ICD-9-CM codes, to expedite insurance reimbursements. Improve your practice’s efficiency with cost-effective referral and consultation guidelines. Identify and treat a broader range of disorders with 25 new topics in the Diseases & Disorders section, including vitamin-D deficiency, oral cancer, hypovitaminosis, sarcoma, hyperemesis in pregnancy, androgen deficiency in the elderly male, statin-induced muscle syndrome, and more. Improve your interpretation of presenting symptoms with 41 new topics and 7 new references in the Differential Diagnosis section.

A reference on mental health and disasters, focused on the full spectrum of psychopathologies associated with many different types of disasters.

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This handbook is an evidence-based, clinically informed, practical resource to support health professionals in meeting the emotional and mental health needs of adults with type 1 or type 2 diabetes.

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This volume discusses adolescent mental health concerns in non-Western contexts and situations, ranging from common mental disorders to building life skills. It combines previous literature and empirical work on various disorders to provide a comprehensive account of cognitive behaviour therapy (CBT) for adolescents. The volume covers a wide spectrum of conditions, ranging from anxiety to affective disorders and other associated disorders. It gives a practical guide to the management of disorders with specific focus on case vignettes, outlining session details and specific techniques to be used throughout the intervention plan. A detailed appendix elaborating various CBT techniques is included in the volume. It presumes a basic understanding and training in mental health care and psychotherapy and is useful for professionals: psychologists, counsellors, paediatricians and other practitioners in the field of mental health. It is also useful as a text for courses in health psychology, clinical psychology, adolescent medicine and adolescent psychology.

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There is strong evidence for the observation that psychological risk factors, such as depressive symptoms, hopelessness, and anxiety are associated with higher risk of developing coronary heart disease (CHD), and also contribute to a worse prognosis among CHD patients. Much less is known about psychological resources, such as Mastery, and their role in cardiovascular medicine. Although the current state of science about the importance of psychological factors has advanced during the last decades, the mental health status of patients is often neglected in clinical practice. The reason behind this gap is multifaceted, including unawareness of the current state of science among professionals and a lack of clear guideline, which in turn, results from a lack of evidence-based ways to address the issues. Furthermore, the measurement of psychological resources is complex and a debated topic in psychology. The aim of this thesis was to investigate: 1) If the use of inverted items in three questionnaires that measure psychological resources and risk factors represent a validity risk in the context of CHD. 2) If psychological resources and risk factors are independently associated with incidence in CHD. 3) If an eight-week course in Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) is a feasible psychological intervention, as an addition to cardiac rehabilitation. 4) How CHD patients experience the practices of mindfulness and yoga in MBSR. In Study I and II, data from 1007 participants randomly selected from a Swedish community sample, aged 45-69 at baseline (50 % women), were analysed. To study the validity of the self-report instruments Mastery, Self-esteem and Centre for Epidemiological Studies Depression scale (CESD), subscales with only positive and negative items were created. The new subscales were evaluated against three criterion measures; cross-sectional against each other and the circulatory marker of inflammation interleukine-6 (IL-6) (concurrent construct validity); prospectively against 8-year incidence in CHD (predictive validity), and in addition, a factor analysis was used to investigate construct dimensionality. The instruments seemed to be valid measures of psychological resources and risk factors in the context of CHD risk. The new subscales showed the same associations as the original scales, except for the positive items in CES-D. However, this did not have a major influence on the full scale. In Study II a prospective analysis of the impact of psychological factors on 8-year incidence in CHD was performed. The psychological resources Mastery and Self-esteem were negatively associated with CHD, also after adjustment for nine traditional cardiovascular risk factors in Cox proportional hazard models. The protective effect of the two resources, and the increased risk of Hopelessness, remained after adjustment for depressive symptoms. In Study III and IV, a group of CHD patients with depressive symptoms (n=79) was invited to participate in MBSR as a complement to cardiac rehabilitation. Twenty-four patients started MBSR and 16 completed it. The results were compared with a reference group (n=108) of patients from the same clinic, which showed stability in psychological variables over 12 months. MBSR was appreciated by the patients and improvements in psychological risk factors (e.g., depressive symptoms), and an increase in Mastery were observed. Study IV made use of a qualitative content analysis of diary entries written by patients immediately after practice sessions throughout MBSR. Participants described difficulties, both physical and psychological, during the whole course, but as the weeks passed they more frequently described an enhanced ability to concentrate, relax and deal with distractions. From the combined findings in Study III and IV, we conclude that MBSR could be a promising complement to cardiac rehabilitation for a selection of patients. The overall picture, emerging from this thesis, strengthens the argument that psychological factors should be recognized and addressed in clinical practice. It also encourages further studies of how psychological resources could be built, which could inform the development of effective prevention and treatment strategies for CHD patients with psychological distress and also contribute to improved public health interventions.

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This manual provides guidance on proven disease prevention strategies and practical behavioral science principles for health workers involved in all levels of planning and operating local and regional health programmes. Issues discussed include: basic disease prevention principles; community health intervention strategies; improving health throughout the life cycle; leading forms of death and disability including brain and behavioural disorders, cardiovascular diseases, strokes and cancers; and successful strategies for behavioural change.

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