Depression Symptoms Treatment
Archive for the ‘Book review’ Category
Helen Kennerley
Oxford University Press
1990, 177 pages
Anxious patients can be treated in many ways and as general practitioners we have numerous opportunities for exercising our therapeutic skills. Tranquillizers have had a bad press lately so it is good to be reminded that psychological methods have been steadily simplified over the years, are at least as effective as drug treatment and are a good deal safer.
This deceptively slim volume is addressed to all members of the primary care team who wish to develop skills in anxiety management training. The physical symptoms, worrying thoughts and psychomotor behaviour associated with anxiety are carefully explained and illustrated in four typical but fictional cases. The problems are examined in a clear and ordered way and the formulation of conclusions are shared with the client who can then be offered a personal treatment programme, including carefully planned homework between the sessions. A range of therapeutic approaches is described and their practical application is explained with admirable clarity. The book includes sample diary sheets Read more [...]
Cohen S, Kessler RC, Underwood Gordon L, editors
New York: Oxford University Press; 1997. 236 pp. with index
ISBN 0-19-512120-1 (paper)
"Stress" has become such an overused word that it is now almost a cliché. The Oxford English Dictionary has 10 different meanings for it. Because of these terminological difficulties, some consider that it should be discarded from the medical lexicon altogether. Nevertheless, "stress" has developed a widely understood meaning in common parlance, and it would appear acceptable to use the word technically as long as clear definitions are followed. In the psychosocial and biological sciences it has come to refer to the external events and changes that impinge on an individual and the reaction of the individual to those events. Over the last 50 years a huge volume of psychobiological research has been carried out on stress and its effects on health. It is ironic that, despite mounting clinical, epidemiological and pathophysiological evidence that stress has adverse effects on health, there still are sceptics who doubt the connection or — worse Read more [...]
Depression And The Social Environment: Research And Intervention With Neglected Populations
Editors: Philippe CappeUez; Robert J. Flyrm McGill
Queen's University Press, 3430 McTavish St, Montreal, QCH3A 1X9, 1993, 428 ppl
The title of this book clearly expresses the concepts within. It is well written and includes fairly complete literature reviews, along with some of the authors' personal work on research related to depression in specific populations. Most of the populations studied are often neglected by health planners and service providers.
This book is valuable for all mental health professionals in general psychiatric practices and for family physicians who subspecialize. It is, however, highly academic and slow to read. Although it promises to be practical, it is not necessarily so in all chapters. Chapter 3 on adolescent depression and chapter 6 on depression among patients attending a general practice are exceptions. These chapters are extremely good and are valuable reading for family physicians. In fact, both chapters should be mandatory reading for family practice residents.
Chapter Read more [...]
Risk Management with Suicidal Patients
Bongar B, Berman AL, Mavis RW, Silverman MM, Harris EA, Pakman WL, editors
New York: The Guilford Press; 1998.197 pp with index
ISBN 1-57230-302-6 (cloth)
This book was written in response to the fact that most psychiatrists lose a patient to suicide sometime during their professional life. Suicide cases are a leading reason for malpractice action against mental health professionals. Dr. Bongar begins by suggesting that this book is "a forum for the exploration of avoiding liability in working with the suicidal patient." In his introduction, Bongar stresses that the book is not intended as a standard of care, but rather "a rich and wide-ranging set of opinions and guidelines." However, the book is quite contradictory on this point — Chapters 1, 3 and 4 are dedicated to discussing standards of care and the suicidal patient. Since this book, authored by experts in suicidology, and based on work published in the American Association for Suicidology's official journal, will have an important impact on the care of suicidal patients, its deficiencies Read more [...]
Edited by James McCormack, Glen Brown, Marc Levine, Robert Rangno and John Ruedy. 550 pp.
W.B. Saunders Company/Harcourt Brace & Company, Philadelphia; W.B. Saunders Canada, Toronto. 1996
ISBN 0-7216-4215-2
This textbook combines a disease-oriented and a drug-specific approach to therapeutics. It is intended to guide prescribers in initiating or altering drug therapy, and it incorporates issues concerning risk, benefit, quality of life and cost-effectiveness. Although the book appears to be intended for primary care clinicians, some of the topics covered concern conditions treated by specialists.
More than 50 clinical pharmacologists and pharmacists contributed to the book. The five editors ensured that each chapter conforms to a standard format and that the contents are evidence based.
The textbook consists of two parts. The first part is disease oriented; in each chapter the material is presented in response to nine standard questions, such as "What are my goals of treatment?" and "What drug should I use as initial treatment?" The diseases covered include not only those from internal medicine Read more [...]
Julio Arboleda-Florez and Margaret Copithorne. Illust
Carswell, Scarborough, Ont. 1995
ISBN 9547062-855
This looseleaf book, subtitled "a Guide to the Alberta Mental Health Act and Related Canadian Legislation," is of considerably wider national interest than its subtitle suggests. Updates, to be published twice yearly at an estimated annual cost of $75, will reflect Canada-wide developments in law in this area. Dr. Julio Arboleda-Florez is head of the Forensic Division, Faculty of Medicine, University of Calgary, and Ms. Margaret Copithorne is legal consultant to the Forensic Division, Department of Psychiatry, Calgary General Hospital. Arboleda-Florez is a well-respected commentator on legal aspects of mental health care and on the significance of mental status to criminal law and procedure.
The text is organized thematically, and individual topics are easy to find through the comprehensive table of contents and an ample index. Chapter 1 concerns the apprehension, detention and discharge of voluntary and involuntary patients, including those held under criminal law Legal and clinical definitions Read more [...]
The Anxiety and Phobia Workbook, 2nd ed.
Edmund J. Bourne. 428 pp.
New Harbinger Publications, Inc. 1995
ISBN 1-57224-003-2, paperback;
ISBN 1-57224-004-0, hardcover
Strengths: Very clearly written; reviews a wealth of techniques to decrease or overcome anxiety and phobias; interesting step-by-step approach
Audience: Public (including therapists)
The purpose of this book is to help lay readers to overcome panic, anxiety and phobias through a step-by-step method. The book uses an eclectic approach, summarizing many previously published works. Exercises range from desensitization, for a phobia, to learning to assert oneself when dealing with a sales clerk. Along the way the author discusses visualization, relaxation, building self-esteem, herbal remedies, spirituality and many other topics. Much of the material comes from cognitive behavioural therapy.
The text's clarity is wonderful. The readers interest is held by short paragraphs, examples and worksheets. The authors experience as a therapist is evident.
My only reservation about this work is that it gives readers the impression that Read more [...]
Physiotherapy in Mental Health: a Practical Approach
Edited by Tina Everett, Maureen Dennis and Eirian Rick-etts. 424 pp
Must. Butterworth-Heinemann, Boston. 1995
ISBN 0-7506-1700-4
Overall rating: Good to excellent
Strengths: Comprehensive, holistic approach to integration of body and mind, excellent references and useful illustrations
Audience: Practitioners and educators in physiotherapy and mental health, some people with an interest in mind and body
This lengthy book has 28 contributors — all British — from professions such as physiotherapy, education, art therapy, psychology, osteopathy and psychiatry. The target readers are physiotherapy practitioners and educators. The book's purpose is to reconnect mental health and physiotherapy, mind and body in the completeness of human existence through a holistic philosophy.
The book has three parts. The first introduces psychiatric illnesses from two perspectives, one practical and almost simplistic, and the other more theoretic, and discusses the place of physiotherapy in community health, including the evaluation of physiotherapy services. Read more [...]
The Dinosaur Man: Tales of Madness and Enchantment from the Back Ward
Susan Baur. 203 pp
Edward Burlingame Books, Harper Collins Publishers, New York. 1991
ISBN 0-06-016538-3
Susan Baur is a psychologist who spent several years in a mental hospital working on her doctoral dissertation. She hypothesized that schizophrenic patients have more difficulty than nonschizophrenic controls in distinguishing memories of fantasies from memories of real events.
To prove this she gave both types of subjects a list of words and asked them to read some of the words silently (the equivalent of a fantasy) and some of them aloud (the equivalent of a real event). The subjects then had to remember which words they had read silently and which words they had read aloud. Not surprisingly, she found that the schizophrenic patients could not recall as well the words they had read silently.
I did not find this research particularly enlightening. However, I did find some of the author's other observations interesting. For example, she describes in detail her experiences with a paranoid schizophrenic patient who believed Read more [...]
Edited by John Donnelly
Contemporary Issues in Philosophy; series editors, Robert M. Baird and Stuart E. Rosenbaum. 212 pp
Prometheus Books, Buffalo, NY. 1990
ISBN 0-87975-595-4
This book is a collection of essays on suicide. There are three sections, dealing with background history, definitions, and the rationality and morality of suicide. John Donnelly, the editor, has written a 16-page introduction. It is very short and can act only as a guide toward what to expect from each author. Readers may find the introduction more useful as a revision after reading the essays. There are brief notes and references at the end of each contribution.
In a book of carefully reasoned arguments it is somewhat surprising to see the editor state: "Of course millions of people unsuccessfully attempt suicide every year." Certainly millions of people in North America may swallow large quantities of pills or cut themselves with razors, but it is likely that only a minority are trying to kill themselves. The term "attempted suicide" has been useful, but in the interests of accuracy "deliberate self-harm", "self-injury" Read more [...]