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The revolution in molecular genetics has given rise to the heady optimism that biology will soon explain all disturbances of mind and behaviour.In this important and necessary book, Julian Leff, a world-leading psychiatrist, counters this reductionist stance. Instead he emphasises what is known about the psychological, social and cultural factors underlying mental illness. In doing so, he addresses many serious and urgent questions. What exactly is the difference between sadness and depression? What are the difficulties in categorising psychiatric conditions? How are psychiatric diagnoses made in the first place? What is the influence of emotional relationships on psychiatric conditions? Is there a link between schizophrenia and socio-economic deprivation? How do public attitudes to mental illness affect choice of treatment? And, finally, what does this tell us about the cultural causes of mental illness?
The relapse rate of schizophrenia can be substantially reduced by working with the families of sufferers on the everyday problems generated by the illness. This book is a detailed practical guide to intervention. The approach to working with families has been used by hundreds of community staff and has proved helpful with a range of clients in addition to those with a diagnosis of schizophrenia. The techniques and strategies included in the guide are clearly described for use by clinical practitioners and are illustrated by case examples. The second edition retains the original sections, including the engaging the family, treading the fine line between working as a therapist and being a guest in the family's home, improving communication, teaching problem-solving and cultural issues. Material has been added on the evidence base for family work for schizophrenia and on the emotional responses of siblings. The guide has been further enriched with the authors' experience of working with families over the ten years since the first edition was published.
First multi-year cumulation covers six years: 1965-70.
This second edition of Seminars in General Adult Psychiatry provides a highly readable and comprehensive account of modern adult psychiatry. Key features of the first edition that have been retained are the detailed clinical descriptions of psychiatric disorders, and historical sections to give the reader access to the classic studies of psychiatry as well as the current evidence. Additional topics covered here for the first time include liaison psychiatry, psychosexual medicine, clinical epidemiology, and international and cultural psychiatry. Clinical management is given due prominence, with extensive accounts of modern drug management, cognitive therapy, the main psychosocial approaches, and current guidelines such as those published by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence. An essential text for trainees studying for their MRCPsych, this book is also a one-stop reference work for established practitioners, providing comprehensive coverage of the whole of adult psychiatry.
Schizophrenia has long puzzled researchers in the fields of psychiatric medicine and anthropology. Why is it that the rates of developing schizophrenia—long the poster child for the biomedical model of psychiatric illness—are low in some countries and higher in others? And why do migrants to Western countries find that they are at higher risk for this disease after they arrive? T. M. Luhrmann and Jocelyn Marrow argue that the root causes of schizophrenia are not only biological, but also sociocultural. This book gives an intimate, personal account of those living with serious psychotic disorder in the United States, India, Africa, and Southeast Asia. It introduces the notion that social defeat—the physical or symbolic defeat of one person by another—is a core mechanism in the increased risk for psychotic illness. Furthermore, “care-as-usual” treatment as it occurs in the United States actually increases the likelihood of social defeat, while “care-as-usual” treatment in a country like India diminishes it.
People with serious mental illness no longer spend years of their lives in psychiatric institutions. In developed countries, there has been a major shift in the focus of care from hospitals into the community. However, while it means those with mental illness are not confined, it does not guarantee they will be fully integrated into their communities. The barriers to full citizenship are partly due to the disabilities produced by their illnesses and partly by stigmatizing and discriminatory attitudes of the public. This book analyzes the causes of these barriers and suggests ways of dismantling them. The book is constructed in two parts: the first relates to social inclusion and the second to occupational inclusion. Throughout, the text is annotated with quotes from consumers to illustrate their experience of the issues discussed. The innovations outlined are described in sufficient detail for the reader to implement them in their own practice.
In the late 1970s, Barbara Taylor, then an acclaimed young historian, began to suffer from severe anxiety. In the years that followed, Taylor's world contracted around her illness. Eventually, she was admitted to what had once been England's largest psychiatric institutions, the infamous Friern Mental Hospital in London
With universal application, nidotherapy is a treatment and a set of principles both fully explained in this comprehensive guide.
This book is dedicated to the memory of Michael J. Goldstein, one of the pioneers in psychosocial intervention in psychiatry. The structure of this book follows Goldstein footsteps in this domain and is subdivided into family factors as well as intervention strategies for severe mental illness. Recent research on high expressed emotion (HEE) in schizophrenia (e.g., early psychosis) and borderline disorder, patients' perspectives of HEE as well as other variables predictive for relapse in recent-onset schizophrenia are covered in this book. Family treatment strategies in schizophrenia, depression, bipolar disorder, substance use disorders and illness management programs as well as pharmacological treatment strategies are illustrate and current studies presented.