Search results for ‘Subject term:"mental health problems"’ Sort:
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Lesbian and bisexual women's mental health
- Editors:
- MATHY Robin M., KERR Shelly K.
- Publisher:
- Haworth Press
- Publication year:
- 2003
- Pagination:
- 235p.
- Place of publication:
- New York
The book reviews the past literature on mental health and sexual orientation - citing biased and inadequate assessment, diagnosis, and treatment approaches currently in use in the care of lesbian and bisexual women. It explores specific challenges that face various lesbian and bisexual female populations, with research on: dysthymia; depression and anxiety, including a chapter on depressive distress among African-American women; the way that community size and religiosity impact lesbian/bisexual women’s psychosexual development; the relationship between shame and a client’s attachment style; the mental health implications of same-sex marriage; and mental health in Taiwan’s T-Po lesbian community with a focus on community members’ sexual orientation, gender roles, and gender identity; and the interconnectedness of sexual fantasies, sychological adjustment, and close relationship functioning in lesbian/bisexual women, together with body image and eating issues. As the diversity of this population becomes progressively more evident, so does the necessity for deeper exploration of the mental health problems facing lesbians and bisexuals.
Exposure anxiety: the invisible cage: an exploration of self-protection responses in the autism spectrum and beyond
- Author:
- WILLIAMS Donna
- Publisher:
- Jessica Kingsley
- Publication year:
- 2003
- Pagination:
- 336p.
- Place of publication:
- London
Exposure anxiety is increasingly understood as a crippling condition affecting a high proportion of people on the autism spectrum. To many it is an invisible cage, leaving the person suffering from it aware, but buried alive in their own involuntary responses and isolation. This book describes the condition and its underlying physiological causes, and presents a range of approaches and strategies that can be used to combat it. Based on personal experience, the book shows how people with autism can be shown how to emerge from the stranglehold of exposure anxiety and develop their individuality. It progressively shapes the individual torn between experiencing it as the sanctuary and the prison. Exposure Anxiety makes it hard to stand noticing you are noticing. It can make love a form of torture, repel you from the sound of your own voice, make you meaning deaf to your own words and those of others and compel you to avoid, divert from or retaliate against the very things that which most have the power to reach you. Exposure Anxiety progressively co-opts the identity of the person as separate to the condition or it leaves them aware but buried alive in their own involuntary responses and isolation. Exposure Anxiety is the involuntary social-emotional self-protection response that needs no enemy. It turns the world upside-down, makes no yes and yes no and co-opts and defies conventional, non-autistic teaching techniques.
Functional health status, chronic medical conditions and disorders of mood
- Authors:
- SURTEES Paul G., et al
- Journal article citation:
- British Journal of Psychiatry, 183(10), October 2003, pp.299-303.
- Publisher:
- Cambridge University Press
Understanding of the impact of depressive and anxiety disorders on functional health status in the context of chronic medical illness has been gained almost exclusively from the study of patient populations. The aim of this paper is to compare the impact of major depressive and generalised anxiety disorder with that of chronic medical conditions on functional health in a UK resident population. The functional health of 20 921 study participants was assessed using the Medical Outcomes Study Short Form 36 questionnaire. Depressive and anxiety disorder episode histories and chronic medical conditions were assessed using independent self-completed questionnaires. The degree of physical functional impairment associated with mood disorders was of equivalent magnitude to that associated with the presence of chronic medical conditions or with being some 12 years older. Depressive and anxiety disorders have a profound impact on functional health that is independent of chronic medical illness. Chronic anxiety is associated with physical health limitations in excess of those associated with chronic depression or any of the physical health conditions considered, except for stroke.
A three-factor analytic model of the MADRS in geriatric depression
- Authors:
- PARKER R. D., et al
- Journal article citation:
- International Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry, 18(1), January 2003, pp.73-77.
- Publisher:
- Wiley
Major depression is a heterogeneous disorder, perhaps comprising several clinical subtypes or subgroups of symptoms. This study examined whether items on the Montgomery-Åsberg Depression Rating Scale (MADRS) form distinct symptom subgroups among geriatric depressive patients that might form the basis of new outcome measures for tracking treatment effects. The study examined a sample of 225 adults age 59 and older diagnosed with major depression. Three distinct interpretable factors were obtained. The first factor, dysphoric apathy/retardation, comprised five items: apparent sadness, reported sadness, lassitude, reduced concentration, and inability to feel. Psychic anxiety, the second factor, included three items: inner tension, pessimistic thoughts, and suicidal thoughts. The third factor, vegetative symptoms, resulted from items involving sleep and appetite.
Initial evaluation of the Rural Emotional Support Team (REST): a report prepared for South Staffordshire Council for Voluntary Service
- Author:
- REED Colin
- Publisher:
- C.A. Reed Interim Management and Consultancy
- Publication year:
- 2003
- Pagination:
- 34p.
- Place of publication:
- Stone
- Edition:
- Rev. ed.
The Rural Emotional Support Team cover all rural areas of mid and south Staffordshire and are based within the voluntary sector. The team will offers stress and anxiety management, relaxation therapy and problem solving techniques, working with individuals or the whole family. It listens to local rural and agricultural communities in order to develop meaningful contacts and partnerships, enabling to provide information about other sources of help. The team of four have experience and training in mental health and agriculture.
Cognitive-behavioural treatment for severe and persistent health anxiety (Hypochondriasis)
- Authors:
- SALKOSKIS Paul M., WARWICK Hilary M. C., DEALE Alicia C.
- Journal article citation:
- Brief Treatment and Crisis Intervention, 3(3), 2003, pp.353-367.
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
Hypochondriasis is presently classified as a somatoform disorder. However, in terms of phenomenology and cognitive processes, it is probably best considered as a form of severe and persistent anxiety focused on health. This reconceptualization allows the application of Beck's general cognitive theory of anxiety to the understanding and treatment of hypochondriasis. In this paper, the classification and phenomenology of health anxiety is explained in terms of a specific cognitive-behavioural conceptualization. The way this conceptualisation has been successfully applied to the treatment of health anxiety and hypochodriasis is described. The all-important task of engagement is accomplished as part of the cognitive assessment, which helps the patient develop and evaluate an alternative understanding of their problems. This understanding focuses on how misinterpretations of health-related information (mainly bodily variations and medical information) leads to a pattern of responses including anxiety, distorted patterns of attention, safety-seeking behaviors, and physiological arousal. These responses in turn account for the patient's pattern of symptoms and functional impairment. Treatment progresses by helping the patient actively explore the validity of the alternative account of their problems arising from the shared understanding. This objective is accomplished through two avenues: one, discussion, which has the purpose of making sense of the person's experience; and two, active evaluation of the mechanisms involved, through collaboratively designed and implemented behavioural experiments. Evidence from randomised controlled trials strongly suggests that cognitive treatments are effective and that the effects are specific to the treatment techniques used. Development of this work will likely branch into medical problems, where a prominent component of health anxiety exists.
Kundalini yoga meditation techniques for the treatment of obsessive-compulsive and OC spectrum disorders
- Author:
- SHANNAHOFF-KHALSA David S.
- Journal article citation:
- Brief Treatment and Crisis Intervention, 3(3), 2003, pp.369-382.
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
The use of Kundalini yoga (KY) meditation techniques for the treatment of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) are reviewed based on two published clinical trials. A specific meditation protocol has been subjected to uncontrolled conditions and to a comparison-control meditation group in a randomized matched-groups trial design. In addition to the long-term effects, the efficacy for short-term and rapid benefits are presented in a patient's own words for a single case history of a young woman with OCD, body dysmorphic disorder (BDD), and social anxiety disorder. Meditation techniques are described in detail for the original time-tested KY-OCD protocol, including a technique for managing fear and one for anger; also, additional techniques are included that are claimed by yogis to be effective for depression, anxiety, and a range of nervous disorders.
Count us in: young people's views about their emotional wellbeing
- Authors:
- HEWITT Anna, MORGAN Hazel
- Journal article citation:
- Community Living, 17(2), 2003, pp.20-22.
- Publisher:
- Hexagon Publishing
Reports on a recent inquiry by the Foundation for People with Learning Disabilities into the mental health needs of young people with learning difficulties. Questionnaires were sent to a range of organisations and individuals, over 250 responses were received, 98 of which were from young people with learning difficulties. Eight focus groups were also held. Results found that young people with learning difficulties are at higher risk of developing mental health problems, especially at times of stress and change.
Mental health and absence from work: new evidence from the UK Quarterly Labour Force Survey
- Authors:
- ALMOND Stephen, HEALY Andrew
- Journal article citation:
- Work Employment and Society, 17(4), December 2003, pp.731-742.
- Publisher:
- Sage
In this article the authors seek to estimate empirically the contribution of longstanding mental health problems to the incidence of sickness absence during a typical working week in the United Kingdom work-force. Adult mental health problems cover a wide range of conditions that vary both in terms of their characteristic symptoms and the degree of disability imposed. A recently conducted psychiatric morbidity survey (ONS, 2000) estimated that around one in six adults living in private households in Britain currently suffer from a clinically recognizable neurotic disorder (including anxiety-related disorders and depression). Around one in every 100 adults are estimated to suffer from schizophrenia, an illness that, while less common, can be both severely and chronically disabling for those affected.
The pathology and pharmacology of mental illness
- Authors:
- WILBOURN Mark, PROSSER Sylvia
- Publisher:
- Nelson Thornes
- Publication year:
- 2003
- Pagination:
- 238p.,bibliog.
- Place of publication:
- Cheltenham
The book lays the foundation for learning by introducing the principles of pharmacology and how the body deals with drugs, followed by practice-focused chapters that follow ICD-10 diagnostic group criteria. The book provides an insight into the physical basis of mental illness and the pharmacological treatments available.